Since the goal of every debate is to win, we have to make sure we respond to the points made by our opposition. There are several ways to refute points made by your opponent, including:
Countering the truth of the original argument presented by giving counter-evidence or examples.
Pointing out the missing steps in their logic or introducing a logical fallacy
Pointing out that the argument does not have a warrant, meaning a clear reason why this argument is true.
Explaining why the argument is “non-unique.” This means that the refutation points out that the problem cited by the original argument will inevitably occur, and, therefore, neither side can uniquely claim an advantage of solving this problem.
The argument is not comparative. This means that it points out some particular problem but does not explain why their side of the resolution is any better with regards to this issue, meaning they have no unique advantage.
Against theoretical arguments, raise an empirical (essentially meaning real world) objection as to why this won’t happen in the real world.