Originally Posted by
Tiassa
The word "rhetoric" often refers, in American parlance, to the specific words someone speaks, e.g., "violent", "revolutionary", or "extremist" rhetoric. But rhetoric itself is an old concept referring to something more general. The most common contemporary treatment of the word considers specific forms and manners of rhetoric.
Meanwhile, Arthur appears to not recognize a rhetorical proposition. But there might be a reason for this.
II. Literalism
While so many people speak colloquially, even in "official" circumstances, there seems to be a growing demand to receive those words "literally". I put the word "literally" in quotes because I don't find that brand of literalism particularly reliable about the definitions that asserts. I mean, for all the times my mother said something or another about wringing our necks, neither my brother nor I ever actually feared she would try to throttle us. We understood, even aged in single-digits, the difference between the literal and figurative.
Most people still do, but there is a strange, pervading demand in our public discourse that people set aside their comprehension and perceive things according to an unnaturally strict literalism that is also tremendously faulty in its assessments.[/indent]
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