Locate an article, news report, or social media post to respond to. You can also respond to any of the articles or topics discussed in the class.
First, summarize what the post is saying and what you understand them to be arguing.
Second, respond to the article with what we have been learning in class.
- Point out fallacies if you see them.
- Evaluate the argument they are making.
- Explain any bias you see in the post.
- Point out unsupported claims.
- If you agree, help them better support their argument. If you disagree, explain why.
- Notice the use of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos
Make sure your journal response is at least 250 words long. Comment below with a link and your response.
Professor Ramos' Blog 
Kids Are People Too
The cries of children and children right advocates had reached the reporting team of the Associated Press. Released in a news article the Press shines light on a growing problem of children being detained in less than adequate detention centers for several weeks at a time. The conditions described by the children and confirmed by doctors who visited with the children say that the “filthy conditions can lead to the spread of the flue and other diseases and show lack of respect for children’s humanity” (Attanasio et.al.). Heartbreaking stories of how these children ended up in these facilities and the way the way they are being treated give the reader a feeling of outrage and a sense of fear for the children’s well-being.
The main purpose of the authors is to report the atrocities that are happening in theses detention centers and persuade the reader to do away with their negative thoughts of the stereotypical Latin immigrant and feel compassion for these children that are being held in cells. They come up with concrete examples that appeal to the readers sympathetic side and incorporate a sad and serious tone that has you reading with disbelief. Using strong words that invoke emotion the authors do an excellent job of keeping the reader engaged in the reading and send them on a quest to investigate more into the matter. The children’s names are not revealed due to certain laws but the testimonies of some of the children give the article a sense of truth and undeniable evidence that these children are truly being mistreated. A teenage mother from Honduras who has been sleeping for weeks on the floor in a cold cell tells of her account saying that her baby boy “feels cold to the touch, and we are so sad to be held in a place like this” (Attanasio et.al.). A 14-year-old who fled with her sister and mother from an abusive father says, “The food is not enough” she said, “the food is not good, and I feel hungry” (Attanasio et.al). If that is not enough to make you cringe the news report continues on stating that “five children have died since late last year after being detained and lawyers who visited a Border Patrol station near El Paso last week describe children being held in squalid conditions with little care and inadequate food, water and sanitation” (Attanasio et.al.). However, you read into the text presented in this news report, it is likely that you get a feeling of remorse, empathy and anger along with a whole slew of other emotions, unless of course you are the president in which it would just be fake news.
https://apnews.com/25ee869da6e94fe3a10409a05aedd7f4
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Killer Mindset
The mindset we have allows us to either improve yourself or keeps us from improving because in our minds we believe we can’t. Having a fixed mindset hinders us, we focus on the traits we are born with and don’t improve on them. Having a fixed mindset can blind us in many situations and many of us have been guilty of this. It can prevent us from having important development of our skills and pushing ourselves. A growth mindset gives us the ability to improve ourselves with learning, effort, and persistence. A growth mindset is the obvious mindset to have we all want to grow and improve ourselves and not be fixed on one way of thinking and not get caught in a situation where we go back to having a fixed mindset.
Having the proper mindset can help us throughout our lives thinking in a positive perspective and always growing in every aspect of our lives. Having a fixed mindset doesn’t benefit anyone being closed minded on certain subjects isn’t the ideal way of thinking. In our society a lot of people suffer from having this fixed mindset and it has a very negative effect on various situations for example saying you’re “bad at writing” you will be bad at writing because you won’t push yourself to get better at writing and will have the mindset that you can’t get better at writing. In many aspects of our lives we fall victim to this mindset and we can’t let it take control we should always want to grow and improve ourselves in everything we do so we should close off the thought of a fixed mindset and be willing to always grow.
https://jamesclear.com/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset
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Timmy is a five-year-old boy that is diagnosed with autism and has a brain tumor, but just like most little boys, he has an interest in WWE wrestling. So, as a gift for the young boy, his parents wanted to buy him a WWE wrestling belt and got in contact with the one who designs them to make one for him so it would be as authentic as possible. Designer Sergio Moreira had the belt made free of charge and then shipped it to the residence of young Timmy but before he had a chance to see it, the belt was stolen from their front doorstep by thieves. Naturally, the media caught wind of the story and began to try and help the young man regain his belt. Eventually, the thieves saw the story on the news and felt bad for what they had done to the little boy and decided to return the belt to the family.
