Political Rhetoric

February 21, 2021

R.e.s.p.e.c.t. What does it mean and why should I care?

In my youth, my dad often gave me the following advice. Respect your elders, but don’t take any shit. I took Dad to mean that there is a mutual component to respect, that my respecting my elders didn’t give them license to abuse me. Even youth are due a modicum of respect. In this light, Continue reading

Political Rhetoric

audience, communication, connotations, context, diplomacy, disrespect, ethics, indexical, judge, masses, meaning, noble, oratory, political, politics, respect, rhetoric, sentiments, speech, value, wobbly, word
January 27, 2021

Guest ‘Toon by M. K. What Pro-Vaxxers Look Like to Anti-Vaxxers.

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Pam-Toons, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

anti, coronavirus, covid, mandates, pandemic, pro, sheep, sheeples, unvaccinated, vaccinated, vaccine, vaxx, virus
January 7, 2021

Thoughtlets. xxviii.

It’s no small annoyance whenever an interlocutor stops to evaluate whether what I have just said falls on the political left or the right. In so doing she’s pegging me to a side. And once pegged, in her mind, whether what I’ve said is likely to be true or false as indexed to whichever side, Continue reading

Political Rhetoric, Thoughtlets

barriers, critical, ideas, left, polarized, politics, right, Thinking, thought
November 15, 2020

A meditation on the character of a political speaker and, by extension, a voter (Oct. 31/20 with Nov. 15/20 addendum)

Loosely put, rhetoric is the art of persuasion. More specifically, on Aristotle’s definition, rhetoric is “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” We all use rhetoric to convince others of some thing or other, but some of us are more skilled than others to this end. Some become especially Continue reading

Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

aristotle, armagedon, Biden, character, dark, election, ethos, evil, extreme, foreign, good, goodness, interference, light, logos, media, pathos, rhetoric, Trump, truth, Von Clausewitz, war
November 5, 2020

Understanding Political Rhetoric and How It Works With Our Mental states to Persuade or Dissuade

Rhetoric is, broadly put, the art of persuasion. Whether we’re aware of it or not, we’re all persuaded by rhetorical tactics and use them ourselves to persuade others. Some people find this notion unconscionable, as if there is some cognitive and/or character defect involved in persuading or being persuaded. There isn’t. Others think they’re immune Continue reading

Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

anxiety, assumptions, cognition, emotion, examine, fallacies, fear, hope, humility, rhetoric, speeches, Thinking, unexamined
September 28, 2020

Thoughtlets .xviii.

Words such as ‘matters’, ‘dangerous’, and even ‘good’, require an indexical, by which is meant these words require a to or a for. Once you flesh in the indexical you open questions such as why, how, and so what? Some don’t think to ask these questions, others don’t want them asked. Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Thoughtlets

advocacy, dangerous, discourse, good, harmful, index, indexed, indexical, logic, matters, Philosophy, politics, public, rhetoric, WFF
September 18, 2020

Thoughtlets .viii.

Stand in one room while the television is on in the other. Now see if you can distinguish the voices of Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) and Tucker Carlson (Fox News). I can’t. Notice that it’s not just their voices that are similar, it’s their style. Each sounds like a pouty prepubescent child who, in a jealous Continue reading

Political Rhetoric, Thoughtlets

analyses, analysis, anger, Carlson, commentary, Fox News, Maddow, media, MSNBC, oratory, partisan, polarization, political, politics, rhetoric, style, television, voice
August 8, 2020

Aristotle and Pam on The Political Rhetor. Series. 6.1. Intro.

I’ve already published 6.2.a. The Poor, 6.2. b. Children, and 6.2.c.i. Future Generations. So this intro is out of chronological order. The most important concept for political rhetoric is the “perlocutionary speech act” as described below. “The political orator* aims at establishing the expediency** or the harmfulness of a proposed course of action; if he Continue reading

Political Rhetoric

analogy, aristotle, cognitive, orator, perlocution, perusasion, Philosophy, political, politician, politics, rhetoric, social
June 27, 2020

Fist Pumping.

I’ve here in mind the fist-pumping variety of politically vocal people, those certain that one side is leading us to another dark ages and the other to a totalitarian state. It appears that for some “left and right” thinking is characterized by black and white thinking. Nuance is lost. And with this loss, so too Continue reading

Political Rhetoric

anger, cartoon, cartoons, fear, narrative, perception, perspective, Philosophy, polarization, political, politics, social, social epistemology, trust, truth, vitriol
November 7, 2019

The Art of Rhetoric: Working through the challenges and disagreements that arise from our shared lives. Series 4.3.

In my previous post, I suggest Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow and Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion are complementary reads. Why? Because a study of Haidt’s moral theory alongside Kahneman’s work on our cognitive/perceptual errors and biases might well make the barriers to both offering and receiving criticism Continue reading

Political Rhetoric

artistotle, communication, discussion, epistemology, negotiation, Philosophy, rhetoric, social, social epistemology