If a quasi-objective rhetoric can be persuasive, as is argued in the Phaedrus, can you think of examples of this sort of rhetoric? Has any instance influenced you?
While flipping around the tv one afternoon, I came across a “documentary” of sorts courtesy of everyone’s favorite political analyst / commentator. I’m speaking, of course, of Glenn Beck. The program was titled “The Revolutionary Holocaust: Live Free ... or Die," and was essentially aimed at showing the atrocities of Mao, Stalin, Guevara, and Hitler. (You can read a Politico.com article about it here http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31882.html). In each case, Beck insisted that there was a “hidden” history that progressives and liberals in America wanted to hide, as there were IMPLIED links to liberal politics in general and President Obama in particular. For example, Beck likened elements of socialized healthcare to Hitler’s various efforts to “cleanse” the population of Germany using racial models which were partially inspired by leftists in the United Kingdom. Another “connection” was to Stalin’s effort to starve the Ukrainians in the 1940s while he was being praised by the American “liberal media,” and specifically by writers from the New York Times, for being a bold problem solver in the USSR. Leftist problem solver with the boldness (or dare I say audacity?) to take on tough issues while left-of-center media praise his every deed; who does that remind his audience of?
To say that Beck took liberties in his comparison of Hitler and Stalin to modern day liberals and progressives is obvious to anyone with a semi-objective political viewpoint, but I will admit that it was a fine piece of propaganda wrapped perfectly in the “first speech” model. Beck was surprisingly mum on the Obama Administration, healthcare legislation, cap-and-trade, etc. Rather, the arguments proceeded by saying “Hey, this is what happens when ‘progressives’ are able to grab massive amounts of power, so we should probably be weary of progressives in general.” Beck’s style, in general, revolves around his purportedly objective asking of questions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1g0--VvUUA&feature=related), and this quasi-documentary was very much in-line with that method.
We will keep a class blog concerning the persuasion that we see out and about in the world. You should write eight 300-word entries on your own observations + theory and eight responses to entries written by your colleagues (two of each per month).
While flipping around the tv one afternoon, I came across a “documentary” of sorts courtesy of everyone’s favorite political analyst / commentator. I’m speaking, of course, of Glenn Beck. The program was titled “The Revolutionary Holocaust: Live Free ... or Die," and was essentially aimed at showing the atrocities of Mao, Stalin, Guevara, and Hitler. (You can read a Politico.com article about it here http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31882.html). In each case, Beck insisted that there was a “hidden” history that progressives and liberals in America wanted to hide, as there were IMPLIED links to liberal politics in general and President Obama in particular. For example, Beck likened elements of socialized healthcare to Hitler’s various efforts to “cleanse” the population of Germany using racial models which were partially inspired by leftists in the United Kingdom. Another “connection” was to Stalin’s effort to starve the Ukrainians in the 1940s while he was being praised by the American “liberal media,” and specifically by writers from the New York Times, for being a bold problem solver in the USSR. Leftist problem solver with the boldness (or dare I say audacity?) to take on tough issues while left-of-center media praise his every deed; who does that remind his audience of?
ReplyDeleteTo say that Beck took liberties in his comparison of Hitler and Stalin to modern day liberals and progressives is obvious to anyone with a semi-objective political viewpoint, but I will admit that it was a fine piece of propaganda wrapped perfectly in the “first speech” model. Beck was surprisingly mum on the Obama Administration, healthcare legislation, cap-and-trade, etc. Rather, the arguments proceeded by saying “Hey, this is what happens when ‘progressives’ are able to grab massive amounts of power, so we should probably be weary of progressives in general.” Beck’s style, in general, revolves around his purportedly objective asking of questions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1g0--VvUUA&feature=related), and this quasi-documentary was very much in-line with that method.