The very first sentence of the article begins with how serious the condition of little Timmy is and what the thieves had done. Using pathos in both the headline of the article and of the very first sentence applying to the human sense of pity trying to make the audience feel bad for the little boy. The headline is a well thought out one that will draw readers to it because of how it is worded, which is how it got me to look at it as well. Closing out the article as well with the thieves returning the article because of how they bad they felt further attempting to tug at the heartstrings of the people. Emotion can easily be applied to many things that are written as it helps get attention to things with just how they word the title.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/29/us/thieves-return-boys-wrestling-belt-trnd/index.html
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The article I have chosen only contains a title and a photo. The photo is of the blue ranger from the series “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” behind a podium with a microphone. The title reads “Tim Ryan Attempting To Stand Out From Other Candidates On Debate Stage By Wearing Blue Power Ranger Costume.”
Besides the fact that this article comes from The Onion, this is an obvious fallacy featuring an unsupported claim. The article claims that Tim Ryan dressed up as a power ranger for his democratic debate to gain more recognition. This claim can easily be proven false through video evidence of the debate. This seems to be a flaccid attempted at click bait to gain revenue for their page. Although I’m very sure it worked for them to some extent, anyone that saw this would seriously question if this actually happened. My only fear coming from seeing this article is that since the source looks very official it could potentially make people believe that it actually happened and without looking for a second source to verify their information they could be left with this misinformation. The also appear to try to back up their claim with the photo they put with the title, but anyone or anything could be in that suit, and it was more than likely photo shopped over an actual candidate to seem more real. This just shows more and more that you cant believe anything on the internet unless you have multiple credible sources backing up the claim being made.
https://politics.theonion.com/tim-ryan-attempting-to-stand-out-from-other-candidates-1835870204
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If Genders Roles Were Reversed- Men Acted Like Women and Women acted Like Men:
The video starts of with 2 construction workers, the ladies, hollering at a guy walking past them, and one of the ladies yelling some explicit things to him while he walks past. The next scene is where they’re comparing how guys are in the car vs girls in the car. The guys are talking about how he should just move on and how they are going to go the club and dance the night away. While in the other car with the girls, they are talking about how they are going to get so much dudes. The next scene is where girl rappers wants to have guys twerking and shaking their butt for the music video. The scene that caught my attention was the one where the girl takes a picture of her junk and sends it to a guy because he liked her picture on Instagram. This video has a lot more role reversals, but we are going to focus on these for now.
One fallacy I saw in the video is the one where they are in the car talking. It is the part where the girls are talking about how they are going to go the club and how they are going to do all these to women. I believe they do not actually to that kind of stuff when they go out in public, I am hoping they do not do that. The ethos that I see in this video is that they used real examples and scenes of how roles are like, especially the scene where the rappers want girls to twerk in their music videos.
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This article written in 2014 by author Brain Clark Howard he talks about the conversation of marine life and restricted fishing areas. Due to the fact that so many tunas aren’t completing their full migration due to too many fishermen controlling the migration. Making it harder on the tuna industry and ocean conservators to allow for a check and balance system. With the industry’s wanting money and the conservators wanting peace this is a little bias and hard to pick a side. Described By Clark “President Obama’s proposal in June to expand a marine sanctuary around seven U.S. controlled islands. In the central Pacific Ocean drew immediate praise from scientists and conservationists, but has since sparked opposition from representatives of the tuna industry, including fishermen in Hawaii who say it would threaten their livelihood”.
