UNIT I Blogger Assignment: "Stupid cancer."

This Facebook status message has been popping up a lot in my Facebook Newsfeed lately. And not only that, but different types of people have been posting it, from my friend-who's-always-drunk (not pictured; must protect the guilty!) to my best friend's mom. Despite having a grammatically dubious sentence in the middle of it, it's received some traction in the social media world.

Basically, this is a short ode to those who have died, survived, or is currently fighting cancer. The writing is short and simple, and the call to action is direct. Its author is unknown. Through simple copy-and-paste, this message has been passed along through Facebook. I'm not sure how long it's been going around either.

When I saw this, I connected it with the second chapter in Everything's An Argument on Pathos. It's using some pretty strong emotions to ensure that you do re-post the message. First it comes out and says something we can all agree on: "cancer is stupid." It then relates to its audience by acknowledging shared wants (it drives this home by using "we"). By directly calling out people for NOT re-posting it, it makes you to stop and think "wait, I'm not one of THOSE people." I wonder how long this will stick around.