I thought the mentioning of philosophers believing that sophists were teaching people how to lie was interesting. Initially, I didn’t really think of trolling to be a form of falsehood. After some thought however, it does seem somewhat feasible. Of course that part of the article was referring to people who lived long before we had the modern examples of trolling, but it can still apply. Looking at the examples within the article, the image of Gandalf stating a quote from Yoda as attributed to Dumbledore is technically three lies in one. The purpose is the difference; this image wasn’t made with the intention of misleading people (although my mother, notorious for being unsavvy in the realm of popular culture, would certainly be misled), but to annoy or anger people.
Also mentioned in the article is James Veitch, who has multiple videos of TEDTalks about him replying to scam or spam messages. I’ve watched them (they are very entertaining, I recommend you watch them as well) and I can say that his trolling also heavily relies on lying. To waste the time of the person sitting on the other end of the scammy email, he pretends to be a hapless and gullible person who plans on using the funds gained from transporting the offered gold to invest in hummus. As stated in the article, his form of trolling isn’t meant to be mean; it’s meant to keep the scammers busy so that they have less opportunity to take advantage of less skeptical people. Thinking about other forms of trolling I’ve witnessed in my life, I can find falsehoods that they are built upon. One example I’ve seen somewhat often is when a troll pretends to be completely innocent and unaware as to why something they’ve said has upset someone else. Of course, the troll is extremely aware as to how they had been offensive, and is feigning innocence to continue to goad the other party into that reaction. Although, lying might not be a prerequisite for a troll. They could just be saying things that they believe in the company of people who they think will be upset by it.
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The other night, I had a discussion with my father about politics (Which is, pardon my sarcasm, always just so fun). During that discussion, he told me a hypothetical story that I would bet you are familiar with. It goes roughly as such:
“A man asked his son to mow the lawn, offering twenty dollars for it. After an afternoon of work, the son came inside and was given his promised money. The father then says that he would like to take his son to get some ice cream, and so they get in the car and drive towards town. On the way, they pass a house with another boy sitting on his porch. The father says, ‘Alright son, I want you to get out of the car and give that boy ten of the twenty dollars you earned for mowing the lawn.’ ‘What? I earned that money myself, why would I give it to him?’ asks the son. ‘Because that boy didn’t have the opportunity you had to earn the money.’ The son crosses his arms and grumbles that it isn’t fair, to which the father smiles and says, ‘Welcome to the Republican Party.’” The fact that I had already heard that story so many times already aside, I thought it would be a interesting piece of rhetoric to analyze. This hypothetical is meant to appeal to one’s logos. It makes sense that money that one earned through their own hard work would be theirs to do with what they will. The son would have no logical reason to want to give the other boy half of his earnings unless he wanted to be charitable out of the goodness of his heart. Pathos is also possibly applicable here, if we are meant to feel bad for the son who does not want to give up his money. For myself, what is to be missing from this hypothetical to make it a convincing argument is ethos. A father arbitrarily telling his son to give up half of his money to some other random child lacks whatever nuances are present in the actual United States tax system. It ignores numerous tax laws and things like tax brackets. On a simple level, I suppose it is a somewhat effective argument, but again, it lacks all nuance. I believe if one were to revise this story to make it more convincing, the situation should be more akin to the United States government. First of all, involving a random boy is like if the United States decided to start sending tax money to a random country. If we wanted to make it comparable, a closed economy of the household would make more sense. Perhaps the son would be asked to give his sister some of his money. Secondly, while it might seem naive to say this, the money gained from taxes is meant to be used for the benefit of all people in the country for things such as maintenance of highways and national defense, not just sloughed off to some random people to do whatever with it. I understand that the story is meant to parallel things like welfare, but it was presented in an unsatisfactory way. Here is how I would change the story: “A boy was given twenty dollars by his father after mowing the lawn. Of the twenty, he put five dollars into his piggy bank. Half of it was for saving up for a new skateboard after his old one broke. The other half was going to be used for ammo for the monthly paintball battle he has with his friends. Satisfied, he went to the living room to ask his father to take him to get ice cream. ‘Okay, I’ll take you. By the way, you have to give your sister one dollar of the twenty that you made today.’ ‘What? I earned that money myself, why would I give it to her?’ asks the boy. ‘Because she didn’t have the opportunity to earn that money.’ This didn’t sit right with the boy. ‘But, you didn’t ask her to mow the lawn, you asked me to to do it.’ ‘Right, but I’m trying to instil my values and disdain for welfare into you with a flawed metaphor that I’m deceptively making out to be more simple than it truly is. Welcome to the Republican party.’” Articles used in our project:
