Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Trump's Use of Fear in Order to Quell Fear

Presidential Candidate Donald Trump is all but soft-spoken on the topic of immigration in the US. In an interview in November 2015, Trump was asked what his plan for immigration reform would be if he were to be elected president. Trump responded that there was a need for total reform on the topic of immigration, and attempted to persuade his audience to agree to his radical ideas. Even before he answered the question, Trump began by citing some recent horrific events that have been perpetrated by "illegal immigrants". He first explains the story of an illegal immigrant who "just kept running over" a police officer with his car. He then goes on to talk about another case, one in which a woman was kidnapped, raped, and killed by an immigrant. By beginning with these two cases, and telling the audience that "incidents like this occur every day", he appeals to the listeners' pathos. He makes the audience feel scared and unsafe by telling him these things, which effectively sets him up to give his audience a "solution" to the problem he has just created. These statements also establish exigence, because he is presenting the threat as immediate and domestic, which makes the listener feel threatened and vulnerable.


Later on in the speech, Trump continues to appeal to pathos as he is explaining his plan to "build a wall" around the Unites States in order to keep out illegal immigrants. As he is laying out his plan, he continuously repeats the word "illegal", enforcing the idea that these immigrants should not be here and should be thrown out of the country. This appeals to his audience's pathos in the form of anger. By reinforcing the claim that immigrants do not belong in America, Trump makes his audience feel angry at the "unfairness" that is present in America. Through many appeals to pathos, Trump successfully persuades his audience to support his ideas.

4 comments:

  1. I like how you said that even before he answered the question, Trump attempted to put illegal immigrants in a bad light. I sometimes think that candidates often do not even answer the questions they are given, but instead manipulate them to get a certain point across. I know a lot of people say Hillary goes on long tangents in debates without even answering the questions she is asked. Maybe that is how Trump and Hillary relate. Great post, I think that the invocation of fear is one of the most powerful weapons of manipulation that a candidate can use. Do you agree?

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  2. I watched the attached video and I like how Trump immediately begins his answer with an ad hominem logical fallacy. It seems like every part of that interview was a logical fallacy; his list of examples of people who happened to be immigrants committing crimes leads him to the conclusion that all immigrants must be dangerous. The even further unreasonableness of his argument is that his grandparents were immigrants, as was/is most of the United States population!

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  3. From your analysis it seems that trump is the 'king of pathos' which Trump has seemed to prove time and time again over his campaign. It seems like Trump is only glossing over the issue and using pathos to highlight some few negative examples. Trump makes the issue seem monolithic and is almost glossing over an important issue that causes many families heartache and sadness.

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  4. I agree with what Eric mentioned about how Trump seems to gloss over the issues and merely point out extreme negatives in order to prove a point. In one of Trump's ads, the narrator does the same thing with the issue of terrorism-- he fails to elaborate on the problem at all, but manages to label all Islamic people as 'radical terrorists.' Although he doesn't make accurate and elaborate arguments, do you think Trump's method of simplifying and exaggerating things is successful in winning a crowd's support?

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