Facts, Irony, and useless “meager suggestions”
In S.E. Cupp’s article, “Clooney, Clinton and useless 'soft outrage ',” many topics, both controversial and potent, are tackled. She outlines several different situations—the Sony hack, Paris attacks, Chibok kidnappings, and Nigeria killings—and the reactions to them by celebrities and political leaders. She uses multiple specific occurrences and factual evidence along with direct quotes, logical organization, and witty undertones. This, paired with her strong, opinionated voice, is nearly enough to convince readers that her argument is effective and sound. However, this is not the case. While Cupp uses a surplus of factual backing and even some emotional appeal, her argument is ultimately lacking.
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Immediately following this summarization, she jumps right into her accusatory tone, using the terms “soft outrage” and “hashtag activism” to explain what celebrities are doing by posting about these events on their various social media sites. Cupp coins the term early on in her article, retorting “… one only needs to look back at some recent examples of other horrifying atrocities to know that mere symbolism and solidarity -- what I call the weapons of "soft outrage" -- will not be enough to stamp out terrorism in Europe or anywhere else (par. 7). Later, she adds another made-up term into reader’s vocabulary, “hashtag activism.” She defines this by commenting “even though [#BringBackOurGirls] went viral… hashtag activism hasn 't proven very effective in the face of violent Islamic extremism” (Cupp, par. …show more content…
She makes her point that “soft outrage” and “hashtag activism” are completely pointless and unhelpful clear, but suggests one tactic—force. She does not give any other ideas, and does not even elaborate what she even means by force. The audience has to assume that Cupp expects George Clooney, Hilary Clinton, and Michelle Obama to suit up and go take care of the issues addressed for themselves. In order to strengthen her argument, she should add more suggestions of what would be the right thing to
This investigation analyzes how the reports of the Beltway Sniper Attacks were given (newspaper or television, etc.) changed the public’s reaction the amount attention that was given to this event. To be able to analyze this, I will look at different newspaper reports that were published discussing the different ways that the media took to reporting about this event. The varying reasons for differing reports will be explored; along with the different ways these reports affected American citizens.
“Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” by Malcolm Gladwell is an article published in the Annals of Innovation, by The New Yorker magazine. Gladwell starts with an example of true activism. He opens the article with a depiction of how the Greensboro sit-ins contributed to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Then the author supplies two examples of protests that have taken place in recent years that some people have said were started and organized on Twitter. He then goes on to clarify why Twitter was not a factor in these events and how media and government can distort certain truths about social media’s role in protests. The author continues the article by explaining why communication and relationships were more efficient before the era of social media and then compares social networking from the past and now. He uses this strategy to illustrate social media’s effect on how we interact and our commitment towards one another. Gladwell goes on to explain the organization of activist groups of the past and its
The purpose of Clinton’s public rhetoric is to win the support of the American people, relative to the Republicans and the Independent Counsel. The support of the people will ensure the eventual cooperation of the House and Senate–who are directly responsible to the public for their jobs. Because Clinton is speaking to a broad and...
The London Riots took place from the 6th to the 11th of August 2011 in London, England. It started off as a peaceful protest, to attain justice for the killing of Mark Duggan, who was killed by the police for allegedly being armed. The rioting began when the police restrained and injured a 16-year-old girl for throwing a champagne bottle at them. Over the next few days, “copycat” riots began to occur in parts of London and these riots were organized via the use of social media. Although there was no individual culprit of the riot, many believe that some of the blame goes to the media for representing the Mark Duggan case as well as the coverage of the riots wrongly, which in turn sparked subsequent riots in London. In this essay, I will discuss
By doing this she intentionally aims for the listener to be outraged by these acts of evils. Haley informs the UN that they “are beyond showing pictures of dead babies” (Haley). Using images of children is wrong, but it sparks an outrage, so action will be taken by the UN. Syrian children are hopeless and they deserve protection. Haley wants the UN to understand that, if their own country won’t protect them, then it is the responsibility of the UN to help protect the children from the monsters that attack them. Haley wants to spark an outrage, so the UN will protect the
Consequently, “In recent years, tragedies involving mass killings in the US, such as The Aurora, CO movie theatre shooting in July 2012, and the Newton, CT has intensified social focus on trying to understand the dynamics and contributing factors that underlie such events”(Towers 2). Both of these shooting left the public shocked and concerned. As an article says one of the main concerns was “concern with the publics understanding of the shooting specifically who or what did the public blame” (Joslyn, and Do...
