Ethical Persuasive Tactics

Unit 3 response
What are the three most unethical persuasive tactics being used in the 10th GOP debate
While the last units 3 unethical persuasive tactics weren’t so clear upon the first watch of the commercial, this unit’s tactics were much clearer. As we near the 2017 presidential campaign candidates from all around the country are running to hold the title of the leader of the natural world, as Kevin Spacey’s character on House Of Cards would call the position. That being said the first unethical tactic that these debaters use throughout every one of their personal responses is Pathos. After each candidate argues a point to the audience the next uses pathos to rebuttal the arguments the candidate before them made about a policy of theirs.

While this may be a huge generalization, but it seems to me this is really true about any person of authority. Thus, is why this is the most potent rhetorical device. I believe what also helps this is as discussed in previous units the majority of people are uncritical. That means people are overly impressed by power, authority, and celebrity they will also allow someone to control or lead them as long as they make their perceived values seem correct. That to me is simply an example of ethos. Trump has used this throughout this entire campaign and I must write that I am trying very hard to not use my own political beliefs to argue against this. However, this is a very prominent unethical tactic that each candidate uses during this debate. This may be a stretch but a way that this relates to my own life is simply when a discourse happens online between me and one of my favorite musician’s comedian’s etc. even though they might just be acknowledging what I said with a popular emoji or thumbs up that means much more to me then if a friend did the same. As a drummer this means a lot when I post a 15 second sound bite on Instagram that is later liked by one of the aforementioned personalities. So I can understand how potent ethos can be to an audience especially when it is being dispersed to a political

Propaganda is the systematic, widespread promotion of ideas to further ones cause or to damage an opposing cause. (Simmons, pg. 8, 2001) This is used by every single one of the candidates. When you think of them as commodities each one of them are promoting their own beliefs to their audiences they are essentially selling themselves. In Paul and Elder explain this once again in the Thinkers Guide to Fallacies by calling it talking in vague generalities, in the book they define this as, “instead of focusing on particulars, manipulators talk in the most vague terms they can get away with. (Paul and Elder, pg. 32, 2012) An example of this is during the wall debate when Trump says he will make Mexico build the wall however, doesn’t necessarily mention how this will eventually occur. A way this could apply to my own life is when I recommend a band to a friend I tell them all of the information that they will like about the music, but I never tell them about the song structure and the length of the songs on the particular album, which leads them to have to check it out because I have good music