Reading Response #1

In the article America, the Sexy Fascist State. The author is trying to inform his readers about the issue of surveillance in today’s society by presenting both sides of the issue with equal length, detail and evidence. The thesis of the article is that despite the evidence on both sides of the issue, domestic wiretapping is just “how you choose to see it,” alarming or “no big deal.” The author uses facts and statistics to show his point. An example of this is when he reports that “10,000 hours of tape” are watched every week by the government as well as “2 million websites visited.” He also uses broad and sometimes vague statements like when he describes one form of surveillance as, “computer-encrypted ID cards packed with far more personal information than you can imagine.” But in the end he is skeptical about how serious the issue should be taken. The author’s argument is trying to show his readers that citizens of the United States should be aware of domestic wiretapping to prevent the future loss of liberty and rights. However he does not call his readers into action, panic or fanaticism. He merely calls for awareness of the issue.

The author states his personal opinion in the article when he talks about the president and the war; calling the war “silly” and Bush’s domestic wiretapping laws “disgusting and unconstitutional.” The strong and somewhat biased diction he uses when describing the president and the war shows the reader that the author assumes his readers feel the same way.

In the Article Hog Futures the author is telling the reader and the American public to take action against the American meat packing industry. The thesis of the article is that the American meat packing industry is morally and ethically wrong in it's practices and causes sever damage to the environment and to people. The author argues his point by using emotional arguments, like by saying that, “These enormous companies thrive by confining (or contracting with farmers to confine) livestock into tightly packed quarters and stuffing them with corn.” And by saying the labor conditions “resemble those that might hold sway under a miserable dictatorship run by blinkered elites in thrall to foreign investors.” He also uses ethical arguments, an example of this is his reporting that “confined-hog operations churn out 50 million tons of excrement each year.” As well as his use of use evidence and facts about yearly earnings, company names, economic statistics, quotes from factory workers, quotes from the Human Rights Watch and A study conducted by the University of North Carolina.

The author assumes in this article that the readers are interested in the issue and his opinion on the issue because of his use of first hand accounts; “In Hardin County, where I visited this summer,” and by the way he begins some sentences with “I think” or “I, for one.” He also assumes that his readers will be stirred into action and calls them to start “rejecting industrial meat” and support the efforts to support meatpacking workers.