Activism is the practice of taking action in support or opposition of a cause or controversial issue (Activism). Millions March NYC is a New York City based activist coalition combatting the issues of police brutality, institutionalized racism, and an examination of the New York Police Department in order to ensure a better treatment of all New Yorkers, primarily focusing on the lives of members of vulnerable populations, particularly black lives. This is a coalition of young activists from various racial backgrounds who are demanding for the justice of the victims of police violence and police brutality. Right now, they are one of the many faces of activism in New York City and the surrounding areas. In the wake of recent cases
In Stephens article, he tells how “Social media could serve as a source of live, raw information. It could summon people to the streets and coordinate their movements in real time. And it could swiftly push back against spurious media narratives with the force of a few thousand retweets”. He explains how technology can be used to push to change problems in our society and encourage us to get up and do something about it. Being able to use our capabilities if technology to fullest is “A huge reason for all this success is that, perhaps more than any other modern American protest movement, they’ve figured out how to marshal today’s tools”. In McKinnon’s explanation, she states how “To their credit, some companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook have joined forces with civil liberties groups in an attempt to persuade the Obama administration not to push anti-encryption measures that would enable government and law enforcement officials to access our secure communications”. This is goes with how technology can be used to make a difference just like what Stephen was saying in order to inform people on what’s going on. McKinnon explains how our social media servers have also taken a disagreement on invading our private lives. As it stands, any individual or
Hi-tech lynching has even effected the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson. The “policemen of the electronic age” have been involved in destroying the reputation of Jackson by playing video clips and interviews that mock his personal lifestyle (Koppersmith 1). Various networks feed on ratings, instead of the valued notions of morality. Michael Jackson’s case has become the example of guilty until proven innocent, even though we, as American citizens claim to value due process and equal representation under the law.
Popular, digital, and social media are primary sites for engaging with social and cultural norms and racial, gender, sexual, and class ideologies (Lindsey). More recently, we see evidence of young black people having a sense of empowerment and freely displaying it on social media. Influences in the media have also jumped on board, reflecting their views on racially charged topics within their work. Consequently, social media is notorious for either virally uplifting of condemning society without any sense of tact. With the media spotlighting the recent out lash geared towards people of color, society was finally being exposed to the uncensored struggles of this ethnic group. The violent outbreak of police brutality against black people and racial profiling, agitated people of color in every community. A few of the many tragedies such as Michael Brown, Tamar Rice and Travon Martin, gave us the realization that being black is not safe. This epidemic had triggered uncertainty, that had Americans questioning the credibly of our communities in a long time. With situations like this in the face of the media, the choice to turn a blind eye was no longer an
On August 17, 1998, exactly one year after making the statement above, President Bill Clinton prepared to deliver a speech concerning a scandal that had gripped the nation for months. It is needless to say that this was an important moment during the Clinton administration. After accusations of sexual harassment, Clinton addressed the nation and admitted to having a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. In this critical speech Clinton set out to admit to wrong-doings, provide a few reasons for his action, and ultimately persuade the audience into moving on and forgetting the scandal. This essay will break down his speech into sections and examine the most and least effective strategies that Clinton employed and how well he executed those strategies. This is an interesting speech given under rare circumstances. Not since Watergate had an American president been under such harsh moral criticism from the public. By looking critically at this speech we are able to gain valuable insight into Clinton's motives.
Michael Moore’s latest film, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” presents a critical look at the administration of George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism. In this film Moore investigates the rapid growth of the United States government and its trend of trampling the rights of individuals, and the corporatism that is spawned out of the close ties between big government and big business during wartime. Michael Moore may not convince all audiences, but is successful for its factual accuracy in which the evidence spoke for itself, and at the same time proclaimed Moore's artistry in transposing and splicing scenes to create impressions that supported his allegations and opinions. Michael Moore has employed two main techniques in an attempt to successfully influence his audience; psychological means of strategy, and cinematic techniques of persuasion. These methods, coupled with how they are presented to the audience, and how the audience react, are what Moore uses to create a scheming effect.
Therein, as Merton (1936) suggested in his research, the lack of any meaningful culture upon which to base standards for evaluating risk, leaves us with only the ability to discuss right and wrong in the most limited terms (Merton, 1936). A common culture which can place relative values on things like naked selfies on iCloud vs the humiliation of naked selfies being stolen from the I Cloud and posted on the internet, creates an abstract of Merton’s theory at the lowest-common-denominator (Cloward, 1959). By extrapolation, the culture of political correctness creates the impulse to lynch all perpetrators in righteous fury and console all the wronged as victims regardless of prior conduct or risky behaviors (Mann,
Since its creation, social media has caused considerable changes in society. It allows people to connect, create, and learn. Since social media allows people from all over the world to connect, it allows people to share different ideas and promote important causes; social media has become a platform for activism. By sharing, liking, and tweeting all people have become activist for all sorts of causes. In recent years, scholars compared activism of this type to the activism that has occurred during the Civil Rights Movement. Recent debate has quite different views regarding activism through social media as an influential factor in publicizing causes. According to Malcolm Gladwell, social media may aid people in becoming aware of certain issues, but activism through social media does not solve any of the problems they try to fix. He also argues that social media create weak ties between people. I am of two minds regarding Gladwell’s claim regarding social media activism and the ties it creates. On the one hand, activism
This summer if you were on social media you heard about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The concept was simple, just film yourself dumping a bucket of ice water over your head, challenge your friends to do the same, and donate ten dollars to the ALS Association. Opt out and donate one hundred dollars (Madison). Many Americans did not know what ALS was and by putting this challenge on social media has brought tons awareness to this devastating disease. Activism used to be taking action to bring social change, people in the 1960s used to gather in front of community centers and protest and or speak about their issue or cause. Now even though people still gather together it is much easier to use the internet. Hundreds of social media applications