Thank Your for Arguing Ch 10

 Chapter 10 of Thank You for Arguing explains how to calm the audience with a passive voice. The technique works to calm the emotions because it disembodies the speaker and removes the actors. The passive voice calms the audience, which can be seen as a "pathos trick."

The book provides many methods on how to calm an angry person/audience. The first suggestion is to keep everything simple. You need to use simple language and avoid jargon. It also explains how you should keep your sentences short in your argument. Another method is to make your audience feel powerful. This is providing your audience with a sense of self-control. Make your audience smile with humor! Humor also works to assuage anger. 

To conclude, the tools for directing an audiences temper are: 

Passive Voice, comfort (cognitive ease), humor, emotional refusal, and backfire. 

How to Calm Down an Angry Audience

 In chapter 10 of Thank You for Arguing, Jay Heinrichs explains different tactics one can use to help someone calm down when they are angry.  The tactics that stuck out to me were to "keep everything simple" and "make your audience feel powerful." I thought these were interesting because people can do these without even realizing it.  

When someone is angry, they don't want to be confused by what someone is saying, they want easy simple answers.  If they have to ask what the person means or they have to ask them repeat every sentence, they are going to get more frustrated than before.  On the other hand, if the angry person can easily answer someone's questions or comments, they are less likely to get even angrier.  

Another strategy Jay Heinrichs talks about is making "your audience feel powerful."  No one likes the feeling of being powerless or like they have no control.  It can make many feel anxious or angry, especially when they are already angry.  By making your audience feel powerful they feel like they have control over the situation and can help them calm down.  A good example of making them feel powerful is giving them a choice, because they get to choose what answer they want to pick.  

Next time someone you know is angry try using one of these strategies to help calm them down. Everyone likes to feel powerful and smart, so these tactics are sure to help.

Chapter 9 TYfA and the election

 Control the mood, how do your supporters feel about you? As my mom always told me; "people will forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel." Trump stands for the working man, this nations security and protecting capitalism, while Biden stands for women's rights, free health care and protecting immigrants, both in broad senses. 

Yet how do they make you feel? It is their job to make you feel a way about their cause. They want you to share their belief or they align themselves to a group belief. Whether it is nostalgia for what once was or lust for what one wishes to be the future; we lead to different thought groups more often than not out of anger. both candidates use storytelling with Biden using it some more and Trump instills patriotism more among his supporters.

Columbus and Human Nature

Genghis Khan, Christopher Columbus and Adolf Hitler to name a few are known for killing, but why? Why did Columbus set foot on the land he did, see beautiful and selfless people and decide to kill upwards of a million? Why was Adolf in such conflict with Jews, homosexuals and impaired that he ordered the death of close to 15 million? And Khan, to create the largest contiguous empire ever, killed 40 million individuals; In the name of conquest hundreds of millions of lives have been taken through history but why? Suppression of oppression clearly, but not so much when you really look at it closely. Not to say it's perfect but the adversaries could be exiled like the natives by the US government. But killing fellow humans is what these people did and I believe it is human nature. 

None of these men saw their adversaries as equal, just like how almost anyone can kill a bird and not live with remorse these men saw their adversaries as non equals, non human and thus killed in-affectionately. To see another man as unequal is arrogant, to be arrogant to another life and kill without moral weight is human nature. America bombed Japan when lets face it, "they messed with our boats" but we didn't Nuke Germany even though mid-way through the war we knew they were committing genocide. White America saw white Germany as equal and asian Japan as lesser then. 

In conclusion, I believe killing is in human nature just as much as arrogance does and when both combine in the name of conquest you see the mass murder and a lack of moral weight.

Ethos: The Three Components

 This week, we seem to be focusing heavily on ethos. In the book, Thank You for Arguing, it is the first method that Heinrich addresses on how to win over an audience. Heinrich focuses on Aristotle and the term "character" as he explains the proper definition of ethos. Heinrich starts it off by dividing ethos off into three sections. The first part of ethos is disinterest. Wether you believe it or not, an audience is more sustainable to trust a speaker who shows little interest in bettering themselves. Someone who truly cares about the audience and their needs, much more than there own. 

                                    

The second section of ethos would be virtue. This is focusing on the audience's values and trying to understand them. An audience will appreciate you more if you can relate to them. This means a speaker should take the time to learn about the audiences language, culture, certain traditions, and everything in between. 

Lastly, the final section is practical wisdom. This is overall just proving your credibility and how much the audience can trust you. You want the audience the have faith in you that you can do your job and you will do it properly.

                                            

All of these things combined, you will have a pretty good shot at persuading your audience. Heinrich does make it clear that you do not need ethos to win an argument. You don't need to have good character for the audience to trust you. Although, he states it surely will help and encourages everyone through ethos, to have a better character. 

Logos

 In the book Thank You for Arguing Aristotle mentions three types of persuasion. The three types are pathos, logos, and ethos. Today I am here to explain what logos is and how it works. Logos originally means the argument by logos. For example logos would be the brainy one, the big sister who gets top grades in high school. According to Aristotle, Logos isn't just about following the rules of logic; it's a set of techniques that use what the audience is thinking. Logos and the two other types appeal to the brain, gut, and heart of your audience which is why they're so important. 

Logos is using data, statistics, or common sense to convince people of something. Logos is commonly used with things like marketing and advertising. An example of logos is when apple came out with the brand new iPhone X it was the brand new and expensive phone. The link right here is an ad apple came out with when the iPhone X was brand new. ( Meet iPhone X |  )  Apple made this ad simple and it then reels off a list of the phone's many qualities- like wireless charging, durable glass, and a lack of a home button, so they could create an ad that has a lot of logical appeal. With all the data and the facts Apple shows the iPhone X as the logical choice. 

Pathos

 Pathos involves emotion. People use pathos to try and persuade someone to get what they want. It is used a lot in todays commercials or in everyday life when talking to people.  You know when people try and make you feel bad for not going somewhere or doing something with you? Thats Pathos. They use guilt and try and persuade you to change your opinion. Pathos is one of Aristotle's three argument tools. In Chapter 4 of Thank You For Arguing, he stated "When a little girl acts sad, sympathy means looking sad, too; it does not mean chirping, "Cheer up!" I think by showing you have sympathy towards someone, they are using pathos to get you to that point. That was Aristotles point of using that example. 

A great example of pathos is when you see those commercials, especially during the Super Bowl, and its a little girl sad, or a puppy leaving home, and then they show you the brand of the product and it makes you want to buy it. Yes, they used pathos. They used things people can't resist, young children and puppies. They made your emotions feel sympathy towards them and want you to buy those products. I know when you're watching the Super Bowl or any sports, you don't think "oh they are using pathos, logos, or ethos" but they do to make people buy their product.  It is used everyday and most people don't even realize it.