ENG 335 RandWaPublicDiscourse

Does anybody else remember Field Day? It was that one day in elementary and possibly middle school where all students got a shirt, a different color for each grade, and participated in sport competitions. There were races, balloon tossing, hula hoop contests, tug of war, sack races, and so much more. It was my favorite day out of the whole year. I would bring an extra pack of markers so people would sign my shirt. Why did we do that? I was cleaning my attic over break and found so many shirts from my K-12 career that had scribbled signatures and weird drawings all over them. I still don't understand why we got these fresh shirts and wanted to ruin them with marker that would fade but never come out. There were also ribbons given out for first place, second place, third place, and participation.   The one thing that everyone could agree on during Field Day was that their grade was the best and everyone else was the enemy, someone trying to steal your first place ribbon. It did not m...

Ok guys. Next week is finals week. I know that we are all tired of doing blog posts and being on zoom in general. It has been a really hard year. It has been our first full year of pandemic learning. It has been 414 days since the WHO declared COVID-19 a Pandemic.   It has been really interesting to be a rhetoric and writing major during a major event like a pandemic. Literally the past year in general has been absolute mind-imploding that I still cannot wrap my head around all of the historic moments I have lived through in my lifetime. What I want to know is how being a rhetoric and writing major, and English major, or literally whatever major you are, has changed how you see and perceive the pandemic? How are you coping during this time? What are your plans post-pandemic? How will you use this time to inform your future decisions in life, whether academic or personal or financial?        

 The Class Presentations are in Full Swing Now. We have talked about Public Discourse about Immigration and LGBTQ+ Rights. Beyond the topics, the public discourse projects have so far reflected a synthesis of the texts we have read throughout the semester. I think that this shows us that the texts for this class are incredibility relevant to real life now matter publication year (I'm looking at you Amusing Ourselves to Death ). I am going to break down the first two presentations and look at how they reflect back on the texts we have read for this class broadly and more specific to the presentation.  We can see that as said in I'm Right and You're and Idiot page 24 Hoggan discusses the pyramid of choice with Carol Tarvis. I think this shows how or perhaps why particularly on problems of Immigration and LGBTQ+ rights the left and the right are so far apart and tend to villainize the other viewpoint. Again talking about these you can realize there is cognitive dissonance. Aga...

 This class is coming to an end. I know that our brains are fried. So, I want to know what important things do you plan to take from this class and utilize in your life. For me, personally, I plan to keep the push,pull, advocate thing in my back pocket when it's time for family gatherings. It is a good thing to have someone kind of push back on your beliefs as long as it is done respectfully. It's fine to disagree with someone's views on certain matters. It becomes a problem when you won't listen to another perspective that does not agree with yours. Are you going to utilize any of the information from this class when there is a disagreement? Do you think that it would make a difference in the discourse if you did? Yes or no, why or why not?

 Have you ever realized you thought you understood something but you actually understood far less about it? If you haven't, it's a fascinating experience. This entire class has been a roller coaster for me, presenting all sorts of ideas about how humans actually talk to each other. Both books we've read have been insightful and fun to read, but I can safely say I never actually understood anything until now. I say this because of these past two chapters we read, both dealing with spirituality.  It is one thing to read a book about a topic. It is a completely other thing to actually come away with something profound. I'm starting to finally understand...well, I'm not sure what, but I feel like I'm actually making progress. It's hard to explain, but reading quotes directly from the Dalai Lama...it's one thing to know who a person is. It's another to actually understand them.  Reading this back I think I'm rambling, but honestly it's because I...

        When discussing Public Discourse, it is helpful that there are current issues or topics that are being displayed in media. We can look at these and see how exactly the discourse comes together and what that outcome comes out to be. Public Discourse is  particularly acute at a time when many commentators, on both the left and the right, are concerned with the issue of civility in public life.      From learning what the media has shown us, the shooter in the incident was only a nineteen-year old male who had access to two weapons that he had bought last year despite there being concerns with the FBI. In this shooting, a total of eight people were killed, which were: Matthew R. Alexander, 32; Samaria Blackwell, 19; Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jaswinder Kaur, 64; Jaswinder Singh, 68; Amarjit Sekhon, 48; Karli Smith, 19; and John Weisert, 74. There were also plenty of others who were injured due to this tragic incident.     There are pr...