So the bias would be if we do something about the tuna what side do we do? Do we do the industry side to make money off the fish or do we conserve the majestic tuna migration across 45,000 miles (Clark). I agree that we need to conserve them because we are degrading them at an alarming rate since 2014 till now 2019 the population of tuna has fallen 57% (Clark). I support this argument because tuna can always be produced in factories meaning we wouldn’t have to keep catching the for sport and money we may let them thrive in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans freely. Ethos was used playing with the cultivating side of things while a lot of Logos was used in here.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/09/140920-pacific-remote-islands-marine-monument-ocean-conservation/
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“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years” Mark Twain. In this quote, Mark is saying that when he was a boy, he thought his father was ignorant or uneducated. With self-centered thinking, he did not his father to be around him because he did not want to head anything other than what h already know or believe that he is correct about it. I agree with this because I believe that no one knows everything about anything. When we choose not to hear something about an area we think we know about, how would we know if maybe we are right or wrong? Or have more idea about a section we are not educated. I choose this and this also related to our class because we are in a critical thinking class and this what critical thinking about. And if we listen to all points of view rather than sitting with our own thoughts, we can listen, investigate find facts and analyze, we can become more knowledgable and educated.
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During the week President Trump send out a tweet responding to a vid that went viral. From US Women Soccer player Megan Rapinoe which there at France for the Women World Cup. Someone ask her if she was going to go to the white house which Megan responded by “I’m not going to the fucking White House…” which the President didn’t like he rapidly responded her on twitter “Other than the NBA, which now refuses to call owners, owners (please explain that I just got Criminal Justice Reform passed, Black unemployment is at the lowest level…” and “, but Megan should WIN first before she TALKS! Finish the job! We haven’t yet….” which twitter blew up and responded what’s black unemployment go to do with her respond also it was all locker room talk since the question was of screen. It was funny because US won 2-0 against France and Megan was the one who score the 2 goals. The US are going to semi finals hope they win prove the president wrong.
Which this tweet relate to our lecture is that The President his ethos and logos was showed. By responding quickly to Megan for not going to the white house and throwing black unemployment in his tweet which doesn’t make since Megan is white. Also, since US Women soccer are representing their country, they don’t have owners. I think his respond offended a lot since she was a woman and the president doesn’t like when women respond back we could see he attacks female congress.
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Journalistic Freedom Abroad
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who was famously contacted by Edward Snowden to publish his leaks, has been caught up in a frenzy in his resident country of Brazil, where he lives with his husband and children. It began after Greenwald’s own news organization known as The Intercept published a series of documents exposing an illegal collaboration between Brazilian prosecutors and Judge Sergio Moro to frame and jail the incumbent president, and leading candidate, to clear the way for the now controversial President Bolsonaro.
The storm following these leaks has been fascinating and terrifying all together. Journalists who worked on the story have been receiving non-stop anonymous death threats and threats of jail by Brazilian politicians. Greenwald, who is married to Brazilian and has Brazilian children, is now facing a campaign from politicians and citizens to expel him from the country or jail him for the controversial story.
In this recent series of tweets, Glenn Greenwald argues for maintaining press freedom in Brazil and for journalists to be able to freely report without fear of harassment, jail time, or even death. In the series of tweets he includes a tweet from the Committee to Protect Journalists, an organization devoted to worldwide press freedoms, which offers support for Greenwald’s cause.
Greenwald’s argument here is rooted in logos, as he is simply doing his job as a journalist and responsibly reporting and exposing corruption in the Brazilian government. The main bias is that Greenwald himself is facing these threats, and obviously he has interest in maintaining his freedom as a journalist. Similar arguments that were made against his Edward Snowden story could also be made here, in that the publishing of secret documents is, by the government’s definition, illegal or unethical. The argument in his support is a simple reference to one of the many times journalists have exposed corruption through the release of private and secret documents and how these exposures are in the best interest of society (see: The Panama Papers, Watergate, Collateral Murder, etc). In the end, I believe press freedom is incredibly important and the threats currently being made to Greenwald and his team of journalists are terrifying and may potentially set awful precedents for Brazilian journalists in the future.
