Introduction to Multiple Lines of Refutation

By: Rena Su

It’s easier to take down one piece of refutation than multiple. Therefore, it is also strategically beneficial to have several lines of refutation against a given contention. Having multiple lines of refutation is a simple way to gain a strategic advantage over opponents.

What qualifies as multiple lines of ref?

Multiple lines of refutation does not mean giving more examples or implications under one main idea. However, it is attacking a particular contention on several fronts. This means that multiple lines of refutation cannot be just repeating your rebuttal or adding more to it.

An example round:

Below is the skeleton of a round about lowering the voting age, and an example of employing multiple lines of refutation. This is simplified into a single government and an opposition

TH would lower the voting age to 16

Gov

Model: We define ‘this house’ as Canada, and we define the 16 year olds in question as those with Canadian citizenships

Contention: Combatting the Misinformation Campaign

• There is a lot of misinformation on the internet through the means of Twitter or Facebook, for example, that misinforms voters.

• Misinformation can allow harmful policies to be passed.

• Oftentimes, the voters who are most affected by this misinformation are of the older generations, as they are not as technologically-savvy as the youth.

• Allowing youth to vote can mitigate the negative effects of the misinformation campaigns on the internet. Therefore, they can prevent harmful policies from being passed.

Opp

Rebuttal:

Line 1) The generational divide isn’t that strong, so the effects of this contention is at best mitigatory and a waste of resources

Line 2) The misinformation campaign targets youth more than the older generations, because they’re the ones actually spending time on social media most

Line 3) If more youth get voting power, there is an even greater incentive for misinformation campaigns to directly target youth -- which can make more upcoming voters extremist

Evidently, it is much easier to sufficiently refute one of the three refutations as opposed to refuting all of them. Therefore, adding multiple lines of refutation whenever possible is a good way to take down the opponent’s points.