I'm too fast for Swine Flu

Apparently I'm feeling very tech-savvy this week, what with TWO videos on my blog. This one just feels like it really applies to our topic of persuasion.

Let's break it down:

The Video:



The Action we're being persuaded to take: Get a swine flu shot

The Reasons: -It is easily spread -It can kill -It can effect you even if you don't normally get sick.

The Tactic: Pathos. The video is trying to scare people into getting swine flu shots in order to prevent an epidemic. The scary background music, the use of the elderly and children getting ill, even the oddly cheerful-sounding narrator, all make this video scary and would make people feel like they ought to get a shot.


Also, I just think it's kind of funny. My two favorite parts are "Joe brought it home from the office and gave it to Betty, and one of his kids". Why not the other kid? That's bittersweet! On one hand you don't have swine flu, but on the other hand your dad doesn't love you enough to give it to you. My other favorite part: "In California, Betty's mother gave it to her best friend Dotty, but Dotty had a heart condition and she died". I just like this part because of how happy the narrator is that Dotty kicked the bucket. I imagine in the time it was made this video was pretty effective.

Actually, He's a Boy

As some of you know, the topic that I've chosen for class is men and women in nontraditional careers. (Nontraditional careers meaning careers in which less than 25% of the people employed are of one gender) Our next assignment is to persuade our audience that they should get involved and take action regarding our topic.
Our instructor showed me this video from the Onion News Network, a website that satirizes news programs. The video is about choosing masculine costumes for effeminate boys on Halloween.
It's hysterical. What this video does is take stereotypes to an extreme in order to show how ridiculous they are. Believe it or not, there are parents out there who try to force their children to conform to gender stereotypes, not allowing girls to play sports or get dirty, or allowing boys to join ballet or participate in the arts. This video is basically saying "Do this to your kids" while actually saying "Don't do this to your kids".
I'm hoping if you've read this far, you've watched the link from above, but if not, it basically chooses super-masculine costumes for effeminate boys, examples being soldiers, robots, a bear (with a giant head to "muffle his lisp") It uses stereotyping descriptors like "giggly" "lady-boy" and "faggy-acting". To anyone with a sense of humor, it's pretty harmless, and since the Onion's audience (see I can use ideas from class in my blog) is basically the same audience as The Daily Show and Colbert Report, i.e. politically-minded people generally on the liberal side of the spectrum, it is assumed that the audience agrees that forcing your children into gender-roles is silly and ultimately harmful.
If you still haven't watched the video, watch it now.

Lord Voldemort is the Hitler of the Wizarding World

Face it, he is.

Similarities:

-Hitler = part Jewish, tried to get rid of the Jews. Lord Voldemort = Father was a muggle (non-wizard), he tried to get rid of “Mudbloods” (People with non-wizarding blood)

-Hitler took over the German government. Lord Voldemort took over the ministry of magic.

-Hitler made himself immortal (at least his memory is) by killing millions of people. Lord Voldemort tried to make himself immortal by killing others. (In the books, he makes magical devices called Horcruxes which are infused with a piece of his soul. In order to fracture is soul, he has to commit murder, which is the only way to break one’s soul apart)

-Hitler tried to get the support of families with strong German heritage. Lord Voldemort’s supporters were from the oldest wizarding families.

-Both Hitler and Lord Voldemort could fly without the use of broom. (Okay that’s not true. Hitler needed the broom)

[Added a few days later] So in the wizarding world after Voldemort returned to power the Ministry of Magic started to register all people with non-wizard blood, and they took away their wands. This is kind of like how Hitler started with the concentration camps. No obviously murderous intent, just the desire to have these people registered, controlled and afraid.

I recently re-read the Harry Potter books, recently here meaning this summer after I returned from Germany. I read them with a new lease on the idea of a terrible leader taking power, which was when I noticed the similarities.

To my Knowledge, J.K. Rowling hasn’t come out and said that Lord Voldemort is Hitler, but there are certainly enough reasons how he could be.

Make 'Em Laugh

So if the difference between convincing and persuading lies in the Pathos, I think that one of the strongest tools someone can use to persuade is having a sense of humor about the topic.

In class we talked about those commercials with the sick children in Africa, or the polar bears running out of glaciers and food because of the scourge of man. What seemed to be the general consensus is that these types of Pathos have become ineffective. It certainly isn’t that we don’t care about the children or the polar bears, we have just found a way to guard ourselves from feeling too guilty about it. That is, if we haven’t already changed the channel.

This is why humor is one of the most important tools I think should be used to persuade people to join a cause. Laughter relaxes people and makes them comfortable. When a person is relaxed and comfortable, he or she is more likely to have a positive response to a call to action.