Right-leaning: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/grade-school-uses-sex-columnist-unicorn-to-promote-gender-identity Center: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/21/693953037/i-can-exist-here-on-gender-identity-some-colleges-are-opening-up Left-leaning: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/03/public-bathrooms-are-gender-identity-battlefields-what-if-we-just-do-it-right The issue that our group covered in our project is that surrounding society’s treatment of transgender and non-binary individuals. Rhetorical Strategies and Discursive approaches: -The right-leaning article uses Ethos and perhaps Pathos as well to establish that the poster it is campaigning against should not be shown to children or taken to be serious. It says that the poster has a quote from Dan Savage, who is a sex columnist and hosts pornography festivals. -The same article uses metaphor and says that “the gender bulletin board has created a firestorm.” We know from cultural assumptions of fire that this indicates that the parties involved are extremely upset and angry. -The left-leaning article establishes logos by introducing the idea of a significant gender-nonconforming population through citing a survey. -In regards to labeling restrooms, the article says “What if we just do it right?” multiple times. Within that statement is one that says that we are currently doing it wrong. The article does not outright say “We as a society are labeling bathrooms incorrectly,” but it gets the idea across through indirect speech. The intended audience for this parody would be left-leaning individuals that do not agree with views expressed on the right, such as how these issues are spoken about in the linked Fox News article. -- Parody: Something akin to an Onion article BRAKING: UNICORN THREATENS WORLDVIEW Parents were shocked when their children’s school had the audacity to entertain the idea that there are people who are not straight and cisgendered. A poster was hung up, depicting gender nonconformity propaganda. It comes straight from the mouth of an anthropomorphic unicorn, using a beloved symbol of children’s innocence to corrupt and confusing them! Even worse, known sex columnist Dan Savage is featured on the egregious equine’s poster. “Of course we can’t have anyone involved in sex teaching our children anything,” said a parent who plans on insisting that the stork is real until their child is twenty-six years old. Sources say that the next crazy bull that the liberals are trying to pull is de-genderization of bathroom signs. How absurd! We all agree that everyone has to know what everyone else’s genitals look like when they walk into a bathroom, our society will collapse into anarchy if we didn’t! First its using “they” and “them” to refer to people, now this! If you ask me, they’re going completely insane. -- My intentions were to respond to the Fox News article and call attention to some hypocrisy that I’ve picked up on from reading the article and from hearing general right-wing rhetoric. I feel like the parody is somewhat effective in calling attention to how I feel by exaggerating and satirizing a lack of self-awareness. To be quite fair, this parody does leave out some facts, such as how Dan Savage apparently hosts pornography festivals and has said rather rude things to conservatives in the past. However, I feel that an example of a somewhat similar lack of self-awareness by not including all the points that might take this parody off of the figurative high ground would add to it, given all of the squabble that can go on from each sides of an issue. Talking about the concept of metaphors has really interested me, and made me more aware of metaphors I am exposed to in my day to day life. One specific variant that I find to be interesting is the use of memes as metaphors. More specifically, I’d like to discuss quotes and screenshots taken from short videos that were uploaded on the social media app Vine. In communities I’m a part of online, as well as with my friends I have in real life, I noticed how much we’re able to get across by just showing a picture or saying a quick phrase. At one point I was discussing it with a friend, and I compared it to an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (This is the second time I’ve gotten the opportunity to write about Star Trek for this class, and I am over the moon about it.) titled “Darmok,” where Captain Picard is stranded on a planet with an alien whose language is based entirely upon allegories based on his culture’s history and mythology. Equating this communication to be a bunch of overblown references to online culture amused me to no end. In the case of screenshots of Vines used as reaction images, one of my favorites is one taken from a video of a man driving down a street and passing a “Road work ahead” sign. The looks into the camera and sarcastically says, “Road work ahead? Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does!” This has lead to people posting this still of the video, basically saying in shorthand, “Yes, that is the intended way that things should be working, and I hope they continue to work as such.” In the case of quoiting vines in verbal or textual conversation, one that delights myself and many others is a reference to a vine where the person recording walks into a room singing “I want to see my little boy,” where another man is holding a cat that seems to halfheartedly struggle out of his arms. The man holding the cat exclaims, “Here he comes!” on beat to the cameraman’s song, who then repeats his chorus. One singing or typing “I want to see my little boy” is often used to refer to one’s pets, friends, or favorite characters, expressing joy and perhaps some sort of nurturing feelings. These references can be looked at to be a mixture of slang and jargon, These work as slang as they are mostly used within communities of younger people who were aware of Vine when it was still running, and jargon as it requires special knowledge gained from watching the videos to understand. As silly as it may appear to be, I truly love the kind of culture that the Internet and Vine has brought to the table. I like to think we’ve made our own modern form of allegories and hieroglyphics in the form of quotes and reaction images that we’ve gathered and understood over shared experiences that could never happen without the internet. “Burning bridges” means to cut ties with someone or something even though it might be beneficial to know in the future. The somewhat violent imagery lends itself to showing the negative connotation of this phrase.