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Relationship therapist Esther Perel examines why people cheat. Esther Perel discusses why affairs are traumatic and deliver her experience as a relationship therapist on what both the cheater and cheated experience. She conveys how in infidelity, she sees something unexpected which is an expression of longing and loss. She also discusses the possible outcomes of the couple that goes to therapy after an affair and how society’s view of a relationship and infidelity has changed over the course of time. Throughout her talk, Esther Perel also highlights how infidelity can be the best thing to happen to a relationship as it shows the couple/ former couple why the relationship failed. This can be used to improve or move on from the failed relationship.
When discussing infidelity the most common response to them is to leave the partner that has committed the infidelity. Staying with the partner is often shamed upon. The phrase that comes to mind is “once a cheater always a cheater”. Esther Perel argument towards this as a relationship therapist is that the answer is not always as clear nor is it ever as easy as to say that phrase. The argument that Esther Perel makes is that cheating is more complex than people think about and that there is a possibility for a new relationship to form between the couple that has gone through the emotional trauma of betrayal. She conveys her argument with ethos and logos as she is a relationship therapist and has a degree in this field which gives her credibility to her audience. Her logic on why cheating is more complex is based on social norms that have changed throughout the centuries. Along with how most of the cases as a therapist that she has dealt with, is that the cheater cheats not only or not solely because there is something missing in the relationship but something missing in the person that committed the infidelity. Her appeal to emotion in her argument are including detailed examples of people she has used in her research (changing their names of course) in order to get her audience to see her perspective on the matter more easily and to relate with her audience as well. Her argument takes into account both the perspectives of the person who has committed the infidelity and the person who was cheated on along with the social construct of relationships and their history. The bias I can see with this topic is that as she is a relationship therapist and because cheating is stigmatized this information is not well researched or limited so her findings although supported by her work are limited as well. As many who encounter cheating at least once in their lives, I do agree that cheating is more complex than most people see. I also agree that the way relationships are viewed aren’t well researched along with that cheating is emotional trauma. What I do not know if I agree upon is whether there can be a successful relationship after infidelity with the help of counseling. That I do believe is situational. Overall, her argument on infidelity is convincing and informative.
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On social media I came across a tweet that had a young girl Caucasian girl under the age of twenty-one on the cover of a cannabis magazine stating she is “the youngest CEO in Cannabis”. Rylie Meadler is her name and she is thirteen years old. in the tweet there are two pictures and the second one is an African American teens mug shot for getting caught with marijuana. The side by side is showing how different white and black still get treated. It is showing how a young white girl is getting positive attention for liking marijuana yet a young black boy is seen as a criminal and all we see of him is a mug shot while the girl gets a whole photoshoot.
This whole situation annoys me because so many young black boys are in jail for this situation and they are allowing a thirteen year old girl to promote it. It is showing how by simply being white you get more privileges and positive feedback rather than spending a lifetime in jail. Racism and stereotypes are still a major issue in our world and something I see all time. This was just one of the many articles I have seen proving our world still needs improvement on equality. This relates to our class because we talk a lot about these issues as well as ethos, pathos and logos and I believe this issue is all about pathos and everyone’s different feelings and emotions towards it. If it was a black girl or boy promoting this it would not have the same impact as a white girl, everyone would see the black girl as a criminal.
Link:
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Audra Bear is a twenty five year old woman from Minneapolis. She has recently began the practice of ‘breatharianism’ and ‘prana’. This is apparently the practice of receiving energy from breathing. Prana is described by her as a type of energy received when we inhale oxygen. For the past year now has been practicing the art of breatharianism. Before she began this she was described as a hardcore vegan. She now only eats vegetables as well as smoothies. She has seen a nutritional doctor who has advised her against this because although she is losing weight, she is also causing long term harm to her body.