For example it’s gotten to the point where I’ve seen enough homeless people, or people down on their luck, that I just cross the street. One day, a few years ago, I was walking and looked down to see a man with a sign that read “I won’t lie to you, I’m probably going to spend your money on booze”. It startled a laugh out of me. Maybe the sign was being honest, I don’t know. I like to think that it was just a persuasive tactic. Either way, I liked the man, and I gave him some money. He made me laugh à I liked him à I gave him money, which is what he wanted in the first place.

I think people are just afraid to joke about the important things, because they don’t want to make light of anything tragic. But in my eyes that’s the key to getting support. No one likes to feel guilty, and if you see a commercial trying to shame you into donating money, you’re not going to respond. Plain and simple. But if you see a commercial that makes you laugh and makes you think, you’re one step closer to your purse or wallet to get out your credit card and make a donation.

If I Could Be a Superhero

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what kind of superhero I would want to be.

I like Batman’s ability to accessorize, and his money, obviously. But at the end of the day, pretty lame on the super-powers front.

Superman is pretty awesome, the flight, x-ray vision, super-hearing, super breath, really the list goes on and on. The man’s got a serious arsenal of superpowers. Unfortunately the whole Kryptonite allergy really gives him my stamp of disapproval. Seriously! Isn’t that what his home planet was made of? Was he like Tiny Tim all the time at home? Because seriously, he gets knocked the @*#$ out every time it’s near him. So, sorry Superman, that’s a no.

The Incredible Hulk? Please.

Spiderman is alright but I imagine I would get tired of cleaning up the whole sticky web thing after a while. Plus I’m pretty arachnaphobic, which means I wouldn’t let a spider, radioactive or not, bite me.

As far as Aquaman is concerned, all the bad guys really need to do is set up base camp in like, the middle of the desert and Aquaman’s powerless to stop them. Lame.

There are a ton more that I could go through, finding awesome advantages and obvious faults, but instead I think I’ll talk about what it says about me that I spend so much time thinking about what kind of superhero I would want to be.

Of course I’m drawn to the idea of having powers, because realistically, who isn’t? But I think I wish I had them because I feel the skill sets I’ve acquired over the years are just so… ordinary. Everyday skills, which lead me to dream about having extraordinary talents to really set me apart. That of course says that I want to be set apart, well recognized, liked. I also enjoy the idea of having a clear, black and white purpose. Me good + you bad = me must crush you. Having something important and cut-and-dry to put my energy into seems like something really important to me. I think that comes from all the grey-areas in my life. I want an important battle to fight, I don’t want to feel like I’m struggling to achieve mediocrity.

I think these are reasons that America has a lot of success with superheroes, I feel like a lot of people can relate to me in my desire to be a superhero, instantly making heroes both inaccessible and desirable. Also I just really wish I could fly, or blow things up with my mind.

Triumph of the Will

A while ago in class we talked about whether we would have gone along with Hitler if we’d been Germans in the 1930’s. In class I think I was a little too idealistic, I hoped that I would be able to be wary of the dangers that Hitler’s ideas would unleash. Realistically I probably would have been carrying a spade at the RAD ceremony. I mean, besides the whole gay thing, I have the potential of being a poster boy for the Aryan nation. (Also I’m not anti-semitic which could prove to be a problem) But I’m tall, German, I have blonde hair, blue eyes.

It is really interesting to think about it, from the German point of view. At the time he was just a charismatic leader who could really work a crowd. I’d like to think that had they known what he was planning, the Germans wouldn’t have been so supportive, and would have tried to stop him. Of course there’s no way of knowing what they would have done.

So what I’m trying to say is that I most likely would have supported Hitler, in his time, if I had no idea what was coming next. Obviously now I don’t support him, but back then, I don’t think I would have had any way of knowing not to.

Hmm.

Crappy Movies: My Legacy

If I have one legacy, it’s that most of the people in my life will think of me when they see any crappy movie for the rest of their lives. I have one of the best/worst tastes in movies, no movie is too ridiculous or stupid for me.

Lots of people go to the movies to learn something, or at least feel like they look smarter to the people who saw them leaving the theater. There are tons of dramatic, thoughtful films, (that no one understood) that find themselves on thousands of people’s favorite movie lists, because they want people to think that they like these types of movies.

That’s not me.

Give me a crappy movie that makes me laugh and I’m content. If I want to be inspired, I’d rather find that inspiration from the real world. Movies, for me, are a place to escape.

These are the top characteristics I look for in a movie:

-Teenage Angst (always amazing)

-Some sort of supernatural element. (Obvi)

-Love Story

-Any type of gender-bending

-Melodrama (my personal favorite)

-B-List Horror movies

I like movies that make fun of them selves, in a smart way. I like movies with crappy special effects. I like movies with underdeveloped plots. Let’s put it this way, I went and saw “Bratz: 4Real” in the movie theater.

You may be asking yourself what all of this has to do with my English class.

The answer is that it doesn’t really have anything to do, I just felt like sharing.