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Jared Pugh

Elliot Coyle

English 130W 

May 13th, 2020

Video games are seen as a fun way to spend, ranging from games about solving puzzles to more violent games like a first person shooter. Though it seems that these more violent video games are said to be a major cause of violent crimes in America. Violent video games are receiving blame for these kinds of acts even though these kinds of acts have existed for literal centuries before video games were even created. Violent video games are not the reason these detestable acts happen to thousands of innocent people, they’re being blamed because the older generations do not hold any sentiment or appreciation of violent video games due to their belief it is negatively impacting the younger generation, when it actually provides an escape or some form of comfort to people when life gets them down after a difficult time in their life or when they just wanna have some fun and relax by themself or their friends online.

Examples of violent video games that are being targeted for being too violent and causes for violent acts are generally the popular franchises of shooter or fighting games, like the Call of Duty franchise or the Mortal Combat franchise. Those types of video games are indeed violent, there is no denying that after someone sees a Mortal Combat finisher where a man is ripped in half by another man’s bare hands or cut in half by a sharp spinning bladed buzz-saw hat, but that alone 

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is not a cause for violent acts like a school shooting. When analyzing these types of violent acts over the years and their relation to video games an undeniable truth can be seen over the years, these types of acts have existed for millennias longer than video games have even been a concept.  Those violent acts were because of so many different reasons, some religious and some monetary, but none of them were because of violent video games. Violence is a part of human nature, and violent video games are a way to express those violent tendencies in a healthy way. Some even play violent video games to enhance their sexual attraction ( “Why do people play violent video games? Demographic, status-related, and mating-related correlates in men and women” ScienceDirect Journals). 

Video games are seen as distractions and unnecessary by many people that consist of the older generation for the amount of time they waste when compared to how previous generations spent their time growing up, which may be why violent video games are being blamed for violent acts. Although, some think that video games, including the violent ones, are actually helpful for teaching people in several different ways. The air force has been using flight simulators for years to help their pilots train without the risk of crashing the million dollar jet and harming the pilot, even using combat simulators that are designed to accurately depict what a battlefield is like to train soldiers before they even have to step out onto a simulated battlefield to train in defending our country. Even regular teachers use video games to teach kids several different kinds of lessons, a prime example being a lesson on circular motion to kids by having them play angry birds space, a game that has the birds circle around planets to represent gravitational forces (“Effects of 

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commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts” ScienceDirect Journals). If schools across not only America but other countries like Europe and , military across the world, and other institutions, such as psychological study institutions, are using video games to help teach people then is it their fault that these violent acts keep happening, no. Video games can help kids learn all sorts of things, even violent games. In most forms of violent games, the game tries to convey the message that the character kills in order to protect themself or people from getting harmed or worse to the player so as not deem that kind of violence truly necessary or even condoned in the real world (“Video games: parents’ perceptions, role of social media and effects on behavior” New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc.). 

People are rightfully scared for their lives and each other, they want to prevent this kind of violent tragedy from happening ever again. Who can blame them, no one wants to see this form of tragedy ever again, especially since the events seem to be getting worse after each attack. People started to look for ways to prevent this kind of chaos, a cause for these violent acts that people would believe in. So people looked towards the most violent thing they could think that they believed could be a significant cause of motivation to the shooters, violent video games. Games where the characters brutally kill their opponents with as much blood and gore as possible for the scenario, or games that give an accurate simulation of war that is too close for comfort for some people. A lot of people saw these things in some of these games and honestly believed that these are what led the shooters down the path of violence and destruction., and why wouldn’t they. Humanity needs a reason to explain things, like how they needed to explain phenomena that some

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 believed as magic over the years, because if humanity can not explain why acts such as these happen in the world not only in order to prevent this kind of tragedy again but also to prove that people did these kinds of acts just because they were evil.

