A Rhetorical Analysis Of Aaron Swartz Speech

At the 2012 Freedom to Connect Conference in Washington D.C., Aaron Swartz gave an effective speech titled “How We Stopped SOPA.” In his speech, Swartz recounts how he was able to stop the “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeit Act,” later called the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” from passing through Congress. This seemed like an impossible task, but Swartz goes into depth regarding how he and his peers made the impossible become reality. Swartz’s purpose is to create a sense of patriotism throughout his speech and prompt his audience to protect and defend the most valued right given to American citizens: freedom. Swartz employs a relatable and honest tone using anecdotes, gains the trust of the audience by appealing to ethos, and emphasizes his ideas with the aid of repetition. Swartz

Through the use of anecdotes such as when he recalls his conversations with various ordinary people,
“I remember I was chatting with this cute girl on the subway, and she wasn’t into technology at all, but when she heard that I was, she turned to me very seriously and said, ‘You know we have to stop ‘SOAP.’”
Although the girl clearly was not educated in what was happening with the SOPA bill, this anecdote’s objective is to demonstrate how Swartz is a regular guy who takes the subway and talks to cute girls. Another example of him demonstrating that he is an ordinary guy is when he has a casual conversation with his friend Peter over the phone. In incorporating this, Swartz generates a sense of sincerity about him and proves to the audience that he is nothing special, just a common man fighting for what he believes in. In addition to using anecdotes to establish a sense of sincerity, Swartz appeals to ethos to lock in the trust of the audience. He often uses the words “we” and “us”, which solidifies the fact that everyone is in this together, and the entire nation must fight together. He