  金継ぎ (Kin-tsu-gi) is a classical Japanese art form circa 1400 AD which uses gold to repair broken pottery-- this process treats the breakage of an object as an important, valuable point in its history . I believe this is exactly what our society needs to do--remember the past, but heal our public sphere. It's time to change up our look. When I look around, I see faces glued to glowing screens more often than to the world around them. I see anger on the news and pettiness on Twitter (I've only been on there one time, for an analysis assignment, and let me say, I'm never going back). When people have strong opinions here in America, it's game over. I'm right and you're ---you guessed it-- an idiot .  The Dali Lama stressed that we need to heal (as a worldly society), and this can't happen if we don't build community . And although technology is amazing and globalizing, we should take some time to put down our phones and just be one with what's around ...

 Chapter 18 of I'm Right and You're an Idiot  brought a lot of light to the issues surrounding the faith society puts into science. Although it is common knowledge that science isn't believed nor supported by everyone in the world, this chapter emphasized the number of people who fall into this non-believer category. The chapter emphasized that all people believe differently. In other words, not everyone will believe what a scientist has to say, simply because they are a scientist.  For instance, the chapter states the following: "There are multiple publics, all with different levels of knowledge, gaps in their knowledge, fundamental misunderstandings and different values which predispose them to interpret information in very different ways. They have different politics. They trust different messengers and don't trust certain messengers. They get their news and information from different sources." --- The chapter also discusses surprising statistics. There wer...

If you have been to an event or shopped retail within the past decade, you may have noticed some companies claiming they partake in sustainable efforts. While some of these companies are telling the truth, some are unfortunately greenwashing their consumers or attendees.  If you are unfamiliar with greenwashing, Meetings, Expositions, Events & Conventions refers to greenwashing when a company provides false or misleading information about being green (Fenich, 2019). A venue for an event may state they are practicing sustainability through using biodegradable plates when they really are not using this type of plate, or they used it once. It is unfortunate that some companies partake in greenwashing. In order to spot greenwashing issues, I decided to create a list of possible ways to detect this issue. Complete basic research on the company If you are able to find a website for the company, read through their About page and their values. By taking the time to read through their...

  Okay listen. So, I originally wanted to find a bunch of janky ads from like the 50s or something to exhibit how ads enforce cultural norms and standards. The 50s was a cool aesthetic no doubt, but also rigidly traditional and some of the stuff that came out of it was almost hilariously depressing. It wasn’t just limited to social structure either. The public was shockingly, even embarrassingly misinformed about many potential health hazards. For example, there was an abundance of pamphlets claiming that soda water could cure you from radioactive fallout in the case of atomic war. So, no worries right? Perhaps more lighthearted and incredibly more infamous were the smoking ads which circulated in the 50s. They were absolutely bonkers. In fact, they were so bonkers, I got distracted almost immediately, and now all I really want to do is show you guys just a small selection of this veritable gold mine of entertainment and shame. I mean, look at this.   Do I even need to say a...

SILENCE. Sometimes sought after, but never fully endured, silence is not only a mechanism for finding peace in our ever talkative world, but it is also a powerful rhetorical tactic in an argument.  Yes, we have all been asked to be silent before. Whether it be by our peers, our respective elders, our teachers, our parents, our friends, possibly even our animals, sometimes people demand for silence. But how do we come to find silence? Is it by simply asking others to be quiet? Or perhaps we demand it? Perhaps we are tired of the other person's approach to a political situation, so we find the best thing that we can do for them is shove them into submissive silence. (All of this is rhetoricall speaking, of course).  After reading Chapter 12 of I'm Right and You're An Idiot , I began to realize the impact of silence in our busy society. For the longest time, I thought silence was a peaceful sound. I could work to it, fall asleep to it, perhaps even reflect on it. Now, however,...

A joke (that isn't even funny) I spent way too long figuring out how to make in photoshop. Look at this man. This is Noam Chomsky. He appeared in chapter 8 of I'm Right and You're an Idiot in which he offered insight regarding the institutional nature of problems within  corporations. He explained that companies are hyper focused on short term gains and are unconcerned with anything happening outside the market. Except, of course, politics. Companies will spend hefty amounts of money to ensure that laws and policies do not hinder them and/or directly benefit them. But I am not really here to talk about all that; I wanna talk about the man, the myth, the legend: Noam Chomsky.  So here is the only  first section: its all Noam. This class marks the third time I have encountered Noam between my studies at BSU and Ivy Tech, and I sincerely doubt it will be the last. My first encounter with Noam was in an Anthropology course I took at Ivy Tech. Turns out Noam has a lot to ...