Week 13 Journal Response 4/16 – 4/20
This week we are continuing with fallacies, monsters, and monster theory. If you come across any of the topics we have discussed this week, analyze and write a short response to it.
You can also continue with your monster analysis and connect our theory to something from popular culture.
Make sure to include a link, summary, and analysis. Minimum 250 words. Comment below.
Professor Ramos' Blog 
Today, after speaking with my mother after dinner like we usually do every night, we started discussing politics which did not end well. My mother has the opposite political affiliation as me, which makes it hard for her to see where I am coming from, which leads her into making fallacies. Today, she through false dichotomy in my face.
After discussing all the deplorable stuff Trump has said while in office, she began to disagree and just say, “he’ll make America great again just wait. He’s better than the last president we had, trust me”. She claimed being way older than me and understanding more about politics because she’s been around for more political events than me. Every valid point I tried to state, I was shut down with no that isn’t right or shut up. It finally got to the point where she was so done with me where she yelled, “it’s my way or the highway, if not leave.”
This is an example of false dichotomy. This fallacy is where the arguer feels that their conclusion is one of the two options available to solve a problem. This fallacy can be avoided by not using it out of anger. The education of broadening and seeing different points rather than shutting down a point that you can not fathom.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2955322/Justine-Sacco-reveals-destroyed-life-racist-tweet-trip-Africa.html
This is an article written about the aftermath of a tweet sent out by Justine Sacco just before a trip to South Africa. While she was on her 11-hour flight she had no idea that her statement was being re-tweeted and causing outrage among many people. It caused her to lose her job as a senior director of corporate communications at IAC. The tweet states, “I am going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white.” This statement is a fallacy. It is a false analogy, when a comparison is made between two ideas or objects that seemingly have similar characteristics, but the comparison does not stick. She may be associating that AIDS originated in Africa, and most people in Africa are not white. Her statement implies that AIDS is only in Africa when it is not. It is a health problem throughout the world. She also implies that just because she is going to Africa she is at risk for AIDS. Just going to Africa does not mean she is at any more risk to get AIDS than she would be anywhere else, she would have to come in contact with an infected person’s bodily fluid. Then, she says “Just kidding. I’m white.” This is making a claim that white people are immune to AIDS and only black people can acquire it. This is completely false. Anyone can be infected. I chose this because of class discussions on fallacies. This tweet has many falsehoods.
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In this tweet by Donald Trump, he continues attacking former director of the FBI James Comey by giving him yet another nickname to give people an idea of why Comey was fired while continuing to affirm that there was not any collusion with Russia. Trump continues to hammer down on Comey because of Comey’s decision to publish a that talks about the trump administration in the white house and some possible conversations he might have had with President trump himself.
To start Donald Trump uses non-sequitur fallacy after stating “Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history”, he then fails to provide evidence for why he had fired Comey and soon moves on to yet again state that there was no collusion with Russia. He then uses a red herring “by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!” he then uses this statement to shift the focus of the accusation and firing of “Slippery James Comey” to show the reader that he had not colluded with Russia but then stated that the Democrats did collude with Russia. He uses the red herring to avoid providing a clear explanation of what had caused him to want to fire James Comey. He then dismisses the Russian collusion investigation as “phony” while he himself places emphasis on it when he stated that there was no collusion between him and Russia. He then gives Comey a nickname “Slippery James Comey” just like “Crooked Hillary, Cheatin Obama” to make people associate their negative views of Hillary and Obama to Comey too.
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http://thecomicnews.com/edtoons/2018/0404/whitehouse/02.php
In the Santa Cruz Comic News, Pat Bagley created a political cartoon of a Scott Pruitt, the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In the comic, Pruitt is driving a monster truck which is labeled the E.P.A. In addition, the comic states, “I made some modifications.” The cartoon shows the monster truck’s added features, such as spikes on the wheels and a wrecking ball attached to the flatbed. Furthermore, the monster truck is emitting smog into the air. In front of the monster truck is a father and son fishing in a lake. This image illustrates that Pruitt is destroying the lake, killing the fishes, polluting the air and harming people with his monster truck (EPA).
