Resolutional Objections Made Easy
If you’re a value debater, you should know how to run and defeat resolutional objections. If you’re in NCFCA, you can expect to hit an objection-related argument at least once per tournament. That’s because this year’s resolution is extremely vulnerable to them – more on that in a future article.
What’s a Res Objection?
A res objection is a special kind of negative case in which you argue that the resolution is not true because it cannot be true, regardless of its current support. It’s like an alibi in a criminal case. Maybe the defendant threatened the victim the night before. Maybe the defendant’s gun was used to commit the crime. But the defendant was giving a speech to a room full of witnesses when the crime occurred, so the conclusion that he is guilty must be false.
The key part of the argument is that you don’t even need to evaluate the threats or the gun. The alibi is such a fundamental flaw in the prosecution’s case that nothing else matters.
Let’s Demonstrate.
Suppose you’re negative against the following resolution: “NASA should send unicorns to space.”
The affirmative presents a bunch of cool arguments explaining why unicorns are good astronauts. He even has expert sources backing him up. You could run a case arguing that unicorns aren’t good astronauts, with your own conflicting evidence. But a much stronger case would be to point out that unicorns don’t exist, so NASA can’t send them to space. It doesn’t matter how great they would be. They don’t exist. And that means nothing the affirmative said matters.
This makes res objections the most strategically powerful case you can possibly run in value debate. It bypasses the entire affirmative. You don’t even need to refute it.
When Should You Use One?
Objections can be run against any resolution, or even a specific argument. However, they are most likely to be effective against value resolutions.
Res objections are still a niche case in all leagues, but don’t worry. Debaters have been winning rounds with them for years in traditional environments, like midwest NCFCA. As long as you explain yourself well, you’re in business.
A Res Objection has 4 Parts.
Thesis. The core problem with the resolution. “Unicorns don’t exist.”
Conflict. Why the thesis and the resolution can’t both be true. Always phrase a conflict as X vs Y. “Mythical vs Real.”
Alternative. What the judge should vote for instead of the resolution. “Human Astronauts.”
Impact. What the judge should do with your case. 99% of the time, you’ll use this tag: “Resolution cannot be affirmed.”
As with all parts of value theory, res objections take some practice. Try using the Ace Peak Resolution Generator (with value topics) and then writing a tag-only objection against it. You’ll have the hang of it in no time.
You should understand objections simply because they’re a valuable tool in your arsenal. But even more important, your opponents will often unwittingly run objection arguments concealed in traditional value cases. You need to understand the theory so you can spot those arguments and handle them accordingly.
In the next article, we’ll go deeper on how to run objections well. And soon, we’ll release an NCFCA LD res objection, fully written and ready to run.
We can’t wait to share it with you.