Political Rhetoric

August 23, 2024

The Right(eous)ness of the Wronged: A Powerful Tool of Persuasion.

Righteous anger motivates personal crusades just as it does a march of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. *Herein, I use rhetor, orator speaker and writer interchangeably. Likewise for the words hearer, audience, judger, and reader. An overview of what Aristotle means by rhetoric and some of its features is helpful here. Aristotle defines rhetoric as, Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

anger, aristotle, campaign, emotion, ethos, God, good, harris, Hobbes, injustice, justice, karma, oratory, pathos, persuasion, Philosophy, political, politics, revenge, rhetoric, right, righteous, speaker, Trump
June 29, 2024

Dissoi Logoi (cf Aristotle), the Devil’s Advocate (Mill), and comments.

Way, way back in the day — a couple millennia ago — students receiving a classical education would have learned the necessity of Dissoi Logoi to constructing their arguments. That is, they’d throw themselves full throttle into an opposing or contradictory position to their own. And while Aristotle invented neither the method nor the term, Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

argument, aristotle, belief, cancel culture, controversy, covid, deplatform, devil's advocate, dissoi logoi, Mill, opinion, pandemic, Philosophy, rhetoric
June 28, 2024

Whenever two people “desire the same thing[s]” … compare Aristotle and Hobbes.

I present the following two quotes (Aristotle and Hobbes, respectively) for comparison, without analysis. Aristotle Book II, Chapter IV Friendship and Enmity, 1381b 15 And [we also feel friendly] towards those who are like ourselves in character and occupation, providing they do not get in the way or gain their living from the same source Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

aristotle, co-operation, competition, desire, Hobbes, negotiation, Philosophy, policy, political, rhetoric, war
April 1, 2023

Saturday Morning Pam-Toons. Retrieving Your “Lived Experience” From the Baggage Reclamation Centre.

This Pam-toon was inspired by two curiosities. I wondered how coherent it would be for an amnesiac to recount her “lived experience” of her forty years as a member of a marginalised group. And I wondered, given the following vignette, about the reliability of a non-amnesiac’s report of her own “lived experience.” A friend’s daughter Continue reading

Pam-Toons, Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

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October 14, 2021

What, if anything, is wrong with MSNBC, CNN, and FOX? (Part 1 of 2)

My other half habitually surfs through a number of national and international news channels in the evenings. Our house is small, so I’m captive to whatever noise emanates from these rotating broadcasts. Sometimes this noise really gets under my skin. Such as? Such as the current tabloid coverage of the Gabby Petito case by the Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

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September 18, 2021

Thoughtlets.XLVII.

Just when news anchors’ hemorrhoid-inducing overuse of mindless phrases such as walk it back and double down starts to wane, another wave of brain-deadening soundbites inevitably waxes. And at its crest is the phrase bad actors. This phrase doesn’t refer to thespian hacks. Rather bad actors refers to those people the anchor doesn’t like and Continue reading

Political Rhetoric, Thoughtlets

cliche, CNN, criticism, Fox, media, media mainstream, MSNBC, news, overuse, pseudo-intellectual, rhetoric, sound bites, stereotype
April 30, 2021

The Lesser Known Logical Fallacies.

If you’ve ever taken a logic and critical thinking course, you’ll have learned about logical fallacies. Logical fallacies are patterns of bad reasoning that occur so often they’re given their own special names. Ad hominem arguments are directed at the person holding a position rather than at the position she holds. Ad populum or ‘bandwagon’ Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

argument, behaviour, critical thinking, fallacy, logic, logical fallacies, logicians, Philosophy, psychology, reasoning, rhetoric, social, strategy
April 28, 2021

Thoughlets. XLIV.

Do you ever wonder what future generations will look like? Look in a mirror. You are the future generations of those who lived before you. And do you ever wonder what future future generations will think of you and your ilk? Well, since you are a future generation, and since, cf Hume, the future resembles Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Thoughtlets

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April 9, 2021

Hume on Persuasion.

In On War Carl Von Clausewitz says war is a continuation of politics by other means. Or cf. Foucault, who suggests this definition might be the inverted: politics is a continuation of war by other means. My interest is in the ‘other means’, which include political rhetoric. Broadly defined, rhetoric is “the power of observing the means Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

aristotle, Hume, oratory, political, politics, rhetoric, Von Clausewitz, war
March 4, 2021

Why is Revenge Sweet?

I can’t imagine there’s a saint among us who’s never wished for a snappy comeback to an insult, never brooded on this failure of words, and never delighted by reimagining herself the victor when she finds them. If only I said … Ha! That would have been ssooooo good! Next time I’ll be ready. It’s Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

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