Judge Ballot's Argument Analysis

Judge Ballot 8

The central arguments of the debate were over how accountability, education, socioeconomic status, genetics, and fast-food played into the topic of if obesity is the personal responsibility of the individual. The argument of accountability was carried through out the debate. The proposition argued that it was self accountability led to personal responsibility in the aspect of consciously deciding on how much to eat, the choice of what, and where. This argument wasn’t necessarily dropped, but instead in a way morphed into the over topic and the teams choose to focus on other aspects such as education. The opposition brought this point up in their first speech and carried it throughout using it as one of their staple arguments. They argued that americans could not be held accountable for what they consumed because they lacked the knowledge on food and
I thought that the proposition failed to address the opposition’s argument on education. They did bring up common sense, but I just didn’t think that was enough to fully address the issue of lack of dietary education. What I found interesting was that both sides had a different definition of obesity, which at first I thought was going to be a major point, but instead it was failed on both sides to address it. It was probably for the best though, because the audience mostly likely already had a pre conceived definition of obesity.

3.
It was a real tie up for me because I thought both sides sold their arguments so well. I did end up voting with the opposition because of their argument of the bigger idea of society. That people make these unhealthy choices, not just because of lack of education, but also because society pushes unhealthy behaviors that build these personal choices. It was a really interesting argument and I could really see what the opposition meant.