There are several “tells”, psychological tells that can represented in many ways ranging from a person’s behavior or from a minor facial expression that lasts for a second, that can be associated with a possible school shooter; the most common being that the possible shooter is a male that has been bullied by their peers due to them being socially awkward (“Profiling” School Shooters, Can we tell who will be the next to kill?” Psychology Today). These traits have been noticed to be similar to the stereotypical male nerd that sits in his room and plays violent video games instead of hanging out with people his age, so people naturally connect things together from the profiles of past school shooters and the general image of a male gamer and came to the conclusion that the violent video games were the cause a major cause of these violent acts while profiling those types of people as possibly violent individuals which further alienates them from others which gives into the stereotype even more thus creating a cycle. What they don’t realize is that times have changed over the years, as the typical gamer stereotype has been shattered over the years, specifically after the increase in popularity towards streaming and video websites on the internet like the websites Youtube and Twitch. When people ask if a psychological study can be performed in regards to this topic this was stated by the National Center of Health Research, the forefront of research in regards to both mental health and physical health in the american populace, that a study in regards to violent video games increasing the chances of latent delinquency and

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lethal actions in the younger generations of America would have no evidence to show that is the case (“Violent Video Games and Aggression” National Center for Health Research). A platform where people become famous playing violent video games, and other video games that aren’t as violent. These people are influencing many occupants of the younger generation, getting “cool kids” to play the same video games that the losers once played. With the stereotype broken, there is little connection between violent video games and school shootings, let alone mass shootings like Las Vegas at the end 2017.

Violent video games are simply video games with a bit more blood and gore that can be expressed in a graphic manner compared to other video games that people play, nothing more and most certainly nothing less. Some people play video games so that they can feel more in tune with society and other people, some people play video games as a way to teach themselves or others important lessons and actual scientific facts, or people play them to get away from all the tragedies of the world that are being sent their way. Video games are not a cause for violent acts in America, video games are simply a fun way to spend one’s time when you have nothing else to do or when you want to play with your friends online. They bring people together, not cause rifts between people with violent acts of desperation and rage. Violent video games are a negative influence to the younger generation, they are simply another form of entertainment that any person can participate in so that they could have an enjoyable time away from everything else that they could be worrying about about their life that they know can be or needs to be solved at a later time.

Annotated Works Cited

Kasumovic, Michael M.; Blake, Khandis; Dixson, Barnaby J.; Denson, Thomas F.

“Why do people play violent video games? Demographic, status-related, and mating-related correlates in men and women” ScienceDirect Journals (2015) Web. 16 April 2020.

Sun, Chuen-Tsai; Ye, Shu-Hao; Wang, Yu-Ju. “Effects of commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts” ScienceDirect Journals (2015) Web. 16 April 2020.

Graham, Jeffrey. “Video games: parents’ perceptions, role of social media and effects on behavior” New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 2014 Web. 16 April 2020.

Everly Jr., George; Bienvenu, Joseph. “Profiling” School Shooters, Can we tell who will be the next to kill?” Psychology Today (March 29th, 2018) Web. 16 April 2020.
Goldbeck, Lauren;  Pew, Alex.  “Violent Video Games and Aggression” National Center for Health Research (No date of published) Web. 16 April 2020.

Pugh 1

Jared Pugh

Elliot Coyle

English 130W 

April 20th, 2020

Are Video Games to Blame

Video games are seen as a fun way to spend, ranging from games about solving puzzles to more violent games like a first person shooter. Though it seems that these more violent video games are said to be a major cause of violent crimes in America. Violent video games are receiving blame for these kinds of acts even though these kinds of acts have existed for literal centuries before video games were even created. Violent video games are not the reason these acts happen, they’re being blamed because the older generations do not like them due to their belief it is negatively the younger generation., when it actually provides an escape or some form of comfort to people when life gets them down or when they just wanna have some fun.

Examples of violent video games that are being targeted for being too violent and causes for violent acts are generally the popular franchises of shooter or fighting games, like the Call of Duty franchise or the Mortal Combat franchise. Those types of video games are indeed violent, there is no denying that after someone sees a Mortal Combat finisher where a man is ripped in half by another man’s bare hands, but that alone is not a cause for violent acts like a school shooting. When analyzing these types of violent acts over the years and their relation to video games an undeniable truth can be seen over the years, these types of acts have existed for millennias longer than video games have even been a concept.  Those violent acts were because of so many different 

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reasons, some religious and some monetary, but none of them were because of violent video games. Violence is a part of human nature, and violent video games are a way to express those violent tendencies in a healthy way. Some even play violent video games to enhance their sexual attraction ( “Why do people play violent video games? Demographic, status-related, and mating-related correlates in men and women” ScienceDirect Journals). 

