Good post; a lot of the benefits you list are speculative but seem plausible to me.
I also have experience in BP debating (though I’ve only attended a handful of competitions), and while I can’t speak for other debating formats, in BP there is very little scope for awarding people points on the basis of their rhetorical style or how confidently they speak; in theory, debates are judged on the strength of arguments presented. (I know this is a point you were getting at in your post, but I think it’s worth stating it explicitly.) In practice, of course, judges have various biases, but then I’m not sure the situation would be much different with the judges of anti-debates.
Good post; a lot of the benefits you list are speculative but seem plausible to me.
I also have experience in BP debating (though I’ve only attended a handful of competitions), and while I can’t speak for other debating formats, in BP there is very little scope for awarding people points on the basis of their rhetorical style or how confidently they speak; in theory, debates are judged on the strength of arguments presented. (I know this is a point you were getting at in your post, but I think it’s worth stating it explicitly.) In practice, of course, judges have various biases, but then I’m not sure the situation would be much different with the judges of anti-debates.