Carrying Firearms

So, in my presentation we talked about how firearms should be legal to have but we should make them harder for people to obtain. One thing we did not cover was about the right to carry in public places. I do not think people should be able to carry outside of their cars. Even if they have the right to carry and are not in a gun free zone people could still start chaos. Most people when they see a gun in a public place like a restaurant are going to want to tell a manager and ask them to leave which may cause more problems in the long run. When someone carries by a school that school is forced to go on lockdown. If we were able to ban carrying guns in public places all together we could prevent mistakes like this from happening.

The Speaker

My brother and I have always been into big speakers. We like to try to buy once every couple of years so we can play the loudest music. He called me saying that he found one, and it was the loudest one he has seen yet, but it was a bit pricey. The speaker clocked in around $500. Which in my opinion is way to expensive and he was thinking the same. None the less he picked me up and took me to the Best Buy.

Before we went, he told me he was quite certain that he was going to pass on it. He continued to show me the speaker and it was super dope; the loudest one that I have heard so far. We both looked at it and decided that it was the right decision to not buy it. At least until we met Aiden (the rhetor), the salesman on duty at the time. Aiden continued to use all three types of rhetoric on my brother; logos, ethos, and pathos. 

He started with ethos. As soon as he walked up to us, he saw that we were interested in the speaker. He asked us if we had heard it at full volume, and obviously we did not because it would've probably resulted with us getting kicked out. So Aiden continued to turn the speaker up full blast and disrupted the entire store. Its no exaggeration to say the entire store was glaring at us. He continued to laugh and say that he was going to get in trouble because the don't know how to handle music. Ethos is shown here by building the idea that he likes the "thrill" of music too. This made my brother and I trust him because he shared the same passion as us. Aiden continued to pathos, by appealing to our emotions. He took us of the idea of that specific speaker and asked what type of speaker we have already, and what got us into speakers like that one. He got us to connect our memories of past good times to this new speaker making us emotionally attached. Lastly he used logos by talking about price he went into how the speaker stood up against the other speakers in the store. He went on to tell us why we were paying more for this one compared to the others and why it was the most logical one to buy. Long story short my brother and I ended up leaving the store with a dope speaker falling victim of the Rhetor.

Recognizing logical fallacies

It's important to know how to recognize logical fallacies. The trick to spotting logical fallacies is comparing statements logical steps with the logical steps of a good deductive or inductive argument. Too often, logical fallacies arise because people draw improper conclusions from the evidence, or reduce the evidence to a smaller number of options than are really available. There are seven total uses of logical fallacies. Starting with the False Comparison, the Bad Example, Ignorance as Proof, the Tautology, the False Choice, the Red Herring, and finally the Wrong Ending. Personally, I notice the first deadly sin: The False Comparison most often. For example "If you follow this diet plan, you'll lose 20 pounds in just six weeks!". This type of argument falsely compares everyone's rate of weight loss.

Animal Rights

Animals all over the world are tortured, beaten and experimented on, all for the benefit of human lives. Even though 90% of animal tested products do not work when it comes to human trials. Animals aren't only tortured in labs though, they get mistreated in entertainment, on farms and even inside the walls of their homes, the place they should feel the safest. Animals cannot speak out for themselves and say no or stop. They get treated however human beings want to treat them and there are not even any consequences for mistreating animals. There is no humane way to experiment on animals, even if they numb the animals before experimenting on them, every time an animal gets tested on it slowly brings them closer to the end of their lives. 

Do you know what you are eating?

Fast Food restaurants claim that they only serve fresh foods to their customers, but do they really?

A few years ago McDonalds came out with an ad campaign that said "now serving 100% real beef", so what were they serving before? Some suspect that before they were using some beef with other parts of the cow mixed in. Mcdonalds also claims that they only serve fresh foods, but some employees have posted pictures on twitter of the freezer that holds all of the food they serve. The boxes of frozen food indicate that they are processed and must be frozen in order to keep from spoiling. McDonald's is not the only fast-food chain that does this: Wendy's, Subway and even Panera serve foods that come out of a plastic bag. Should the fast-food industry be obligated to let their consumers know where the food is actually coming from?

