This is what it is coming to...

At High School Debates, Debate Is No Longer Allowed

At national tournaments, judges are making their stances clear: students who argue ‘capitalism can reduce poverty’ or ‘Israel has a right to defend itself’ will lose—no questions asked.

So we can no longer make valid arguments because of politics? I wonder how well those high school debate judges would do debating a real expert on economy who understands capitalism versus other forms of economy. They would likely get their clock cleaned if they literally tried to argue that less people are poor in socialist or communist countries. It would be a literal joke.

But it is not just what you can and cannot argue, but also what you can and cannot say.

Debate Judge Kriti Sharma concurs: under her list of “Things That Will Cause You To Automatically Lose,” number three is “Referring to immigrants as ‘illegal.’ ”

Should a high school student automatically lose and be publicly humiliated for using a term that’s not only ubiquitous in media and politics, but accurate?

So this is literally rhetoric. The legal definition of someone in the country without the right to be is an illegal alien. It is not an undocumented person. It is not a welcomed member of society. They are (by definition) illegal. To say that you lose a debate because you used a legal term that legally and accurately describes someone is where lines are being drawn.

If I were a judge, I would suggest that anyone who uses the term racism automatically loses the debate just to play the same game. That being said, it would probably be more accurate to suggest that the term racism is often substituted for a real argument and that you deserve to lose for making it the crux of your line of reasoning. When all else fails in any debate, scream racism! It is kindergarten playground antics, but yet something I guess the judges would respond favorably to.