Obama Email

Does this really help?
Earlier this year, an email was forwarded around the country about Barack Obama. It accuses Obama of being a radical Muslim working for Muslim terrorists in an attempt to attack the US from the inside. If this was true, do you really think he would have made it this far in politics? However, this email has many holes in its argument.
First, look at the word choice and presentation. The author puts certain words in all caps. This draws attention to them. He has words such as Muslim, atheist, radical, and Christian in caps. Also, he only puts these words in caps when they are used negatively against Obama. For example, he bolds the word Christian when he is trying to say that Obama only joined the United Church of Christ because in order to seek major political office it is extremely helpful to be a Christian. However, he does not bold the word Christian when he says that Obama attended a Christian school (but ironically, he bolded the word Muslim when saying that he attended a Muslim school). Similarly, the verbs used to express certain ideas are very influential. This is also evident when he is talking about where Obama attended school. He first says that Obama “attended a MUSLIM school.” Then he goes on to say that he “also spent two years in a Catholic school.” The tone used in the email is accusatory and angry to the point of being irrational. This tone in itself reduces the email’s persuasiveness. In using such a tone, the author completely ignores the opposing view points. Any good argument concedes to some of the facts the other side presents.
The author also makes many claims about Obama based on assumptions that have no evidence to back them up. He also accuses Obama of being planted by the Muslim radicals to try to destroy the United States from the inside. The only evidence they have for this is that “the Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out.” There is no proof that this has ever been acted on and there is even less proof (if you can have less than no proof) that Obama has been the plant. The author also claims that “while others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouched.” There is a picture in which Obama does not have his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance (or the national anthem, it is unclear which was being recited at the time of the picture), but he is not slouching or being disrespectful to the flag in any other way. At the same time, there are pictures of him with his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance (see www.obamaotrain.com/images/pledge2.jpg and www.obamaotrain.com/images/pledge1.jpg ). Another claim the author makes is that Obama was raised as a radical Muslim. It is true that he attended a Muslim school, a Catholic school, and a public school. The Muslim school, however, was just the public school in his hometown in Indonesia. CNN investigated after these allegations were made and they found that the school did respect the Muslim religion, but they did not outwardly teach it and they were fair too all students, despite their religion, or background.
It is important that we look closely at things presented as fact by someone who has no name or face. I could start a chain email claiming that my English GSI (teacher) is a racist witch just because she is white with blonde hair and teaches about fantasy worlds in class. This is something that is obviously not true, but if I built up enough “evidence” – that is if I twisted enough of the facts to make it look as though this were true – I might actually be able to convince some people who don’t actually know her. Therefore, make sure you know that what you are reading is from a reputable source, and if anything or anyone makes strong claims, double check the facts.