What is a protest again???

In the beginning, I believed that a protest was an event or action taken to go against something in society or the world. I still believe that this is true. However, I believe a protest can be anything, big or small. Furthermore, I don't think a protest has to be a huge event in order to be considered a protest. A protest can be as small as a flier against war or a person holding a sign for Animal rights. Although I still think that in order for a desired action to occur after a protest, the protest must be big enough to gain public attention to it. By big, I mean that the protest must be a noticable event that occurs so that people will pay attention. Otherwise, there really is no point in protesting if nothing happens afterwards. People would just shrug off the protest and act as if it never happened if the protest wasn't big enough.

Nowadays, I think people should rely on the shock value to protest, but it's really hard to do so. People have seen too many shocking things to be surprised about anything any more. For instance, I never knew who Malachi Richter was until I read about him in class. It appears he burned himself to death to protest against the Iraq war or something. Although what he did to protest was shocking, it obviously wasn't that big of a deal. Not many remember him or even know about him. I think this was because he copied what others did to protest. If you see the same thing everyday, it no longer seems new or worth paying attention to. This is why I think that using the shock value is hard, but it's also the easiest way for people to listen to you. After all, I'm sad to say that our society is attracted to outrageous things.

Protest song

The protest song "Oh, Freedom" protests against the evils of slavery and prejudice. This song was made during the Civil Rights Movement. It talks about preferring death rather than slavery and calls out for freedom. In my opinion, protest songs are very effective. Music has always been an integral part of peoples' lives, no matter what the time period is. People use music to communicate to the world about emotions or events in their lives, so I think using songs to protest against something is a very productive way of protesting. Furthermore, people are able to remember songs more than they remember speeches because listening to songs is definitely more interesting than listening to speeches. However, giving speeches probably last longer than singing songs because there are too many songs in the world for people to pay attention to just one. When I was looking up my protest song assignment for "Oh, Freedom," it was difficult to find the complete lyrics for that song. I had to listen to the song on youtube and then write down the lyrics. Therefore, speeches last longer than songs because songs tend to disappear through time. However, I still think using music to protest is a better and more fun way of protesting against something, and I would use music to protest against something in society if I had a choice.

With friends like these--the rhetoric of Ann Coulter and Michael Moore

I consider Ann Coulter and Michael Moore both to be protestors because both are arguing against something or someone. Ann Coulter is protesting against liberals, and Michael Moore is protesting against the US government and President Bush. However, I find Michael Moore to be more persuasive than Ann Coulter. In Michael Moore’s documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, he provided many points and facts to support his arguments about President Bush. Ann Coulter, on the other hand, made fun of people and used false statements to support her argument. Because of this, I found Michael Moore to be more persuasive. However, I think Ann Coulter is more popular than Michael Moore because of the way she uses outrageous comments to interest people. She says things like “Hillary Clinton’s chubby legs” to shock people and get people interested in reading her books. Nevertheless, because her comments have no relation to her argument, people would usually disregard her point-of-views. Michael Moore, however, provided evidence for his views and arguments to prove his points, but everyone does this. Therefore, most people probably won’t pay as much attention to Moore as they did to Ann Coulter because he protests the way everyone else does. For instance, he doesn’t do anything outrageous but just points out facts to people to convince them of his argument.