How Soccer Is Ruining America: A Jeremiad by Stephen H. Webb is not your average jeremiad. Though he does list his complaints like any other jeremiad, he presents it as a satire. He sarcastically writes that soccer is a foreign sport that "invaded" the United States and will ruin our nation. People who support soccer are violent, are against God, extreme liberals, and just not exciting. In the end he makes it clear it is clear he is using a satirical tone. With these points that are clearly absurd, it is shown that he uses nonsense reasons to make the point that soccer is not an evil sport. The use of rhetorical fallacies and hyperbole in each of his points make his argument more cynical.
Webb makes four total points that use rhetorical fallacies and hyperbole in his writing to convey ridiculous reasoning of soccer being an amoral sport to have in America. His first point revolves around how hands are divine parts of the body, and the feet are satanic which is what makes soccer evil. He also puts down that if a liberal brought in ideas then it must be crazy, "Indeed, soccer is a liberal's dream of tragedy" (pg.1). The other puts this in his writing because it creates the fallacy of "Appeal to Consequence of a Belief" which is ignoring or not acknowledging the other sides reasoning. Though he presents another minority, he does not list specific reasons on what "liberal tragedies" relate to soccer.
In his second point Webb begins to talk about how the American sport, baseball, was a game he played as a child and how it proved his reputation. He repeats several times how it was a boy sport along with their fathers. He uses hyperbole in his second point exaggerate the "intimidation" of baseball, "The spectacle of your failure was so public that it was like having your friends invited into your home to watch your dad forcing you to eat your vegetables"(pg.2). The author uses this line of hyperbole to draw attention to the importance of winning at a game that uses hands like baseball. He also finishes off this point unclear, correlating the yelling in baseball to soccer which what he is writing against even though it is ironic.
Webb proceeds into his third point which revolves around the reasoning that soccer is "foreign invasion". During this paragraph he describes how Americans would never create a non-exciting sports or one that requires a lot of energy but little achievement. He presents hyperbole in saying that foreign sports are evil invaders, "More than having to do with its origin, soccer is a European sport because it is all death and despair." (pg.2). The words he used such as "despair" made it seem overly dramatic even though the point did not make sense because he did not add more about how European sports surround "death and despair" which also relates to the fallacy of "Appeal to Consequence of Belief" for not giving valid reasons.
Webb used valid invalid arguments in his writing about soccer to claim that it is a corrupt sport which really he believes it is a good sport. To express his arguments he used rhetorical fallacies or a hyperbole.
Webb makes four total points that use rhetorical fallacies and hyperbole in his writing to convey ridiculous reasoning of soccer being an amoral sport to have in America. His first point revolves around how hands are divine parts of the body, and the feet are satanic which is what makes soccer evil. He also puts down that if a liberal brought in ideas then it must be crazy, "Indeed, soccer is a liberal's dream of tragedy" (pg.1). The other puts this in his writing because it creates the fallacy of "Appeal to Consequence of a Belief" which is ignoring or not acknowledging the other sides reasoning. Though he presents another minority, he does not list specific reasons on what "liberal tragedies" relate to soccer.
In his second point Webb begins to talk about how the American sport, baseball, was a game he played as a child and how it proved his reputation. He repeats several times how it was a boy sport along with their fathers. He uses hyperbole in his second point exaggerate the "intimidation" of baseball, "The spectacle of your failure was so public that it was like having your friends invited into your home to watch your dad forcing you to eat your vegetables"(pg.2). The author uses this line of hyperbole to draw attention to the importance of winning at a game that uses hands like baseball. He also finishes off this point unclear, correlating the yelling in baseball to soccer which what he is writing against even though it is ironic.
Webb proceeds into his third point which revolves around the reasoning that soccer is "foreign invasion". During this paragraph he describes how Americans would never create a non-exciting sports or one that requires a lot of energy but little achievement. He presents hyperbole in saying that foreign sports are evil invaders, "More than having to do with its origin, soccer is a European sport because it is all death and despair." (pg.2). The words he used such as "despair" made it seem overly dramatic even though the point did not make sense because he did not add more about how European sports surround "death and despair" which also relates to the fallacy of "Appeal to Consequence of Belief" for not giving valid reasons.
Webb used valid invalid arguments in his writing about soccer to claim that it is a corrupt sport which really he believes it is a good sport. To express his arguments he used rhetorical fallacies or a hyperbole.