Video games are seen as distractions and unnecessary by many people that consist of the older generation, which may be why violent video games are being blamed for violent acts. Although, some think that video games, including the violent ones, are actually helpful for teaching people in several different ways. The air force has been using flight simulators for years to help their pilots train without the risk of crashing the jet and harming the pilot. Even regular teachers use video games to teach kids several different kinds of lessons, an example being a lesson on circular motion to kids by having them play angry birds space, a game that has the birds circle around planets to represent gravitational forces (“Effects of commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts” ScienceDirect Journals). If schools, military, and other institutions are using video games to help teach people then is it their fault that these violent acts keep happening, no. Video games can help kids learn all sorts of things, even violent games. In most forms of violent games, the game tries to tell the player that the character kills in order to protect themself or people from getting harmed or worse (“Video games: parents’ perceptions, role of social media and effects on behavior” New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc.). 

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People are scared, they want to prevent this kind of violent tragedy from happening ever again. Who can blame them, no one wants to see this form of tragedy ever again, especially since the events seem to be getting worse after each attack. People started to look for ways to prevent this kind of chaos, a cause for these violent acts that people would believe in. So people looked towards the most violent thing they could think that they believed could be a significant cause of motivation to the shooters, violent video games. Games where the characters brutally kill their opponents with as much blood and gore as possible for the scenario, or games that give an accurate simulation of war that is too close for comfort for some people. A lot of people saw these things in some of these games and honestly believed that these are what led the shooters down the path of violence and destruction. There are several “tells” that can be associated with a possible school shooter, the most common being that the possible shooter is a male that has been bullied due to them being socially awkward (“Profiling” School Shooters, Can we tell who will be the next to kill?” Psychology Today). These traits have been noticed to be similar to the stereotypical male nerd that sits in his room and plays violent video games instead of hanging out with people, so people naturally connect things together from the profiles of past school shooters and the general image of a male gamer and came to the conclusion that the violent video games were the cause a major cause of these violent acts. What they don’t realize is that times have changed over the years, as the typical gamer stereotype has been shattered over the years, specifically after the increase in popularity towards youtube and twitch. A platform where people become famous playing violent video games, and other video games that aren’t as violent. These people are influencing many occupants of the younger generation, getting “cool kids” to play the same video games that the 

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losers once played. With the stereotype broken, there is little connection between violent video games and school shootings, let alone mass shootings like Las Vegas a few years ago. 

Annotated Works Cited

Kasumovic, Michael M.; Blake, Khandis; Dixson, Barnaby J.; Denson, Thomas F.

“Why do people play violent video games? Demographic, status-related, and mating-related correlates in men and women” ScienceDirect Journals (2015) Web. 16 April 2020.

Sun, Chuen-Tsai; Ye, Shu-Hao; Wang, Yu-Ju. “Effects of commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts” ScienceDirect Journals (2015) Web. 16 April 2020.

Graham, Jeffrey. “Video games: parents’ perceptions, role of social media and effects on behavior” New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 2014 Web. 16 April 2020.

Everly Jr., George; Bienvenu, Joseph. “Profiling” School Shooters, Can we tell who will be the next to kill?” Psychology Today (March 29th, 2018) Web. 16 April 2020.
Goldbeck, Lauren;  Pew, Alex.  “Violent Video Games and Aggression” National Center for Health Research (No date of published) Web. 16 April 2020.

(Rough Draft)

Pugh 1

Jared Pugh

Elliot Coyle

English 130W 

April 20th, 2020

Are Video Games to Blame

Video games are seen as a fun way to spend, ranging from games about solving puzzles to more violent games like a first person shooter. Though it seems that these more violent video games are said to be a major cause of violent crimes in America. Violent video games are receiving blame for these kinds of acts even though these kinds of acts have existed for literal centuries before video games were even created. Violent video games are not the reason these acts happen, they’re being blamed because the older generations do not like them due to their belief it is negatively the younger generation., when it actually provides an escape or some form of comfort to people when life gets them down or when they just wanna have some fun.