A combination of the first two that I’ve heard more frequently in recent years is “I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.” It’s used to describe an event that will be a large problem in the future. In my experience, it’s used humorously. This combination requires not only understanding of the humor involved, but also knowledge of both proverbs. “Nair” is a term used in the Super Smash Brothers player community to describe a simple attack done while the character is jumping in the air. Jargon used to describe actions in the game such as “nair” shows the user is a member of the community, and can easily talk about those actions in succinct ways that outsiders might have trouble understanding. List of metaphors: ”I’ll cross the bridge when I get to it” is a proverb that implies that the user will not worry about something until it becomes relevant. “Don’t burn your bridges” means that it’s unwise to cut ties with someone or something that might be beneficial to know in the future. The somewhat violent imagery lends itself to showing the negative connotation of this phrase. “I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.” means that the user is anticipating an event in the future that will go badly. It requires understanding of “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it” and “Don’t burn your bridges.” “Nair” is a term to describe a simple attack done in the air in the Super Smash Brothers series of video games. It’s used by people who are at least somewhat well versed in the community of the playerbase. “Eating like a bird” means to eat very little. It might apply to how a bird will peck at their food, seemingly not eating very much. “Time is money” means that the user feels that their time is valuable, and wasting it is the same as wasting money. It can be used in annoyance of something that someone feels to be a waste of their time. There are a number of rituals that schoolchildren will do the night before a school day for good luck in the hopes that they will get a snow day. The children have superstitions that these actions will lead to a snow day. “Slow and steady wins the race” is a parable in reference to the story of the tortoise and the hare. It implies that taking the time to work hard at something is more rewarding than doing it quickly, ending with a shoddy job. “The cat’s out of the bag” refers to a piece of information that was at once secret, but is now known by all involved parties. “We’re not laughing at you, we’re laughing with you.” This is often said after some blunder or social faux pas that everyone else in the vicinity finds humorous. It can at times be said sincerely, as the people laughing truly meant to ill will, but it can also be insincere and a way to save face. “I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it,” is a proverb that I’ve heard being used in recent years. It is a combination of the first two proverbs I have listed, “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it” and “Don’t burn your bridges.” It’s said when the user knows that there is an event that will happen sometime in the future, and that they’re convinced that they will not handle it well. Occasionally I’ll hear it being used humorously, jokingly implying that the user will deal with the problem in a violent or otherwise overactive way. This proverb requires the understanding of the two it is based on, as well as the understanding of the humor behind it. The groups who use this phrase might be knowingly flippant and humorous about it. It might be used more often by younger generations, as it’s origin seems to be a post on the blogging website Tumblr that’s popular with adolescents and young adults. Because of this, it might be a combination of slang and proverb. As a proverb, the people who understand it can “instantly extract information about human concerns” (10). But as it’s used by younger generations, it’s another way that “youth culture separates itself from adults” (11). “Nair” is a piece of jargon used within the community of people who play the video game series Super Smash Brothers. It’s a shortening of the phrase “Neutral air,” which refers to a simple attack done while the character is jumping or falling through the air. It’s a succinct way to describe a “neutral air attack” and would be difficult for anyone who is not familiar with the community to understand. Hickey’s explanation says that jargon is “the specialized language of a particular occupational group” (5). While playing a video game isn’t necessarily an occupation, I feel that the term is jargon rather than slang. Slang is used to “make language personal” and to “express our membership within a group.” “Nair” is a way to precisely and quickly describe a certain action within the game, which is used differently than common slang might be. It is also all but impossible for someone outside of the community to pick it up, or to even have a reason to use it anyway. Actions such as flushing an ice cube down the toilet, sleeping with one’s pajamas inside out, or any number of other seemingly nonsensical things are rituals that schoolchildren will go through in hopes that they will bring about a snow day. A ritual is “a stylized performance in which members of a group enact shared beliefs” (10). While they are done in each children’s own home, it is a pervasive superstition within the community in the school that these actions will be good luck. The types of effective actions can vary based on geographical locations. A rhetorical situation presents an exigence that can be altered in some way. In this case, I am using an example from my personal life. A few years ago, I was part of a group of friends that communicated over the internet, and we had lofty plans of working together to make a small video game. In hindsight, it was out of our grasp from the start. Our lack of any sort of knowledge or experience combined with relationships that grew tense over time led to what I can only describe as an absolute disaster. But, at least it gave me something to practice rhetoric vocabulary with.
A rhetorical situation presents an exigence that can be altered in some way. The rhetorical situation is the desire for a small group who were trying to cooperate to make an amature video game to split up and retire the project. An exigence is essentially a situation that needs to be altered, or something in particular that needs to be done. Not all exigences lead to rhetorical situations, only ones that are able to be acted upon in some way lead to rhetorical situations. There were many different occurrences that lead to this, and while there could be a specific circumstance that could be coined as the exigence, for simplicity’s sake we’ll say that it was dissent within the group. This exigence leads to a rhetorical situation because the situation could have been changed. The audience includes the persons who are involved within the rhetorical situation, who have the ability to influence the rhetorical situation. In this case, the audience is the six members of the group. It would not be anyone outside of the group, such as the other people who were aware that we were trying to make a video game, as they would not have been able to have any influence on the groups’ decision to split. Constraints are things that are involved in the rhetorical situation, which affect the possible outcome and choices that can be made. The can include people involved, events, and relationships. Constraints include the individual members of the group, lack of experience, long-distance communication problems, both friendly and unpleasant interactions between the team members, and insufficient software. |
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April 2019
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