In this political cartoon, Scott Pruitt is participating in actions that harm the environment and humans. Ironically, Scott Pruitt is in charge of the United States Environmental Protection Agency that is meant to protects the environment and humans. Currently, Pruitt has been accused of unethical actions regarding his position as the E.P.A. Administrator. Bagley created this political cartoon to create awareness of Pruitt’s unethical actions that are harming the environment and humans. Additionally, Bagley recognize that Pruitt has not been fired or left his position as Administrator.
In thesis one of Cohen’s article, he notes that, “The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body.” This political cartoon relates to monster theory because environmentalists might consider Scott Pruitt’s actions monstrous, such as he has been accused for using tax payer money for personal trips. In the political cartoon, this demonstrates thesis one because some democrats are upset about Pruitt being in control of Environmental Protection Agency. Currently, many people are afraid of the modification Pruitt could add to the E.P.A. because they could do more harm than good for the environment.
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https://bravenewworldbackgroundpyleper1.wikispaces.com/Persuasion+and+Propaganda
In this add i came across it stated “Save the whales Lose the blubber: Go vegetarian” . The background was a nice beach with this white overweight lady in a bikini standing on the sand. This has many fallacies in it. The main one stating that if you eat meat you are atomically fat, which is completely false. By abstaining from meats will not make anyone skinny. A balanced diet will make you the best possible version of yourself. They should of presented their main point better. The main point is to not eat meat and chose the route of a vegetarian. They could of done this by presenting facts about what meat products can do to your health, and how eating meat is damaging the environment. Not by saying if you eat meat you are fat and relating “blubber” to the fat rolls the women had standing on the picture.
Although this add has fallacies in it, it does a great job appealing to our emotions. They use pathos to make us feel bad about ourselves. It mostly affects the part of the society that is overweight already, or generally just not happy with their weight. Seeing this image of a obese person who “eats meat” makes us double think about ourselves and our eating habits. People that are obese are already looking for ways to cut weight, so by seeing this they are more likely to try it. Since our emotions are strong we tend to listen to them. Even though sometimes they are not logical.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Ld4ZelNZA
In this video we can see the use of the straw man fallacy being used here. Which is used by Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton. The straw man fallacy is used to misrepresent someones argument to make it easier to attack them. The form of fallacy seen here is a logical fallacy also seen in rhetoric as logos or an attack on logic. “Trump began to make several accusatory statements that said that Clinton is in a bad light claiming that she wanted to raise taxes and make many long time businesses in the US go out of business”. Clinton then replies “the citizens need to go on her website that has an embedded fact checker on her website so they can see the truth for themselves”. This should be used to fact check what Trump is causing her of which is deemed as a misrepresentation of her argument to make his own more believable. I believe this fallacy is deemed to be seen as a logical fallacy because we see this not only in politics, but as well as in the media. The media wants us to believe what they have to say. The media also love to use this form of logical fallacy all the time. They also want you us as the citizens and news watcher to see their. Point of view and that we should believe them. Trump used this fallacy correctly, and I’m glad that in this case Hillary Clinton was smart enough to catch on and protect her argument with the use of the fact checker software on her website.
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https://goo.gl/images/4goS4w La Llorona is one of Mexico’s famous monster other than the chupacabra but, back to the llorona she has been known throughout the country of Mexico and has been used in many disciplinary tactics by parents to enforce good behavior from their kids. I know for a fact that my parents have used this tactic to keep me from doing something horrible and so that I stay out pf trouble I could say that it worked all the way until I was in the third grade and then my grandpa told me that he heard her cry when he was fifteen I was still not believing in it. But with all these movies that have been coming out and are telling the story different and are making sure that the next generations learn the story because many of these kids don’t know who this monster is and with these movies coming out they will get to know what this monster is. There is also a show that came out with a perfect story line about the llorona and it told the story the same way that I was told when was young.. An I feel like the monster thesis that fits this monster is the “monster always comes back” the reason I say this is because they have made many movies and shows about this monster and I don’t think that this monster will ever disappear from the earth because if she does then she will just come back and back and wont disappear and that’s how powerful this monster is.
