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On this episode Andrew and Beth speak with James Fishback, founder of Incubate Debate.
Fishback discusses how high school debate tournaments went woke in recent years and illustrates the National Speech and Debate Association’s extreme liberal bias. He shares stories of how judges are ideologically motivated and either won’t allow certain positions to be debated or dock points for non-leftist opinions.
He also talks about his recent piece for The Free Press, entitled, “The Truth About Banned Books” where he exposed the severe ideological asymmetries in school libraries around the country.
James Fishback is the founder and executive director of Incubate Debate, a no-cost high school debate league that champions merit, civility, and open debate. Incubate Debate is the fastest-growing debate league in America, having tripled the students it serves in the past year. Fishback is a former high school debate national champion, having competed 2009-2013 at Boyd H. Anderson High School in South Florida. He studied International Economics at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
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A really excellent, if frustrating, interview. The left’s domination of so many institutions, and their goal of insuring that only their side gets to be heard is truly appalling. Fishback is remarkable advocate for real diversity. His years of debating have provided a superb ability to clearly and concisely present his viewpoints. He is a great speaker, well worth listening to.
Thanks for listening. I was very impressed with Fishback too. Glad you enjoyed it.
Andrew, I was a special education teacher for 45 years and watched the evolution off all of the nonsense you and Beth are fighting with your podcast. Through those early years I remember thinking that the garbage would hit the wall when they attempted to push it onto less malleable professions. I couldn’t imagine doctors and lawyers sitting through struggle sessions and accepting the idiotic premises of outfits like The Courageous Conversation without open revolt. As often as I could I used my sick leave to avoid workshops, but too often they were mandatory and not easily missed. Its origins in the public schools go back as far as 1971 when we had our first 60 day (1 hour/day) workshop in Seattle Public Schools put on by their newly formed Human Relations Taskforce. Those morons did more damage to a faculty than anyone could imagine. I went to my principal after a week of sessions and told him straight out that if I had to spend the day with emotionally disturbed kids, I didn’t need to start it off with an hour spent with emotionally disturbed adults. He respected me enough that he told me just to stay in my classroom during those times and say nothing about it to anyone. I did that, but relationships between teachers completely fell apart, friendships ended, open hostility was evident for months after it ended.
The so-called trainings got more refined over the years as professional race hustlers took over, but the ultimate messages were the same. The new designation for majority people was The White Collective which implied that no matter what your personal history was, you were responsible for all that had been done to minorities since the formation of the colonies and eventual union.
I had gotten my degrees in liberal arts, not education, so I wasn’t fertile ground for such nonsense. However, I did see how four years in schools of education warped the perspectives of young teachers who joined the various faculties to which I had belonged over the years. Additionally, I saw a real change in the building level administrators who were younger, far less experienced in classrooms, and far more indoctrinated in the Woke ideology. This was a revolution in a very real sense. Its young converts went into the world of business, journalism, and the professions and spread the virus.
I am old and retired and I do all I can to avoid any of that nonsense these days, but I feel very pessimistic about what the future holds for coming generations.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I agree it is quite scary what is happening in our education system and more broadly. But we have to fight to save our country. That’s why I’m running for Congress. We haven’t lost yet. Here’s a piece I wrote in yesterday’s NY Post you may be interested in reading.
That’s a great article. I am glad to hear you are running. Unfortunately, I live on the opposite end of the country.