While reading these last couple articles, did you find yourself being persuaded to follow a view you didn't believe before? Braithwaite and Rifkin both wrote hard-hitting, well backed editorials on the subject of animal rights. They did their research, they made their opinions, and you know damn well you believed them during at least one point in their article. Why? Because they are well respected scientists with a place of position.
ETHOS, PATHOS, LOGOS. Whether or not you believe that animals deserve rights or have feelings or whatever, they hit you with a great pity story (pathos), coaxing language (ethos), and straight up facts (logos). All three of these aspects allowed these authors to develop and introduce an opinion in totally effective ways.
I disagree with majority of the points they bring up such as the ideas that animals deserve rights, we should stop hunting, and even eating meat. The arguments that Braithwaite and Rifkin write, however, are so ridiculously backed and nonetheless true that it makes it hard to ignore or even go against because they are CREDIBLE writers.
This leads me to my last point. How credible are you? How credible am I? This unit focuses on our pathos, logos, and ethos. We are here trying to build credibility as writers, but all I've read on the different blogs is about how we shouldn't eat fish because they have feelings and how animals are our friends. But lets be real: the majority of you eat meat, you eat eggs, you use lotion that is "tested on rabbits", you visit the zoo, love the aquarium. Aren't all these things we supposedly "go against"? You can't advocate one cause while unknowingly supporting the same thing you are voicing against. Not to bash on anyone, seriously, but this discredits you as a writer. It disables you from forming a strong opinion. Where is your ethos, logos, and pathos?
I agree with you totally here. To be a hypocrite is to crush your chances at being a credible writer. I even had to check all my posts before I wrote this to be sure I wasn't doing the exact same thing you were talking about. I have been on this blog for about an hour now trying to comment on numerous peoples' posts without typing a page about what I think to be true and so far I haven't written anything. And while I've been online, I have seen numerous people stating that fish need rights and to stop killing them, yet there is only one person who has posted that has acknowledged that they are vegetarian, and they are in a totally different class than ours. I think in order for people to be credible writers, they really need to believe in what they write, rather than just having an opinion. Opinions can change, but if you really believe in something then you will be able to stand by it steadfastly and live according to what values you say you have.
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