The Power Of Rhetoric

Believe it or not, rhetoric is in practically everything that we read, hear, or write. Though, in order to "see" the rhetoric, one has to know how to look for it and know what it is essentially. In class, to further dive into the power rhetoric has on an audience, we watched a video where a news reporter was suspicious of a lobbyist that kept on avoiding what the reporter was looking for. In my opinion, it was kind of funny to watch him turn the subject so many times and so smoothly. Throughout the video, I caught myself thinking "how do people believe him?" Well, I thought about it and realized that people who do this as their jobs are good at what they do, otherwise they would not have their job. I also think that since through this class we have learned how to point out what and how the lobbyists are spinning their stories to confuse the audience. It was quite interesting and amusing watching him do what he does to make sure that it doesn't look like he is lying, but also at the same time, he isn't exactly telling the truth either. By being educated in this sense, it helps us determine who to believe and who not to believe, hence giving us, as a whole, as much power as the rhetor himself.