What is a disadvantage and how to answer it
Sep 15, 2024
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Table of Contents
What is a Disadvantage?
A disadvantage is an off case position that the negative brings up in the debate usually in the 1NC. The disadvantage is a reason why the affirmative's action or plan is a bad idea. A disadvantage most often brings up an external event that the affirmative will cause.
Ex.)
The affirmative plan says that - The United States Federal Government should ban kids from doing homework.
The disadvantage will argue that the plan causes the United States to lose power as the next generation becomes dumb.
We will dive deeper into parts of the disadvantage.
Parts of a Disadvantage
Uniqueness
Uniqueness is a piece of evidence that describes what is happening in the status quo and why it is good. The status quo is another word for the world right now. This piece of evidence should be as recent as possible to reflect the current state of the world.
Link
The link is why the affirmative's plan will disrupt the good thing that is happening in the status quo. This piece of evidence should be from a well reputable and good source with many explanation in the card itself that is specific to the affirmative's plan.
Internal Link
The internal is one or multiple pieces of evidence that describe the connection between the link and impact. You can think of it as a more in detailed explanation of the link.
Impact
The impact is what the link or the affirmative plan will result in. It is what makes the disadvantage a disadvantage and just like its name it describes what will happen and its impact.
Below is an example using these new terms and the example we showed above:
Uniqueness - Kids are doing homework now
Link - The plan bans homework leading to kids unable to do them
Internal link - homework is an important part of education and teaches kids to become smart
Impact - The next generation of the United States is less smart as a result of not doing homework which will cause the United States to lose power as a country
How to answer a disadvantage?
Now that we went over the basics of a disadvantage and what it is now we will go over how to answer the disadvantage. When you are answering the disadvantage as the affirmative, you want to make sure that you address all parts of the disadvantage.
Answering the Uniqueness
There are two ways to answer the uniqueness part of the disadvantage:
The first way is to make a nonunique argument on that the status quo is actually bad and not good. This means that the affirmative's plan doesn't cause something bad because it is already happening.
The second way is to argue that there is something else in the status quo that is causing this problem proving that the affirmative's plan isn't uniquely the cause of the problem.
Answering the Link
Answering the link is one of the most important parts of beating a disadvantage. The internal link debate is usually done with the link but may sometimes be done separately. There are three ways to answer the link:
No link - The no link argument is as simple as it sounds. It is basically an evidence that argues the link is false and the plan doesn't cause what
No Brink - This argument specifies that there is no brink to what the negative claims. For examples, yes it is right that factories can cause pollution but does the affirmative building one factory cause the entirety of climate change?
Link Turn - This argument says that the plan actually does the opposite and solves for the problem. For example if the disadvantage claims that the plan causes climate change, the link turn argument will be that the plan solves for climate change
Answering the Impact
When you answer the impact, you always want to do impact calculus this i when you compare the affirmative's impacts and the negative's impacts and create a clear cut story to the judge how they should prioritize these impacts. There are generally two ways to answer the impact:
No Impact - Claim that their impact won't happen which is usually the opposite of what the disadvantage say. If the disadvantage say that climate change will happen, you want to read a piece of evidence that says climate change will not happen.
How to do impact calculus? There are three parts to a good impact calculus:
Timeframe - Compare how fast the impacts are going to happen
Probability - How probable is the impact? Is it really going to happen?
Magnitude - What is the scale of the impact. How many people will it affect?
2. Impact Turn - The second way to answer an impact is to read an impact turn. The affirmative will argue that the impact is actually good. If the negative says that the affirmative will cause climate change, the affirmative can argue that climate change is good because the warmth may help plants grow faster.
Note: Never read a link turn with an impact turn. If the plan prevents the impact from happening and the impact is good, then the plan prevents something good from happening.
Example
Linked below is an example of what a disadvantage file will look like.
