#aplang18corrupt

[simrankhurana]

Upon Trump calling Haiti and various countries in Africa “Shithole Countries”, many of his supporters immediately came to his defense and hundreds of tweets like this flooded twitter. And while at first look this may seem like a logical argument, it is truly the perfect example of how language corrupts thought. Trump called Haiti and countries in Africa shitholes, and said that we should have more immigrants from places like Norway. Firstly, immigrants are immigrants. If Trump has a problem with immigrants from one country, why shouldn’t he for all of them. People are people after all. Tomi is trying to convince people that the places Trump mentioned are lesser than. Firstly, as a politician, perhaps the most powerful one in the world, a word like shithole shouldn’t be used. It doesn’t hold any useful meaning, it is just insulting. Whatever aspects of the countries he is talking about should be addressed specifically. Additionally, whatever may be wrong with a country doesn’t correlate to the people there. Things like hurricanes and poverty and corrupt governments don’t mean the citizens are horrible, it just means their country has been burdened with these problems. If America was struck by a huge hurricane that wiped out half our country I would bet millions of people would try to leave as well. First America enslaves millions of people from Africa, then hundreds of years later the president calls the countries America practically stepped on “shitholes”. Then, his constituents try to say that it’s logical that he said this. This is a complete logical fallacy and is extremely racist. America also set Haiti back greatly financially when it interfered in the rice market and left hundreds of Haitian farmers with no demand. The “every country for its own” mindset of our president and many of his supporters is corrupt and extremely dangerous to all of us. Immigrants and foreign relations make America what it is, and to presume that a country is a shithole and try to deny the people from there with no real reason is an act of bigotry and unreasonable hatred. 

[maddieharrod]

Corrupt Language

The marketing for dieting and weight loss companies and those who write articles and blogs for them deliberately chooses words to get their audience to feel that they need their product or diet or advice on how to look younger, skinnier, and become more attractive.  They use a lot of corrupt language and one of the most recently horrendous is “guilt-free” foods.  Many articles and health brands market food as being guilt free when they have low/no fat and little or “zero calories”.  But calling a certain type of food guilt-free implies that other foods should make you feel guilty, and why?  It all goes back to body shaming and self image that the media and society praises.  The markets for these magical solutions to make you become “beautiful” and “desirable” thrive off people who are particularly sensitive about their body image.  Once someone is exposed to words like “guilt-free” foods and other phrases about amazing weight loss pills and so on, a person starst to subconsciously feel shame for what they choose to eat or to view their bodies negatively. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-2961282/The-ten-guilt-free-foods-burn-calories-contain.html

[nicoleeggen]

During the recent government shutdown, Vice President Mike Pence made comments regarding pay for the United States Army while on a visit to the Middle East. In this video, Pence states, “Despite bipartisan support for a budget resolution, a minority in the Senate has decided to play politics with military pay”. Although he claims that Democrats are playing politics, it is shown that he too is playing politics by using military troops as a ploy for people to believe what he is stating. It is complete hypocrisy because, like most politicians, they make sure they say what people want to hear to make them seem like a valuable asset. To make himself seem better, he uses any opportunity to bend meaning to what actually happened. Before the bill ensuring military pay and death benefits was to be passed by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D), it was shut down by GOP leader Mitch McConnell. Pence took the opportunity to use this and corrupt people’s minds to what really happened.

[svejpatel-blog]

In this song, “Wing$”, Macklemore sends a message to people about the materialistic culture in today’s society. He starts off the song with a 3rd person narrative on himself as a kid, when he got his first pair of expensive basketball shoes. He goes on to say about how he got more pairs, and even though he wasn’t a good basketball player, his shoes were “like the pros”. Macklemore shows how popular brands like Nike make shoes so expensive so that pair of shoes gain some significance to it compared to other pairs. He talks about how one of his friend’s brother was killed over a pair of shoes, and how he was bullied and had his shoes stolen from him. He adds all of these events up, along with his conscious thought that since he had these expensive shoes, he was a “cool kid”. This song is a prime source on how brands influenced the thought process of younger generations. Macklemore talks about how the brands consumed his thoughts because he was constantly worrying about keeping his shoes clean and not creasing them, when the shoes are in fact no different than any other pair. Popular brand names like this advertise their shoes through expensive prices and superstar athletes in order to get people to think that that pair has some significance to it and so that those people can buy the shoes. 

[suzpfeiffer]

How Mainstream Hip Hop Music Corrupts Thought

The language used in most mainstream rap songs corrupts thought by using many suggestive words and phrases about drugs and women. I can connect this to the way my mom always scorns me and my generation for listening to that type of music. She, and other moms I would assume, don't want the language and the ideas portrayed in the music, to corrupt our thoughts and expedite the destruction of our innocence. This can be seen in many hip hop songs popular today, including the song "Rake It Up" by Yo Gotti and Mike Will Made-It. In the song, the rappers sing about women in a very degrading way. Slang words and swear words are used throughout the song to describe these women and other themes as well, such as drug use. This type of language in songs corrupts the way younger people, particularly boys, think about girls and women. This, in turn, corrupts the language they use when talking about girls. These songs can also influence and encourage teens to experiment with drugs because of the way it is portrayed in the music. In this way, it can be seen that the language used in these songs subconsciously affects thoughts of the listeners. This corruption of thought gradually leads to the assimilation of language used in the songs.

 https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/yogotti/rakeitup.html

[lovesadeem-blog]

Advertisements are perfect examples of language corrupting thought. They tend to use words for pizazz such as “amazing” and also make sure to emphasize the word FREE by capitalizing it. They also include “when you switch and get an LTE unlimited rate plan” since the offer only applies to that and they make it seem like the only option, which happens to be their most expensive plan. In general, advertisements try to acquire the most profit from their audience.

[olivia0woodward-blog]

Running With Scissors Primary

As I read the second part of the book, I realized that each charecter can represent a peice of a child or teen’s mind. Dr. Finch has the philosophy that a person is an adult at 13 years old and is their own person. Finch represents freedom and choice without limits. He excuses Augusten from school almost every day and lets him smoke cigarets. A young person may think they want this but Augusten quckly realizes that he need boundaries. His mother represents hatred towards parents and wanting to be free from them. Augusten loses his mother and is adopted by the Finches. Neil symbolizes freedom of love and relationships. Natalie is Augusten’s Concience. They think in the same way and they know that the inviroment they are growing up in is not good. All of the people can be seen as something a young person might wish for, but this is ironic because Burroughs had a terrible child hood. shouldn't he be living a teenagers dream then? why is he so miserable? The message is that what you may want isn't always what you need to thrive.

[emmawhite19-blog]

Corrupt