Brret Stevens Rhetorical Analysis

How would the world be without disagreements? Well, for starters, it would be very dim after all, if there was never disagreements then the world we know would still think the earth was at the center of the universe. In the speech by Bret Stevens titled “The Dying Art of Disagreement” he tells a little about this and so much more. He talks about how people are not as open-minded to different opinions on different topics and how intelligent arguments are dying out. The author Bret Stevens use of logos, ethos, and pathos to assist in convincing and swaying the reader that the art of conducting intelligent disagreements is something that societies need to grow. The logos Bret Stevens uses in his speech are often quite effective in his speech that helps the audience connect to the speaker. One such example, in Bret’s speech, is when he states that according to a new survey from Brookings Institution a full 44 percent of students today do not believe that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects against “hate speech” even though it does. This statement is effective because it gives the audience a seemingly credible source to back up his statement. This makes his statement more believable than if he just stated that figure without something

For example, in his speech he starts by thanking the Lowy Institute for inviting him to speak there and how happy he was to be allowed to speak. However, by the start of page two of the text form of his lecture, he immediately takes back his previous statement and states he couldn’t care less. This is a quite effective use of ethos because he starts off by presenting himself a fairly likable, nice, and humble sort of guy. Then he takes his likable qualities and stomps any good first impressions he had managed to make. This adds to help his argument by seeing if he becomes unlikeable if his audience will become less likely to want to hear what he has to