Battleships, Rifles, and Words

The divorce rate today in America is nearly at 50 percent. A lot of this is, I believe, is because when some couples argue, they have war with each other. An argument is seen as who can have the better argument, and that only one side is right. That doesn't really sound right for how couples should argue, or how anybody should argue at all for that matter. But unfortunately, that is not the only display of destructive arguments that we see in our everyday lives. In fact, it can be seen on your TV screen on a daily basis. Jones states in her article, "argument as collaboration is not the prevailing metaphor for public argumentation we see/hear in the mainstream media", and boy is that the truth. 

The recent Trump win was one of the biggest upset presidential victories in American history. It surprised the whole country when the minimally-filtered Trump gained a four-year ticket to the white house. However, Trump's vicious facade towards his opponents during the primary and general elections was seemingly decorated with an ulterior motive, to diminish and belittle his opponents. Trump's outlandish statements towards his opponents might just seem like a ploy on his unfiltered, anti-establishment persona and might also seem downright humorous, but his argumentative techniques are much more catered to other reasons. His obvious goal was to attain presidency, but the way he went about it set an example of how, even at one of the highest levels of office, you can use your words as weapons. 



"You are the single biggest liar". "I will spill the beans on your wife". "He may have ruined his political career". "He's not a war hero". These are just a couple of the direct and personal insults made by Trump to other people that display his foul and manipulative argumentative techniques. So when Jones says, "argument as collaboration is not the prevailing metaphor for public argumentation we see/hear in the mainstream media", I 100% agree. And of course, although Trump isn't the only example, he is a very relevant and appropriate one. 

It is sad to say that we see arguments that go out of their way to damage people rather than arguments that are constructed towards collaboration projected all over the media. The media has a clear and obvious influence on its people, and if this example of argumentation is projected all over social media and the news, then people will tend to see it as some sort of norm. I hope that people who know they have a large spotlight on them will go about things in a more constructive and collaborative manner because that sort of influence is what this world needs right now.

Comments

  1. Erin FlewSeptember 6, 2017 at 3:12 PM

    You astutely observe that when people engage in argumentation, they go out of their way to damage people instead of seeking collaboration. That's often true in marriage, in the media, and in politics.

    ReplyDelete

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