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

behind it to back it up.
Additionally, he uses Ethos to sway his audience fairly well.

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

say.
The speaker Bret uses pathos quite efficiently and pretty often in his speech. An example of this can be seen, when he started talking about the coverage of the election of current U.S. President Donald Trump and the percent of voters who were for him by Fox News in Australia. Which he then states, “Thanks a bunch for that one Australia.” This statement is very sarcastic and adds a bit of humor to his speech which helps to lighten the mood of the audience. This adds to his argument by lightening the mood of the audience so they become more in tune to listen more to what he is saying and keeping them engaged in his speech.
The speech by Bret Stephens is quite effective in swaying an audience with his use of logos, pathos, and ethos. He sways the audience to a lighter mood with his sarcastic comment which keeps the engaged in his argument, and he manages to start out by being likable then ripping it away to show the audience that if they decide to ostracize him for this then they would be proving his point. In addition, he states facts and backs them up which adds to a fairly logical proof that his statement is probably fairly accurate. So, it seems fairly good to state that his speech was rather effective in swaying the audience to his side.