Oh My Dear, Did You Hear What That Website Said?

Are random statistics on websites rhetoric? Even if most of those websites have not built up their ethos individually, I believe the access to so much information with just a click of a button or a tap of a key has built up ethos enough for the internet as a whole. For this reason, even though they are all just statistics on different pages of the internet, don’t they do a lot to convince us to believe something? For example, for one of my observations, I pointed out that 17,000 married men died in the Vietnam War.

Let us start with the website’s rhetoric. They know that people so easily access the internet and that many people are too lazy to look for actual and credible sources. So they can put any kind of statistic they want, and stray us in their direction. As long as it makes sense. 17,000 married men could have easily died in the Vietnam War from what I know. What makes that number weird or odd? Nothing. It is plausible. Therefore, it is “correct.” Mission Accomplished.

Now, there is another way the website could have made their info a little more believable. Something that we have been taught over and over again to use in our rhetoric, and that is our opinion or our analysis. In my observation, I not only pointed out that 17,000 married men died in the Vietnam War. I also pointed out that if half of those married men had at least one child, that is 8500 children without a father. By elaborating on the point, it no longer is an assumption. Instead, the assumption is that half the men have children. The audience is now wondering if that postulation is true, and has already accepted the first one.

Also, I have created a sense of pathos, not for myself, but for the children without a father. This draws the audience in even more, and now, instead of focusing on if it is true or not, they start feeling bad for the kids who will be deprived of a father. And just like that, they are convinced that 17,000 married men died in the Vietnam War. Now, the most powerful weapon in rhetoric will be used, and that is the word of mouth. Pretty soon, everyone thinks that there were 8500 children out there without a father during the Vietnam War.

If I wanted to make it even juicer and more plausible, I would have gone into detail about how that might have affected the children’s lives. That was excessively easy. So the point of all this is that maybe, instead of trying to change the rhetoric used, we should analyze the rhetoric we read, watch, and hear about. Try to form our opinions.