Vaping News

Just FYI:

Trump Retreats From Flavor Ban for E-Cigarettes

Advisers say the president pulled back from proposed restrictions intended to curb teenage vaping after he was warned of the political fallout among voters.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/17/health/trump-vaping-ban.html

for more information (from the CDC):

Outbreak of Lung Injury Associated with the Use of E-Cigarette, or Vaping, Products

Types of Logical Fallacies

This week in class we talked about three types of logical fallacies. They are Bad Proofs, The False Choice, and Disconnect.
Bad Proofs are when a hasty generalization has been made such as when someone says that all pizza is bad just because they had one type of pizza that was bad. Another type of bad proof is lack-of-proof when you don't have any evidence o back up your claim.
The false choice is when you say that there are only two options A or B when in reality there are several other options that you could choose in a situation. Many times this will be worded as " We have two options sit back or fight".
Disconnect means that you think because you did A that B happened when that could or could not be the case.   An example that we used in class was that because someone got a petition signed that a rule was changed. While this could have happened because if the petition there is no clear evidence that was the reason.

Environmental Issues

So - there are other environmental problems that we need to address other than just Climate Change. I mean - of course it's still very important, but there are also other things we need to worry about. Such as Deforestation. Millions of trees are being cut down and it's affecting so many variables. We're pushing animals out of their habitats and this is causing them to intrude on other habitats and affecting the animals that live there - causing a food shortage for those native animals. It's slowly causing species to become endangered and then extinction.

Sure, people are trying to fix this issue and planting millions of trees but how much help can that be when it takes decades for trees to grow and replace the ones that are being cut down and by then millions of more trees will be cut down and then what? Start that process all over again? And sure conservations are great and they do help but they can other do so much you know?

I think that as humans -we take advantage of so much. We don't realize this because it's the only kind of lifestyle we know of. We weren't taught any differently. The reason we have a hard time actually coming to terms with what we are doing is because we don't want to take the blame and leave the comforts of the life that were are living. I truly believe that the human race is selfish. Of course there are individuals who are trying everything in their power to give back and actually help environmental issues but sometimes I think that maybe we're already too late. 

Open Your Eyes to the Rhetoric

I have noticed something over the years, but it was never apparent until this year taking a course on rhetoric. People in the US are so incredibly brainwashed that it is terrifying. It is noticeable on so many different levels from political issues to Facebook posts. It is at a point a lot of people believe almost anything that they hear. I feel it is important to point out some of these faults.

I personally won't lie and come out and say that I am Democratic, but there is one issue with that. Whenever I get into any form of debate no matter how intense I will never take a side politically. Outside of right now I have never told text to anyone my political affiliations. This is relevant since anytime I get into an argument or debate with someone over something they will accuse me of being Liberal. I am sure some of you can agree with this, but why on earth is that an insult? I hear people say things like Liberals are being brainwashed by the fake news. Where does this stuff come from? I will tell you. It comes from the rhetoric used by the other party.

Not just the president, but the entire party wants you to believe what they have to say. Rarely will they state any statistics or information. They just claim their numbers are good or huge. They claim the stock market is higher than it ever was in the Obama administration when in fact it isn't. The only market showing through is the Dow Jones Industrial Complex. The industrial business is thriving and not much else. Everything else is down. And if you disagree with me know that none of this is coming from a Democrat. This is stuff I easily found on my own without political affiliations.

The trick is they use a tricky state of pathos. The stuff said tugs at your personal strings just enough so that you believe it. People don't want their guns taken away because it is their right. So you hear constantly that the "Do nothing Democrats" want to take your guns when not a single one of them have ever said they want to outright ban guns. They want gun control just like Republican leaders, but the truth is people are too lazy to really look into it.

