7.8: Using Rhetorical Devices

Terms used to slant a passage and influence the reader to accept the writer’s attitudes are called slanters or rhetorical devices. The name “slanter” comes from the metaphor of tilting an otherwise level playing field. The most common rhetorical devices have names. We’ve already mentioned euphemism, exaggeration, half-truths, innuendo, lying, sarcasm, and smokescreen.

A dysphemism is the opposite of a euphemism. It is a term used in order to produce a negative effect. If you call his freedom fighter a terrorist, or her grandfather’s cemetery a boneyard, you’ve chosen a dysphemism.

Writers also deceive their readers (and speakers deceive their listeners) by using downplayers. What is going on when I say, “French President Sarkozy says France will support the policy, but he’s just another politician, isn’t he?” I am downplaying his claim to support the policy. That phrase “just another” is loaded; it downplays or denigrates the claim. The words “so-called” and “merely” are commonly used as downplayers.

A proof surrogate is a less well-known rhetorical device, but we’ve all seen it. When a politician says, “Everyone knows there should not be this kind of tax increase,” this remark is claiming there’s a proof, but not giving the proof. That phrase, “Everyone knows” is a substitute for the proof, a “surrogate” for it. When your neighbor says, “Studies show that two to three alien spaceships land on Earth every year,” you spot the phrase “Studies show” as being a proof surrogate and realize that you shouldn’t accept the claim about alien spaceship until you get the proof itself.

Selectively presenting the facts is an even more subtle way to deceive another person. Republicans complain that when Democrats describe a Republican program, they usually choose to mention the unpleasant consequences of the program and never the positive consequences. Republicans are correct in this complaint, although they often do the same thing to Democrats.

Consider the loaded language in italics in this newsletter from Peter Morrison, treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party in Texas. He is expressing his post-election thoughts about President Barack Obama and other Democrats having won the election a few days earlier.

We must contest every single inch of ground and delay the baby-murdering, tax-raising socialists at every opportunity. But in due time, the maggots will have eaten every morsel of flesh off of the rotting corpse of the Republic, and therein lies our opportunity.

Texas was once its own country, and many Texans already think in nationalist terms about their state. We need to do everything possible to encourage a long-term shift in thinking on this issue. Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government? Let each [state] go her own way in peace, sign a free trade agreement among the states, and we can avoid this gut-wrenching spectacle every four years.
[reported by Jillian Rayfield, Salon.com, November 10, 2012]

Morrison’s lively images make his writing more interesting but more inflammatory. He was picked by the State Board of Education Chairman to screen the public-school textbooks for the State of Texas.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

In the following passage, replace the loaded expressions with wording that slants in the opposite direction. That is, replace a positively loaded term with a negatively loaded term (not with an unloaded term).

During the most recent artillery and tank battles, the freedom fighters have been able to liberate one more square mile of the Beirut suburbs.

Answer

The loaded term freedom fighters (positive) can be replaced with terrorists (negative). Also, liberate (positive) can be replaced with extend their grip on (negative). Replacing freedom fighters with soldiers would remove the positive emotional charge but would not add negative charge.

Political campaigns usually do not target politically aware voters; they target undecided voters, especially those who pay little attention to politics and know little about the issues. Campaign material is aimed at the target person's emotions. Being remarkably candid when asked about this topic, Joel Bradshaw, a political consultant from Washington, D.C., answered that in the 1980 presidential election one candidate "talked about issues," whereas the other candidate addressed the voters differently and "made them feel good. It is always more powerful to be emotional in a campaign message." Ideas about how to do this come mostly from campaign consultants, not from the candidate. The consultant's relationship to the candidate boils down to "We fool 'em and you rule 'em."

Calling that piece of cloth "Old Glory" instead of "the national flag" can make a difference. People don't think straight when their emotions are all charged up, and it takes just a little emotional arousal to affect the brain. It can alter the chemical balances and reduce logical reasoning ability. Although nobody can or should live without emotion, still,

Your Aunt Mary is grieving over her husband's accidental death when in steps her lawyer saying, "I know this is an especially hard time for you, and we all want to help you, so if you'll just sign these papers giving me the power to make all the financial decisions, your life will be so much easier." The lawyer's terminology is not loaded, but the whole remark is.

One of the more effective ways to use loaded language is in conjunction with body language: a subtle smile here, an awkward glance there. Loaded language isn't all bad; it can be effectively used to enliven dull discourse. But employing it to slant a supposedly objective description is a technique of deception.

A subtler use of loaded language is in push polls. Too often when a pollster asks you whether you prefer A or B, the poll is designed not to learn your answer but to influence your answer. The question might be phrased this way, “If you were to learn that candidate A was accused of a homosexual rape in New Orleans two years ago, would you prefer candidate A to candidate B.” This kind of poll question is a push poll if it is not true that candidate A was accused of any homosexual rape. The goal of the person who designed the poll is to push a thought into your head. That’s why it is called a push poll.