Examples of violent video games that are being targeted for being too violent and causes for violent acts are generally the popular franchises of shooter or fighting games, like the Call of Duty franchise or the Mortal Combat franchise. Those types of video games are indeed violent, there is no denying that after someone sees a Mortal Combat finisher where a man is ripped in half by another man’s bare hands, but that alone is not a cause for violent acts like a school shooting. When analyzing these types of violent acts over the years and their relation to video games an undeniable truth can be seen over the years, these types of acts have existed for millennias longer than video games have even been a concept.  Those violent acts were because of so many different 

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reasons, some religious and some monetary, but none of them were because of violent video games. Violence is a part of human nature, and violent video games are a way to express those violent tendencies in a healthy way. Some even play violent video games to enhance their sexual attraction (Kasumovic, Michael M.; Blake, Khandis; Dixson, Barnaby J.; Denson, Thomas F. “Why do people play violent video games? Demographic, status-related, and mating-related correlates in men and women” ScienceDirect Journals). 

Video games are seen as distractions and unnecessary by many people that consist of the older generation, which may be why violent video games are being blamed for violent acts. Although, some think that video games, including the violent ones, are actually helpful for teaching people in several different ways. The air force has been using flight simulators for years to help their pilots train without the risk of crashing the jet and harming the pilot. Even regular teachers use video games to teach kids several different kinds of lessons, an example being a lesson on circular motion to kids by having them play angry birds space, a game that has the birds circle around planets to represent gravitational forces (Sun, Chuen-Tsai; Ye, Shu-Hao; Wang, Yu-Ju. “Effects of commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts” ScienceDirect Journals). If schools, military, and other institutions are using video games to help teach people then is it their fault that these violent acts keep happening, no. Video games can help kids learn all sorts of things, even violent games. In most forms of violent games, the game tries to tell the player that the character kills in order to protect themself or people from getting harmed or worse (Graham, Jeffery. “Video games: parents’ perceptions, role of social media and effects on behavior” New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc.).

Annotated Works Cited

Kasumovic, Michael M.; Blake, Khandis; Dixson, Barnaby J.; Denson, Thomas F.

“Why do people play violent video games? Demographic, status-related, and mating-related correlates in men and women” ScienceDirect Journals (2015) Web. 16 April 2020.

Sun, Chuen-Tsai; Ye, Shu-Hao; Wang, Yu-Ju. “Effects of commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts” ScienceDirect Journals (2015) Web. 16 April 2020.

Graham, Jeffrey. “Video games: parents’ perceptions, role of social media and effects on behavior” New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 2014 Web. 16 April 2020.

Everly Jr., George; Bienvenu, Joseph. “Profiling” School Shooters, Can we tell who will be the next to kill?” Psychology Today (March 29th, 2018) Web. 16 April 2020.
Goldbeck, Lauren;  Pew, Alex.  “Violent Video Games and Aggression” National Center for Health Research (No date of published) Web. 16 April 2020.

Jared Pugh

Eliot Coyle

English 130W

April 16th, 2020

First three articles are from the CSU library.

Kasumovic, Michael M.; Blake, Khandis; Dixson, Barnaby J.; Denson, Thomas F.

“Why do people play violent video games? Demographic, status-related, and mating-related correlates in men and women” ScienceDirect Journals (2015) Web. 16 April 2020.

Kasumovic, Blake, Dixson, and Denson are professors at various teaching institutes. They have written several papers on the effects of video games separately and while collaborating with other scholars. 

The authors discuss the possible negative and positive impacts of violent video games on both men and women. The article talks about the case study the authors conducted on 1000 men and a 1000 women. After they state their research and what they found, they go into what this means. From the research they gathered several factors, one being that people who played more violent video games felt that playing them enhanced their sexual attractiveness. These were one of the many bizarre results that were concluded from the study.

I plan to use the results of this paper to show why people play video games while simultaneously attempting to disprove the notion that video games cause violent behaviour. In regards to the disproving, I’ll reference the attraction part of the research in regards to why people play violent video games. I’ll also rely on the stress relieving dta that was found throughout the participants.

