Persuasion AND Argumentation Critical Thinking Examples

Despite the opposition from some quarters, the artist is able to pass his message in a persuasive way that the media and politicians are making Americans idiots. According to the singer, the media and politicians are dictating the lives of Americans by telling them what they should buy, what they should believe in, what they should do and many other things. He goes ahead to say that by doing so, the politicians and media are mind-fucking Americans through their campaigns, commercials and reality TV shows. The singer is able to choose his words very persuasively in the song in order to make his listeners to agree with his view towards the influence of media and politicians in America (Ali, 2008). For instance, he says he does not want the country to be led by a president who is redneck nor to be turned completely idiot. These persuasive words successful convince his audience that they should not believe what the media and politicians are telling them, nor take it as the biblical truth. For example, people should not believe in the notion that is propagated by the media and politicians telling them to hate each because of their sexual preferences. This was in relation to the ongoing debates on gays and lesbians that politicians used in their campaigns. The singer also criticizes the decisions made by the government of the day by telling Americans not to be detested and isolated because of its stupid decisions it make regularly.
Through the choice of these lyrics, the singer is able to pass his important message to his audience. He warns his audience that they should not allow the media and politicians to do away with their personality or make them idiots controlled by the two groups. The singer is able to criticize all things he feels are going wrong in America such as racism, guns, sexism, bigotry, wars and general wars among others. Although the song is only 3 minutes long, the use of a guitar chord progression that is catchy helps to reveal its underlying implications and meaning. The singers also make several shouts saying they were never meant to follow blindly and they are not okay with the way things are happening in the country. The use of catchy guitar chord helps to convey the message that the people are now tired with the modern life and excessive runs of the nation by the media and politicians.
The video of the song features a band playing against a green American flag in a warehouse. The tempo of the song is also changing, sometimes going very fast and other times on a slow motion. This varying tempo helps the singer to portray the message that everything in the country is not going on well or moving smoothly (Harding, 2010). In other words, it shows the state of the Americans who are not happy with their sick nation run by hysteria and the media. As the song comes to the end, the singers drop their instruments and then leave. This is an expression of anger and frustrations that people are experiencing in the country. All these instrumentation, pitch, tempo rate and melody help the singer to arouse the emotions of the audience in order to warn them against what is happening in the country.

References

Ali, L. (2008). Green Day's 'American Idiot'. In: Newsweek, 152(25), 52.
Harding, C. (2010). The great green way: how green day's 'American idiot' came to Broadway--and why it might just stay. In: Billboard, 122(16), 20.