So Extra It Isn't Worth Credit

**Done for extra credit**

If I had to boil all I’ve learned about rhetoric this semester down into a single sentence it would probably be, “Rhetoric is when you do something and someone reacts to it.” Where’s my doctorate? (That was a joke please don’t kill my grade.) Even if you did, this would be the extra credit assignment that you would remember as quirky and vaguely meta in an annoyingly contrived way, for a comparatively longer duration than the others; bottom line is that this rhetoric is the freshest, dankest, 👌est, rhetoric you’ve seen all semester.

(Here we see Chris using post-ironic internet based

(humor to accentuate a contemporary digital aesthetic

[Here we see a desperate attempt at uniqueness

[and a characteristic over-doing of what was a little

[entertaining but now has really just gotten out of hand

{Is he still doing this? 4th wall?

You think you could give me extra points if I called all this unnecessary formatting rhetorical style?

I volunteered for the Out of the Darkness march this passed Sunday (April 23rd). It was all quite traditional, it was an direct action but fit quite nicely into the channels of discourse of established power. People were getting contributions for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, ostensibly through $/mile contracts with people they know. It was very productive, I heard quite a lot of money was raised which is going into research, education, and advocacy, and there was quite a large turnout.

All that conventional direct action had got me thinking, why not protest the system the way the system wants you to? In a stroke of true genius, I realized, the answer is invariably, always somewhere in the middle. Finally, I had seen the light. That compromise was a panacea. That the established channels of discourse are the only acceptable vehicle of change. The white moderate within me shone through, shattering any semblance of 👀ness.

(There he goes again with that contemporary digital aesthetic

[Wow, truly incredible, his incorporation of facetiousness

[Really draws the whole piece together, nice juxtaposition

{This is either the best blog post I’ve seen or the worst.

It’s the worst.

{At this point it’s just getting tedious.

I’m the worst.

Speaking of things which are the worst, power structures. But that’s just a concept really, what the problem is is tyrannical and oppressive power structures, so most of them. While acknowledging that they suck, it’s interesting to look at the dynamic that power structures have on rhetoric. That the extent of rejection, time, and size of the impacted community have a profound impact on the types of rhetorical tactics used. The longer, harsher, and larger the community, the more abrasive the rhetorical response. I realized that since the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is close to the locus of power, based on agreement from both sides that action of some kind is necessary it uses uncontroversial tactics. It isn’t, and rightly so, an issue subject to partisanship. Voting against suicide prevention is a dick move. Thus the rhetorical response is mild, calm and confined to convention.