Sun, Chuen-Tsai; Ye, Shu-Hao; Wang, Yu-Ju. “Effects of commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts” ScienceDirect Journals (2015) Web. 16 April 2020.

Sun, Ye, and Wang  wrote a paper that discussed using video games as a teaching method instead of the usual lecture method based way of teaching. They discussed what games they would use and for what purpose those games would have in regards to what subject they would teach. They discussed and gave a few examples, like angry birds’ space in regards to a lesson in circular motion or possibly gravitational forces. They also went  into detail on games that were specifically programmed to teach kids subjects like math and english.

When using this paper for my own paper, I would heavily rely on the concept they are talking about in regards to video games being able to teach kids. This would be used to help dissuade the argument towards video games being the cause of violent acts in America. I would constantly rely on the fact that if video games were used to help teachers teach kids then is the problem truly reliant on the video game itself.

Graham, Jeffrey. “Video games: parents’ perceptions, role of social media and effects on behavior” New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 2014 Web. 16 April 2020.

Graham is a writer for the Nova Science Publishers. In his article, he discusses how video games aren’t exactly “uniform” in the lessons they teach their players. He goes on to discuss that violent video games generally have the characters commit violent acts in order to protect people from getting killed or worse. He gives examples from fighting monsters in Resident Evil or terrorists in Call of Duty.  He then dives into try to answer questions about video games’ effects on people, including the question “whether games can only teach antisocial lessons.”

I plan to use the answers and predictions Graham made about the question when making my claim in my paper. Focusing on the possibility that video games don’t teach people antisocial traits as much as some people claim they do is the entire purpose of my paper. By focusing on his research, I should be able to firmly prove the point I am try to make in my paper while simultaneously disproving those with counter arguments to my claim.

Everly Jr., George; Bienvenu, Joseph. “Profiling” School Shooters, Can we tell who will be the next to kill?” Psychology Today (March 29th, 2018) Web. 16 April 2020.

Everly Jr. wrote an article for Psychology Today that goes into the possible tells of a potential school shooter. He goes into detail on what can be observed from a potential shooter and what each of these signs might mean. Like for example, on how they would vent to social media or some other form of publicly showing their distress before a violent act. These tips are taken from several case studies over the years after tragedies.

When using this research I will go into how this evidence might correlate into video games. My goal is to emphasize how these signs have little to no correspondence to video games at all. In the end, I hope to create a convincing counter argument against the debate of video games being a key factor for these tragedies.

Goldbeck, Lauren;  Pew, Alex. “Violent Video Games and Aggression” National Center for Health Research (No date of published) Web. 16 April 2020.

Pew and Goldbeck discuss the possibility that violent video games cause violent tendencies in the people that play them. They specifically focus on aggression in people that play violent video games, and how that emotional response is increased by playing aggressive video games. It is to be noted that the evidence to prove these claims is lacking in terms of actual content or proof to support these claims. 

When writing my paper, I will focus on the lack of evidence that this article has to support its claims. This focus on lack of content is powerful considering it is from the National Center for Health Research. By using a combination, if it’s actually a thing, counter ethos and logos, I will attempt to debunk the entire debate against video games that is being made in this article. I of course will reference the fact that the article concludes that video games are not the only factor in aggression.

Jared Pugh

Elliot Coyle

English 130W 

April 2nd, 2020 

I will be one hundred percent honest, I hate arguments. I’m the kind guy who doesn’t really have opinions that need to be defended or argued. I just sit back while the others argue and follow the path that makes the most sense to me, regardless of what that path means to others. I’ll still do this assignment, but I’ll be very out of my ball park with this assignment. I’ll be arguing for a topic that relates to blaming video games for violent crimes in America, for the case of supporting the claim video games are not the concern for these crimes.

In this paper I will focus on how the blame for these violent acts in America were not at all the faults of violent video games. Several official claims that officials have stated that videogames as an underlying cause will be brought forth and examined. From there I will evaluate both possible motives that each transgressor, the one who committed the violent act, would have and evaluate how much violent video games actually have an impact on someone’s behaviour.

