CL 7/1 – In Defense of Domination

Evidence

• Accurate: I believe that the author used accurate information
• Relevant: The evidence does relate directly to the claim
• Sufficient: There is enough evidence to be convincing
• Representative: The author does use typical examples rather than exceptions to the rule

Assumptions

• The author assumes that the reader is in on the joke and agrees with Stein’s politics
• This is not a valid assumption because some people might not agree or get the joke
• People could fairly challenge this
• The author has failed to realize that people with disagree with him

Questions for Rhetorical Reading

• The author’s purpose is to explain that America is not the underdog anymore, but he does this in a satirical way. His use of multiple references shows that he is knowledgable about the subject
• The text was written in 2003, right when the war in Iraq was starting. The author probably chose to release this text at this time because he wanted to make a commentary on his disdain for the war in Iraq
• I don’t know that Stein has an intended audience. He writes for TIME Magazine and has publicly said that he does not care what other people think of his writings or his opinions. I think his audience was just readers of TIME Magazine
• The author mostly works through examples. He uses a lot of examples from the Yankees baseball team.
• The text is structured like an opinion piece on the Yankees baseball team, but it is actually a satirical commentary on the beginning of the war with Iraq. The author’s tone seems angry at first, but the more you analyze the text, the more you realize that his tone is actually humorous
• I think this text accomplished its purpose with me. I really enjoyed analyzing it and looking for all of the hidden meanings. I think this article will fail to accomplish its purpose with a lot of people because it is hard to realize that it is a satire if you don’t spend a lot of time analyzing it. I also think people who were strong proponents for the war will be unimpressed by this piece

Working Thesis

• I think Stein’s thesis is something along the lines of “contrary to popular belief, America is not that great”
• I think this thesis is not an effective working thesis because it would be very difficult to contest this thesis.

Audience and Aim

• I think Stein’s aim was to persuade because he is trying to convince people that the commonly held belief that America is an underdog is not correct.
  • according to the textbook, Stein’s audience would then be people who hold a different view than his own, but I’m not sure that this article would work for them because he really does attack the opposing side’s views and does not really try to appeal to them at all. I’m not sure that Stein really cares who reads this article because, from the research that I’ve done, he seems to have that sort of personality.

Motivating the Audience

• I think that the type of evidence used by Stein is persuasive because it is something that most people can relate to and understand. For example, a lot of his evidence is based on the Yankees, and a lot Americans really love baseball. Stein also makes numerous pop culture references as evidence that were relevant at the time this text was written. He used evidence that most people would see and immediately recognize and understand.
• I think that Stein has to assume his readers are intelligent enough to understand his sense of humor and see the deeper meaning in the article, but he also attacks the reader’s beliefs a lot so indirectly he treats his reader as intelligent, but not so much directly.
• Stein is not direct about what he wants his audience to think. This piece is a satire so the direction is supposed to be hidden.

Words about Words

• Stein clearly shows that he is knowledgable about his topic through his extensive use of evidence and his clever writing, but I have read that Stein has a reputation for angering people, so I think that makes it difficult to cultivate a trustworthy ethos
• Stein does not use logos the way that our textbook describes it
• Stein uses pathos by making his audience laugh or by making them get really angry.

Purpose

• The idea is to encourage the audience to think about the arguments on their own