1. Critiques: Or, Why Everything You Ever Learned Is Wrong (And How to Do Better)

2. What is a Critique?  Goes by many names: Kritik, The K, Criticism  Calls into question the assumptions, methodology, ideology or general beliefs of the affirmative (isms).  How is it structured?  Link  Impact (internal and external)  Impact Framing  Alternative  Where’s the uniqueness?  Is there much difference between a CP/DA combo and a Kritik?

3. Are all K’s made the same?  Absolutely Not  K’s that link turn – Primarily run against critical affs (whether they have a plan or not) and so-called soft policy affs (such as a climate aff). These tends to focus on the process or method by which we combat system of power and oppression.  K’s that impact turn – Primarily run against policy affs with big stick advantages (economy, hegemony, soft power/diplomacy, etc).  This camp has a critique of liberalism. Is it more of a link turn or an impact turn?  Can a critique be both?

4. Winning with Critiques pt. 1  Is the alternative supposed to solve the case? Not always.  If the K is a link turn – absolutely. In the same way that a counterplan resolves the aff with a “risk of a link” to the disad, so does the alternative.  Floating PIKS – it’s only cheating if you get caught.  If the K is an impact turn – probably not. For example, if the aff has an economy advantage and you read the Cap K, you don’t want to claim that the alt results in economic growth because then the alt links to the K.  Turns Case – the most important part of winning any criticism.  Impact Framing  Ethics/Structural Violence vs Utilitarianism  Do you lose if you lose the impact framing debate?

5. Winning with Critiques pt 2  2NC Overviews  Generally not a good idea. Tends to make people very repetitive and messes up the line-by-line (which judges hate more than just about anything).  When should there be a 2nc overview?  When the 2ac screws up.  You’re reading a super wonky K that requires a boat-load of explanation. (Most high schoolers will never be in this situation).  Line-By-Line  Stick to it  Put all the structural parts of the K (links, impacts, alt) as high as possible  KNOW YOUR ARGUMENT

6. Answering Critiques pt. 1  SPOILT  S – solvency  P – permutation  O – offense  I – impact  L – link  T – theory  Much better than POSTAL (which doesn’t even have a letter for the impact debate).

7. Answering Critiques pt. 2  Attack the alt!  Usually the weakest part of the criticism because the evidence isn’t in the context of the aff.  Helps justify a permutation.  Even a decent solvency takeout helps the aff leverage their advantages to outweigh the K.  Deny the link  Negative link evidence tends to be a bit totalizing so the affirmative has room to paint a more nuanced picture of their plan and how it avoids the link.  Even if the aff links in the abstract it doesn’t guarantee an impact.

8. Answering Critiques pt. 3  Outweigh the K!  If all else fails, a good impact and impact framing debate can pull out a win.  Util – have to be alive before we can resolve questions of structural violence and inequality.  Framework (Jazzy)

9. Philosophy You Never Knew You Needed (and Some You Did) pt. 1  Key Terms  Ontology – the study of being. Uhhhhh what? The way that something has been conditioned and continues to exist. For example, does the environment has intrinsic value or is it just a storehouse of resources for humans?  Epistemology – How we come to know something (the production of knowledge). For example, is it science, rationality and self-reflection, racial or gender analysis, economism, tradition or some other method.  Agency – the freedom to act of one’s own volition without undue outside influence.  Subjectivity – a sense of oneself. How we constitute our own identity.

10. Philosophy You Never Knew You Needed (and Some You Did) pt. 2  Engaging institutions and the public sphere  Do critiques really cede the political? Depends on what you mean by political.  Macropolitics vs Micropolitics  The Enlightenment  Rene Descartes – Cogito Ergo Sum and mind/body dualism  Immanuel Kant’s “What is the Enlightenment?” – public deliberation and the maturity of reason but ultimately you must OBEY.  Hyper-individualism and rights

11. Philosophy You Never Knew You Needed (and Some You Did) pt. 3  The Anti-Enlightenment and what you can learn about privilege.  The false belief in neutrality.  What is privilege and who has it?  The idea of the Enlightenment Man (white, hetero, affluent, well- educated, religious, human)  Examples of privilege: gender wage gap, policing and sentencing along racial lines, anti-queer immigration, the golden parachute.  Structural violence is the inverse of privilege.

12. Philosophy You Never Knew You Needed (and Some You Did) pt. 4  Intersectionality  A recognition of the overlapping and mutually reinforcing nature of different types of oppression.  Derived from black feminist literature (coined by Kimberle Crenshaw)  Not additive.  Standpoint theory.  Is a permutation intersectional?

13. Common K’s pt. 1  Gender and Feminism  CRUSH THE PATRIARCHY  Queer Theory  Fem IR  Transphobia  Capitalism  Marxism  Psychoanalysis (Zizek and Badiou)  Deleuze

14. Common K’s pt. 1  Racism  Antiblackness  Black Optimism  Black Pessimism  Orientalism  Model Minority  Critical Race Theory  LatCrit  Borderlands

15. Common K’s pt. 2  Colonialism  Old-School Colonialism  Post-Colonialism  Settler Colonialism  Security  Imperialism  Speaking for Others

16. Common K’s pt. 3  Nietzsche  Heidegger  Deconstruction (Derrida)  Biopower  Foucault  Agamben  Legalism  Critical Legal Studies  Normativity (Schlag)  Academy K

17. Common K’s pt. 4  Ableism  Physical  Psychological  Language K’s  Saying bad words (for example, UAV’s is a euphemism that whitewashes the fact that drones are flying killer robots)  Gendered Language  Anthropocentrism  Speciesism (Steven Best)  Object Oriented Ontology (OOO)