Homework for Wednesday March 11th

Roberts-Miller defines demagoguery as “. . . polarizing propaganda that motivates members of an ingroup to hate and scapegoat some outgroup(s), largely by promising certainty, stability, and what Erich Fromm famously called ‘an escape from freedom’” (Roberts-Miller 66). This definition includes many fallacies in which I will talk about throughout this paper, such as scapegoating, grouping, and polarization, which are used in Lapierre’s excerpt. Each fallacy is used by an authority figure to influence their audience on an issue by favoring their opinion and downgrading their opponent or opposition. Within Lapierre’s text, he uses demagoguery to influence his audience that our government needs have armed guards in every school in America. He uses polarization to influence parents that this is the only logical solution to stop school shootings by saying, “If we truly cherish our kids more than our money or our celebrities, we must give them the greatest level of protection possible and the security that is only available with a properly trained-armed-good guy” (Lapierre 62). This statement is focusing on one solution and emphasizing that it is the only solution, which polarizes people’s opinions in favor of his solution. Lapierre is able to swing (polarize) his audience’s thoughts in one direction without referencing the other half of the argument, such as how much it would cost the public in tax dollars. Lapierre’s use of the fallacy, scapegoating, focuses primarily on President Barrack Obama. He say’s, “But do know this President zeroed out school emergency planning grants in last year’s budget, and scrapped ‘Secure Our School’s’ policing grants in next year’s budget” (Lapierre 61).  Here, Lapierre focuses the topic on a single person that he says is responsible for school shootings. People like to blame others for mistakes or problems rather than taking responsibility or trying to help find a solution. Lapierre’s attempt to persuade his audience that the reasons for school shootings are solely the Presidents fault is unsuccessful for there are multiple factors that have to be taken into consideration. Lastly, Lapierre’s article consists of demagoguery through the use of grouping. He insists that his solution of having armed guards in all schools is the only way to ensure students safety. “And does anybody really believe that the next Adam Lanza isn’t planning his attack on a school he’s already identified at this very moment“ (Lapierre 59)? By doing so, his followers are apart of the ingroup, and those that oppose the idea are part of the outgroup. This question gives a negative appeal to those of whom oppose it, therefore, very few people will tempt to disagree with it. According to Roberts-Miller, using these demagogic fallacies has a strong affect on the audience, but could be for the wrong reasons. People are entitled to their own opinions, but when those opinions are swayed by demagogic authorities due to polarizing, scapegoating, or grouping, it defeats the purpose of democracy. Those of whom choose to use these fallacies do not have a strong enough rebuttal to explain why their reasoning is better than the opposition. Therefore demagogic strategies have a strong emphasis on pathos and the audience has a hard time disagreeing with the authority abusing demagoguery.