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Name-Calling And Demonizing Reflect Badly On Aspiring Writers by Anthony White
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Name-Calling And Demonizing Reflect Badly On Aspiring Writers |
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Education
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Have you ever noticed how quickly some persons resort to name-calling and demonizing when referring to others who hold contrary views? Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. It seems they are all guilty of such actions at one time or another. I consider such actions rhetorical bad manners. Worse, they are indicators that the person making the statements is merely attempting to bolster otherwise weak arguments. Stated differently, if you can't match the other side's facts, reasoning and logic, then attack him with outrageous criticism. Call him unpatriotic, a criminal, a threat to the community-remarks that are untruthful and which never come close to addressing real issues. Recently I read read in a community newspaper that a letter-writer was referring to a columnist as "toxic waste" merely because he disagreed with the columnist's viewpoint. That statement said more about the critic than it did about the columnist, or about his ideas. Candidates for political office are keen on name-calling and on trying to demonize the other candidates. Usually these actions are referred to as mud-slinging, a term that appropriately comes under the heading of "dirty politics." They describe themselves as patriotic, anti-tax, pro-family, freedom-loving, God-fearing persons. Concerned that their opponents may adopt the same characterizations, they try to pre-empt them by accusing them of being unpatriotic tax-and-spend candidates who ignore family values. There are examples of demonizing in many newspaper stories. For example, those who oppose abortion rights claim exclusive right to the title of "pro-life." They then accuse pro-choice people and others of beliefs and actions that are inconsistent with life values in the broadest sense. They call them baby killers whom God will surely punish, probably by sending them to hell. The pro-choice people are sometimes just as bad, characterizing the anti-abortion activists as meddlers and religious zealots. Another example involves persons caught up in the gun culture. Gun owners and members of the National Rifle Association paint themselves as true patriots and defenders of freedom. They claim to understand the Second Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, whereas others do not. They demonize the opposition by saying they would coddle criminals while "disarming law-abiding citizens." Persons who oppose the proliferation of firearms in the society also resort to name-calling, often referring to gun owners as neo-fascists, right-wing stooges or John Wayne wannabes. On the immigration issue, name-calling and demonizing again appear. Some argue that the persons who enter the country without documentation are "lawbreakers" and unlawful aliens. They say the immigrants come to this country merely to get on the welfare rolls and to receive free education and health care for members of their family. One politician in Northern Virginia recently went so far as to say that undocumented workers and those who support them are "un-American" (whatever that means). Those who support the immigrants say they are merely "day laborers" who fill jobs that Americans refuse to take, particularly in agriculture, construction and landscaping. Further, they say that citizens and politicians who lead campaigns against the day laborers are racist, nativist and xenophobic. A friend went so far as to also say, with tongue firmly in cheek, that the community cannot possibly have a problem with aliens because Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) wiped them all out in 1979. thesis
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