Another one that I love is religious affiliations. The Republican party boasts the biggest majority of Christian voters. And you want to know what is messed up? No matter the leader they vote for them for the sake of the party's beliefs. In the past Republican leaders refused to legalize things like gay marriage. Now they focus on following the beliefs of white Christians. Don't believe me? This is also not a Democratic view and is actually what I heard from my pastor, church friends, and my grandparents. That is right, I am Democratic and Christian. My grandmother refused to vote for Barrack Obama in 2008 since he supported legalizing gay marriage. Why? Because Republican leaders made it obvious at the time that Democrats were going against the Bible.

I think for all of our sakes it is time that people start opening there eyes to issues at hand that matter. It really doesn't matter your political backing or anything. It is a matter of knowing what you are reading and watching and being able to say yes, that is wrong. We should all support each other's beliefs and decisions and be able to decide when things need to change. We shouldn't be fighting each other.

The Idea of Human Progress

In Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, he wrote a chapter about the both sides of the history of Columbus and the Indians. Zinn's focus, when writing this chapter, was to tell the truth about the exploration of Columbus in the Americas to relate to human progress. Zinn's key points of the chapter can be broken down into sections of four. These four sections supports the overall theme of the chapter. The overall theme of this chapter was to support the question "Was all this necessary for human progress?"

In section one of the chapter, Zinn's shows the history of Columbus from the Indian's point of view. Zinn talks about, not heroic tales, but the the slavery, torture, and death of the Indians. In the sections, Zinn gives clear evidence by using a journal from someone who was with Columbus, and recorded everything that Columbus and his men did:

Moreover, Zinn goes on to arguing about history. In section two, Zinn argues that history is idealogical; meaning it serves somebody's interest. He argue that history is only the memory of States/Government or the ones in power. Zinn's purpose in his argument is support his idea that we not must not accept the memory of States as own. furthermore, to support his idea and claim, Zinn gives other evidence and details in section three, that are similar to that of Columbus. Cortes to the Aztecs, Pizarro to the Incas, and the English Settlers to Powhatan/ Pequot. Lastly, in section four, Howard Zinn concluded with the question "Was all this necessary for human progress?". Zinn asks how we can judge if we do not know the truth, he stated that should not those sacrificed have a choice, and he asks how certain are we that what was destroyed was "inferior." Zinn's purpose in writing this chapter was show how history is biased and that we should know the truth from every side before believing and trusting anything.

Howard Zinn question is absurdly obvious because the idea of another human being being inferior to another human being preposterous. Every being function in the same way, unless they are actually God. Human progress should progress with the idea of equality and the idea of one race. The race of humankind. Learning the history of Columbus from both sides shows how mankind had fallen to idea of inferiority. Columbus and the other men that sacrificed other people for their gain and ideal can never be in the right.

Dangers of lowering the drinking age

Lowering the drinking age limit is not a new topic whatsoever it has been around since the 1970s. Twenty-nine of the fifty states lowered the drinking age and had catastrophic results. Highway accidents involving teenagers escalated quickly after. Following these deaths states began raising the drinking age limit again. In 1984 all the states were required to have a drinking age of at least 21, this was called the Uniform Drinking Age Act. Although the drinking age limit has been experimented and tried, there is still an issue with underage drinking. Drinking underage is very dangerous and can result in health complications and other risks. 
The definition of alcoholism is “an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency”. It is dangerously easy to become addicted to alcohol which will result in binge drinking. Drinking alcohol slows down the reaction time and may cause somebody to lose control of their body and is more likely that a drunk male is to rape or abuse young women. Rape is not the only case. Normally, when both partners are affected, they are more likely to have unprotected sex. Alcohol can lead to the use of drugs or other dangerous substances. If the drinking age were to be lowered this would not change the party scene.
Another problem with alcohol slowing the reaction time result in less control of your actions when driving. 

Those who are for the drinking age limit being lowered often debate that the people of the age of 18 “can vote, join the military, sign contracts, and even smoke. These examples call for a certain maturity to be reached in those individuals but 18 to 20 is too young for being able to drink legally. 

Do you agree or disagree with my stance on alcohol, change my mind.