I will draw upon a few different psychological studies that analyze possible effects video games have on someone’s behavior, probably around three different cases or studies. Using the results of these studies/cases, I will evaluate around three different cases of a violent act that was blamed on video games. This will show, possibly, on what most likely was both going through a regular gamers head and compare it to what violent transgressors thoughts are theorized are.

For a counter argument, I will state the facts that supporters of the video games are at fault have. I will analyze their reasons while comparing them to facts that go against these claims, if that can be found. I will then attempt to break down these claims and counter the counter points with hard facts.

The coca-cola company is a corporation that is known to almost everyone in the entire world, with the exception possibly being third world countries, They make the extremely popular soda called Coca-Cola that can be served in either one of their on brand soda cans or their even more iconic glass bottle that is in literally every Coca-Cola commercial that has ever existed. Some people would state that the Coca-Cola company is the biggest drink related corporation in the world, and that is due to the fact that they have five different categories regarding their resources; Financial Capital, Physical Capital, Human Capital, Organizational Capital, and Brand Capital. 

The Coca-Cola Company is currently worth two hundred and thirty two billion dollars, making it one of the top most expensive corporations in the world. They make around thirty billion dollars a year, money that is then used to increase their production. With literal billions of dollars, the corporation could make nearly endless amounts of soda each year, which they do, and not have to worry about going broke in the slightest unless everyone stops buying their drinks. Even if people stopped buying Coca-Cola all at once for some reason, the corporation would still have enough money to produce their drinks for a least a year or two afterwards before they went bankrupt. The Coca-Cola corporation spends around twenty-five billion dollars a year on all their expenses to ensure a successful business year, the money being spent on production, advertising, and other necessary needs throughout the year.

Physical Capital is the amount of tools, machinery, and building that the Coca-Cola company owns. That includes a lot considering the Coca-Cola company owns around nine hundred factories world wide, with each factory having several hundreds different kinds of equipment and machines that are used in the making of their coveted drink. In terms of physical capital, the Coca-Cola company investments with their physical capital is nearly equal to the half of the company’s net worth.

The Coca-Cola company has eighty six thousand two hundred employees working for them as of the year 2019. These workers range from simple assembly line workers to the secretary of the CEO of the Coca-Cola company themself. Each employee is like any other employee for any other company in the world, they work the usual nine to five, or different hours for something like the night shift. Most employees do not earn as much as the top one percent of the company, but that is a sad truth that exists in most companies across the world.

Brand Capital, in terms of the Coca-Cola company, is simply the capital that is generated by the soda itself. This includes the revenue generated by the sales of the Coca-Cola soda and the ad campaign for their product, but also the soda itself. Coca-Cola is an iconic brand, its name is easy to associate for their drink among most people in the world. Their name holds more power than some celebrities’ names or even politicians. The Coca-Cola brand is one of their most important resources that they use at every opportunity they can use.

The first 70 pages of the book had a lot of different “main points” of the whole piece. I feel that the most important part relates to the whole “Make the best product” part of the text. The best product is a strange concept considering that the idea for the best  changes between each consumer of said each product. One person’s best may not be the same as another persons best. Some would say that the designer or maker of the products is the one who would make the decision that qualifies their product as the “best”. An impossible thing to since they themselves can not appease the entire consumer market with one product possibly being the “best” version of their kind of product.

The best example of “the best product” can be demonstrated  by swords, one warrior wants a sword that will let him one all of his battles while another samurai wants an unbreakable sword, two similar but different products. To the consumers, each of their requested swords are the “best” product in the market, a disagreement then forms between the two happens soon after that between the two swordsmen. They fight and realise that their swords are just swords, nothing special about them. They feel cheated by the sword smith so they go to him, and he tells them the only person who can complete their request is themselves. One must be skilled enough to win with the sword while the other one must be competent enough to not break his sword. The true version of the “best” product is made by both consumer and producer, through make and practical use.