While audra is succeeding in losing weight as she wanted, I don’t believe that she is actually doing the right thing here. She provides no evidence to which Prana actually exists, merely her opinion. I presume that she is doing this as a form of attention seeking and body improvement. The long term damage this will cause to her body by only eating from one food group will be extreme. This article is a sign of ethos, what is morally right and wrong. She is starving herself in a new way as a form of attention. While she claims to ‘feel better’ and still have energy, this effect will most likely only be temporary as she is not receiving the base amount of protein and other food groups someone needs to stay classified as healthy.
http://www.ladbible.com/community/weird-woman-claims-she-no-longer-needs-solid-food-because-of-breatharianism-20190627
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“Remembering Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, 10 years after his death”
Ten years ago, Nick Adenhart was killed by a drunk driver on April 9, 2009 at the age of twenty-two. Adenhart driver “was broadsided by a minivan a few miles north of Angel Stadium shortly after midnight” (Digiovanna, 6). Adenhart was the pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels; he was from Williamsport, Md. He was a lean-and-lanky 6-foot-3, 185-pound right-hander. In 2009 on the night he died him and a group of friends were on their way to a club to celebrate Adenharts debut, they were “struck by a Toyota Sienna that blew through a red light at 65 mph at the intersection of Orangethorpe Avenue and Lemon Street.” (Digovanna, 8). From the start majority of Adenhart’s teammates knew that he had so much potential and would have been a great starter for years; that he “had the stuff and mental makeup to flourish as a big league starter for a decade or more.” (Digiovanna, 3). Adenhart had “lightning in an arm that produced 94-mph fastballs and sharp overhand curves” (Digiovanna, 1).
It was obvious that Adenhart was taken too soon, and he is incredibly missed. He had such a bright future ahead of him that even his teammates thought that he could have won a Cy Young Award. This article appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos. Pathos for the emotion that it brings you reading this, the sadness that you feel not only for him dying at such a young age, but also for his family. Logos for all the facts that Mike Digiovanna gives you about Nick Adenhart; not just facts about how he passed, but facts about who he was and where he grew up. Lastly, ethos from coming from a big city journal.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/la-sp-nick-adenhart-angels-death-20190408-story.html
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“Remembering Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, 10 years after his death”
Ten years ago, Nick Adenhart was killed by a drunk driver on April 9, 2009 at the age of twenty-two. Adenhart driver “was broadsided by a minivan a few miles north of Angel Stadium shortly after midnight” (Digiovanna, 6). Adenhart was the pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels; he was from Williamsport, Md. He was a lean-and-lanky 6-foot-3, 185-pound right-hander. In 2009 on the night he died him and a group of friends were on their way to a club to celebrate Adenharts debut, they were “struck by a Toyota Sienna that blew through a red light at 65 mph at the intersection of Orangethorpe Avenue and Lemon Street.” (Digovanna, 8). From the start majority of Adenhart’s teammates knew that he had so much potential and would have been a great starter for years; that he “had the stuff and mental makeup to flourish as a big league starter for a decade or more.” (Digiovanna, 3). Adenhart had “lightning in an arm that produced 94-mph fastballs and sharp overhand curves” (Digiovanna, 1).
It was obvious that Adenhart was taken too soon, and he is incredibly missed. He had such a bright future ahead of him that even his teammates thought that he could have won a Cy Young Award. This article appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos. Pathos for the emotion that it brings you reading this, the sadness that you feel not only for him dying at such a young age, but also for his family. Logos for all the facts that Mike Digiovanna gives you about Nick Adenhart; not just facts about how he passed, but facts about who he was and where he grew up. Lastly, ethos from coming from a big city journal.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/la-sp-nick-adenhart-angels-death-20190408-story.html
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In the article “Astronomers Have Analyzed Claims ‘Oumua’s an Alien Ship, And Its Not Loolking Good,”Published by the cite sciencealert.com covers claims of an unidentified object in space being an alien craft. This object was discovered by Canadian physicist and astronomer Robert Weryk using a te;telescope at Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii on October 19, 2017. It was a relatively small object that has been described as “cigar shaped” in nature. It was also moving at such a speed where it could not be captured into the Sun’s orbit. This means that interstellar space was were it would be destined to return. This abnormal shape and trajectory were two of the biggest reasons that had many scientist scratching their heads at first. So much so, that a whole international team was developed solely to focus on research and inquiry on the mysterious space object.