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Earlier this week I heard a conversation involving my mother and my Godmother, Nancy. My mother and her father (my grandfather), and the feeling is mutual. In an odd twist of fate, my mother loves her mother (my grandmother, who is married to my grandfather, the aforementioned hate person). My mother was discussing how her father was a succubus on my grandmother because he does not do anything to contribute to the upkeep of my grandmothers or her household. In many ways he holds similar aspects to that of a vampire: he doesn’t enjoy going outside, he doesn’t enjoy garlic, and he constantly sucks energy from my grandmother. This struck me as odd that my mother would use such specific language when referencing her father. It made me think of Cohens seven these which lay out the requirements to be a monster. In one of the theses he states, “the monster dwells in the borders of society” meaning in order to other people we can’t make human, pitiable, or relatable in any way shape or form. Following this conversation I began to realize how much my mother truly hates her father, and sees him as less than human.
Although I do dislike my grandfather, this kind of harsh language is what leads to future problems, it dehumanizes people we don’t agree with rather than seeing them as people who need to be heard. I don’t want to sit down and reason with my grandfather but I also don’t believe that he will be set on fire every time he crosses the threshold of Catholic Church every single week. And that’s why we can all come together at funerals.
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The Westboro Baptist Church is an American Church founded by Fred Phelps in 1955. They are infamous for spewing hate against people who identify as LGBT+, as well as Jews, Catholics, Muslims, etc. They pretty much target anyone who disagrees with their outrageous and outdated beliefs. They go on weekly protests, holding large signs with hateful slogans on them. Their preferred places to protest are events that attract heavy news coverage such as the funerals of soldiers that have perished while deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan and the funerals of gay people. To get their message across to gay people, they use the false dichotomy fallacy. When someone uses a false dichotomy fallacy, they only provide two options, even when there are more than two available. The members of the Westboro Baptist Church believe that if gay people do not ‘turn’, they will burn in hell. This is clearly not true; it is a scare tactic they use to try to get people to repent. Another fallacy they use is the ad hominen. When one uses an ad hominen fallacy, they attack the character of a person instead of the argument. At pickets, these church members constantly argue with bystanders who challenge their beliefs. They argue that because the bystanders are disagreeing with them, they will be going to hell for defending those they believe are sinners. They refuse to take anyone’s opinion into consideration.
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http://spongebobandfriendsadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Beldam the monster that I am going to be talking about is the beldad that appears in the movie Coraline. She is portrayed at first as the “other mother”. Some one from the other dimension that can cater to Coralines needs and wants. She plays on this information by placing a doll in coralines room where it observes every moment that is happening throughout her day. When coraline sleeps she is usually awaken by something and goes to the door where the other mother lives. She spends 2 nights in the other world and on the second night the other mother asks her to stay there forever and be with her…but at the cost of her sight. She declines and the other mother traps her in the other world. Keeping her from leaving. There have been 3 other children before Coraline and all of them have been lured in and deprived of their life force by the beldame. That is her way of living eternally. Coraline finds out and finds a way and escapes but turns out that her parents have been captured. She returns and is tasked with freeing the spririts of the other children so they can finally rest. She successfully frees them and escapes the beldames other world. Her parents come back and so ends the movie. So to speak. The beldame is a monster due to her manipulative nature and the acts that she has done. She has taken the life of 3 children and was looking to make a 4th. She plays on the desires of the children to lure them in like a trap and once she has a grasp she closes her Venus flytrap and drains the children of their life force. It’s scary to be tricked with what you think is the best and most wonderful thing that can happen to you only to fearfully find out that it’s the exact opposite and are doomed. Therefore she is a monster for her unnatural ability to steal life and also a monster because her appearance can put fear into you. She’s different and can be classified as such as well.
