Friday, January 24, 2020
What It Means To Be Ethical
To be ethical is to be honest, trustworthy, and to have a good moral compass. Now, in Saslow's reading "Nothing On This Page Is Real: How Lies Become Truth In Online America" the main person of interest, Christopher Blair, does not show these kinds of ethical traits. Blair runs several FaceBook pages, and a political satire website called "America's Last Line of Defense", he uses his website to write obscene scenarios that badmouth Democratic politicians and then posts them to FaceBook in order to bait conservatives users into believing the post. He then reveals that the post was a lie and releases his loyal liberal followers onto them so that they can call the unsuspecting conservatives; "trailer park trash" and "a waste of flesh and time." This is not ethical, in fact it's quite childish. This is the kind of behavior that I would expect out of a child or a young teenager. To spend your days coming up with some ridiculous scenario in order to make others feel stupid just because they have a different political opinion than you is not at all ethical. Perhaps if he used his platform to teach people in a more professional manner that not everything posted on the internet is true, this would make what he is doing more ethical. Blair is nothing more than your everyday internet troll, a bully, that gets off on making other people feel ignorant and bad about themselves. It is not honest or trustworthy, and shows that he has a bad moral compass.
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While you do a good job at connecting your argument to Saslows article, the blog lacks an in depth analysis. It might help to elaborate more on the point on his childish antics and how they could have the opposite effect of what Blair was trying to do. It would also help to add in a visual or two to keep the reader engaged.
ReplyDeleteTom, you did a good job of announcing your argument early and sticking to it through your post. However, your post was more of a summary of Saslow’s article rather than an analysis of any key ideas within it. One thing worth mentioning is that ‘America’s Last Line of Defense’ isn’t a website – it is a Facebook page. Also, consider placing some images or quotes to break up the text. It adds to the experience and keeps the reader interested in the blog.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good analysis of the Saslow article, and I especially agree with your point about using the platform for good rather than how he chose to use it. I do think something that would really add to your blog is to bring in outside information to compliment the Saslow article. For example, maybe statistics on just how big of a problem this is in the real world. You could also talk about how difficult it is to actually identify a true post from a fake one, which is what allows the fake posts to spread so easily. Things like this could go a long way in furthering your analysis.
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