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You donapos;t really have to watch this. Itapos;s an anti-McCain video.

Iapos;m not posting it up here to trash McCain, and this isnapos;t my politics icon. Because McCain isnapos;t the issue Iapos;m interested in talking about.

This is a good example of a bad argument. Anyone with a computer can now splice together footage, throw a bit of commentary to keep the implications facing one direction, put a dramatic song in the background and get a slick looking political video. The problem with this approach is that itapos;s unbalanced. UTTERLY. Itapos;s not that these clips never happened or anything--theyapos;re usually not even used with utter manipulation to their subject matter or anything. The problem is that the commentary keeps you facing the "right" direction rather than hearing the clips in their full context, and the bigger problem is that the whole issue--both sides--is never addressed. No one gets a rebuttal. No one gets to

The system of argumentation we see in America over and over (education, politics, even media) is modeled on the Greek progenitors--advocacy. Take a position and defend it, and then someone argues with you. In many other cultures this is considered quite arrogant. I can often tell an ESL paper even when itapos;s grammatically clean because thereapos;s no thesis. The paper weighs both sides of an issue and in the conclusion makes a conclusion that is clearly disclaimed as an opinion. But thatapos;s not how American academia works. You set your thesis in the introduction and you back it up.

But advocacy depends on dissent. That someone arguing with you is as much a part of the process as presenting your case. The unspoken understanding is that someone will come and have a contrary position and in the crucible of your disagreement, some crap can be burned away. Respectful disagreement is absolutely vital for the process. Yet many would silence the other side, or reject it out of hand. Or, as in the case of these videos, never even deal with it. If you want to buy into propaganda, go ahead. You can join a world of media fragmentation where you never even have to deal with news you donapos;t agree with and your little world can be exactly what you want it to be.

Advocacy without a respected opponent is just being an opinionated blowhard.


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