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https://www.hindustantimes.com/hollywood/avengers-infinity-war-ending-spoiled-unlikely-source-reveals-major-plot-points/story-B6QsAWpHoJPknEOARJfVZJ.html
The article above talks about the upcoming Marvel movie, Avengers Infinity War. Black Panther, Captain America, The Guardians of the Galaxy, and the rest of the Avengers unite to face the most powerful enemy they have faced to this point, Thanos. According to this article the directors of the film wanted to keep the ending of the film a secret, even from the cast members. They had to shoot different endings to keep them all guessing. The article also claims that a Lego set titled “The Last Battle” might reveal some key events that happen in the film. I can’t wait for the film to come out!
Thanos, the monster, is the most powerful of the Eternal Titans. He possesses super human strength that even more than some of the most powerful Avengers combined. He is very intelligent and is a master of strategy. To top that off he is immortal and there is virtually nothing that could harm him. In some of the comics it mentions that when he was born he was rejected by his mother due to his appearance and he had little contact with others as he grew up. He became obsessed and fell in love with Death.
This monster represents our society’s fear of the abuse of power. Having an individual with super human powers that can’t die but can kill everyone with out much effort. Not to mention that he and Death are an item. It represents the fear of our own mortality. Some think that there is an afterlife, but others might fear that once they die there is nothing else, and well there is no escaping it.
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This is a video that I found on YouTube which highlights the basic concepts of a mythological monster known as the Werewolf.
In the article by Jeffery Jerome Cohen known as Monster Culture (Seven Thesis), beneath the heading titled thesis V, the article states that “to step outside of this official geography is to risk attack by some monstrous border patrol or (worse) to become monstrous oneself.” In Werewolf mythology, a Werewolf is a monster that was once identified as a human, who was then be crossed with evil, and turned into a vicious beast. Stories of humans turning into animals are common throughout the history of mythology. The most commonly known way for a human to turn into a Werewolf within our modern society is for an individual to have been bitten or scratched by a Werewolf. According to the video, causes for transformation seem to change throughout Werewolf history. Some ancient cultures used to believe that one could turn into a Werewolf by wearing a belt made of wolf’s skin while another culture believed that drinking water from a wolf’s paw print would cause the transformation. In Italy, it was believed that one could turn into a Werewolf by sleeping outside on a Wednesday when there was a full moon.
The various ways in which a monster may be reborn is explained in the Monster Culture (Seven Thesis), under thesis I titled The Monster is a Cultural Body, which states that “the monster is born only at this metaphorical crossroads, as an embodiment of a certain cultural movement.” Monster trends tend to shift depending on the different societal influences. The Werewolf is commonly identified as having a monobrow, curved fingernails, or lowered ears. Depending on which culture you reference, the Werewolf may have different ways of being exposed when found in its human form. One culture believes that if you find fur beneath the skin of an individual when cut, then this would identify that individual as a Werewolf. Another culture believes that if you look underneath the individual’s tongue and find hair, then they too may qualify as a Werewolf. Older Werewolf culture believes that the Werewolf can be repelled by using Rye and Mistletoe; much like how a Vampire can be repelled from a cross, garlic, or holy water. It is common in mythological history for the monster to have a form weakness in order to be defeated. Certain cultures also believed that the Werewolf could be cured medicinally from a plant known as Wolf’s Bane or Aconitum. It wasn’t until a book titled The Wolf Man was published in 1935 that people began to believe the Werewolf could be defeated by a silver bullet.
In the article by Jeffery Jerome Cohen titled Monster Culture (Seven Thesis), Thesis VI, Fear of the Monster is Really Kind of a Desire, mentions that “When contained by geographic, generic, or epistemic marginalization, the monster can function as an alter ego, as an alluring projection of (another) self.” A Werewolf known as a human that morphs into a beast which can morph back into a human. When the individual enters this beastly state, it is said that he or she loses control and attempts to devour its victims. It is common amongst mythological history for the monster to want to eat or kill people. In the article by Jeffery Jerome Cohen titled Monster Culture (Seven Thesis), the article mentions beneath its final thesis that the monsters “always return.” This ties in with the Werewolf because even though the monster might have turned back into a human, the beast awaits within the individual, waiting to be unleashed.
-Jack Adams
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