Overall I think this is a well thought out article with great objective points of view and relevant information. Needless to say, this article relies heavily on logos. Logos being the the logical aspect of connecting with the . Using past and current information to describe the position of the general census. I’ve always been a proponent of other “intelligent” life existing in the universe, and that’s a big reason of why I tend to view articles like these from time to time. And there’s a moment in this article that speaks to the natural wanting-ness to find the next evidence of intelligent life. This moment occurred when the author quoted an article published in Nature Astronomy, that states “We have never seen anything like ‘Oumuamua in our solar system. Its really a mystery still…” I my opinion this appeals to two aspects of rhetoric. It appeals to ethos because they’re using other sources to make their information seem more credible. It also appeals to pathos to the fact that since they’re still willing to except that human side of the argument. That side being the fact that we as humans dont know everything and still have a lot of work to do.
https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-have-determined-oumuamua-is-really-truly-not-an-alien-lightsail
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This is an Instagram account by Kody Antle. He is part of an organization called Environmental Conservation Organization. Its purpose is to care for wildlife, to prevent from certain animals from possibly going instinct, and also educate their visitors. This image shown below posted by Kody Antle is a picture of a chimpanzee with his/hers arm around a dog. The caption for this post says “Apes best friend” with a dog and monkey face emoji at the end of the caption. The first reaction I got to this post was to smile because it is two completely different types of animals who get along. These are beautiful animals who some people may call aggressive or dangerous. This is just a heartwarming photograph to look at, and is very unique in its own way.
Kody Antle in this image, I believe used the appeal of pathos to grab the viewers’ attention. It is not normal to see a dog and a chimpanzee together who are friends. This image brings happiness and hope, because it shows that literally anyone can get alone no matter who or what they are. There is a comment below this picture saying “Such a special moment caught on camera”. I agree with what the comment says because pictures like these bring joy to people. This post and comments below have no negativity shown from what I was able to see, and it is all about friendships and with a positive environment.
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Kim Kardashian just launched a new clothing line called ‘Kimono’ which is a shape wear and lingerie clothing line. So why is everyone on social media so outraged? This specific twitter post explains how strong culture appropriation can be and how we fall victims to oblivion. The post appeals to emotion and has both ethos, pathos and logos as well. Yuka, the woman who made the tweet, explains how Kim’s clothing line is culture appropriation. She uses emotion when explaining that her culture is diluted by names of brands that do not have anything to do with what Kimonos actually represents and the fact that Kims line is being trade-marketed is even more upsetting. Yuka then uses sources by posting facts and pictures, along with stories and experiences underneath the post to educate others about Kimonos and how it is a traditional garment for her culture and not spandex/lingerie or flimsy material. Yuka then explains that Kimonos are honorable. Kimonos are to be worn to “celebrate health and growth of children, coming of age, celebrating engagements and marriages, graduations, at funerals. It’s celebratory wear, and has significance to Japanese culture” and it is not used for celebrities purpose, making money off of them. As I read more about it, I realized how problematic this actually was. Something that I have, unfortunately, never took into consideration before. Her emotions and frustration lured me in and I felt for her, trying to put myself in her shoes and understand where she is coming from and why her argument is so important. We’ve all had some sort of relation to her argument in some, way shape or form. So this got me to understand along with the credibility other viewers had provided her as they commented facts as well. All siding with her and the facts that she provided, and re-posting for awareness since this is something that is apart of her culture. She even petitioned “KimOhNo” along with others and resulted into Kim Kardashian changing the name of her clothing line. With all support given, I agree with this argument as well.
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