https://imgflip.com/i/3qdrzx

The meme I made for class was an expanding brain meme that focuses on how the government is choosing to handle and identify the mass shooting problems the United States has been having. It goes from the smallest brain stating “Blame America’s mass shooting problem on the actual problem” to the second smallest brain stating “ Blame America’s mass shooting problem on something not related to the problem” to “Blame America’s mass shooting problem on something most of the older generation doesn’t like” to the biggest brain stating “Blame America’s mass shooting problem on video games”. This meme clearly targets both a younger audience, sixteen to mid twenties, and an older audience. This meme mainly uses pathos as its rhetorical appeal. It appeals to a younger audience by immediately addressing the fact that their precious video games are being targeted for being one of the prime problems of mass shootings in the United States. The meme uses pathos towards an older audience by stating that they are blaming video games for mass shootings due to the fact most of the older generations don’t like video games for their own reasons. Another way the meme is targeting a younger audience is the mere fact that it is a meme, the younger generation look for memes like how a fly looks for literally anything in the world as that it can eat. A meme is a rhetorical appeal for pathos in itself, it is a humorous, or a too real, escape from the dreary dregs of life that each member of the younger generation seems to think they are trapped in.

Rhetoric is something that everyone uses whenever they make a speech, regardless if it is meant to be used or not. It is also the main way speakers try to persuade their audience to do or feel whatever the speaker wants them to do or feel. Pathos relates to some form of empathy towards the crowd so that they can relate on an emotional level. Ethos is using your authority to deliver your message, aka showing someone who is the boss. Logos is literally the cold hard facts, no emotion or authority, just the facts. Different kinds of rhetoric work on different kinds of people.

President Bill Clinton was a beloved president during his two terms as America’s leader. He may have faced an impeachment trial during his second term, but those trials only improved his ratings to the highest they had ever been. During his farewell speech, Clinton tried to target the feelings of loss people felt when realizing that Clinton was leaving the Oval Office for good. In his farewell speech, Clinton uses all forms of rhetoric; ethos, pathos, and logos; to address the public in ways that make them respect and acknowledge his deeds during his time as the president of the US.

All presidents have certain statistics associated with them, an example being Obama with dropping unemployment below eight percent. Presidents are branded with these statistics regardless if they are positive or negative. Clinton, during his farewell speech, referenced several statistics that he that he believes his administration was directly responsible for. Statistics he mentioned are “22 million new jobs” and “Crime is at a new twenty-five year low” (Bill Clinton, Paragraph 3) . These are positive examples of logos, using statistics that people see as positive so that he can credit himself for these accomplishments.

Clinton also combined pathos and logos together with one sentence, “More than three million children have health insurance now, and more than 7 million Americans have been lifted out of poverty.” (Bill Clinton, Paragraph 4) These statistics are clearly logos based due to how it references an indisputable fact that could be researched if someone so wished. The pathos part is who the quote is about, orphans and the homeless. People generally seem to think that helping the less fortunate is a positive thing, appealing to people’s fondness for helping their fellow citizens and seeing the less fortunate happier after being helped. By focusing on this part of his presidency, Clinton represents himself as saving grace to the less fortunate that were helped by the policies placed at the time.

Clinton was the forty second president America had in its history, a title that holds the highest power in the American government. Presidents of The United States of AMerica are called the “Commander and Chief” of the American military forces. With this form of power, Clinton’s words hold the same power each president had before him. This kind of ethos is passed down within the Oval Office to each president, a type of authority the people of America give to their leaders. There is also the authority that each president had obtained before their presidency, an example being how Bill Clinton was a governor for Arkansas. That level of ethos is something that Clinton, along with any president, naturallys uses whenever he makes a public statement.

During his farewell address, Clinton uses all forms of rhetoric to connect with the people of America to convey both his feelings of his departure from the Oval Office and the peoples feelings on his leave. He uses logos to state the factual statistics that are a result of his administration, pathos in order to show empathy to the less fortunate of the American people, and he naturally uses ethos in his speeches by simply being the president of the United States of America. Rhetoric is used throughout the entire speech while Clinton is trying to convey a feeling that would be described as loss for the American people. He makes them feel as if his leave of the White House is more important to them then they would originally believe. A simple use of rhetoric, making them miss you by simply using statistics viewed as positive while relating to them and laying down your authority.