Frats Will be Frats?

        The comment section of articles is a modern debate arena. People from all over the world are given the opportunity to debate their ideas over an article with anyone. It also offers the ability to be anonymous which provides some with a peace of mind which allows them to say what ever they believe.
         An article that I recently read in The Atlantic is "Crass Frat Boys at Old Dominion" (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/crass-frat-boys-at-old-dominion/402226/#disqus_thread). The article deals with the recent fraternity scandal at Old Dominion University where a fraternity hung vulgar banners saying phrases such as "Freshman Daughter Drop Off". These banners were vulgar and made people feel uncomfortable, but I understand that it was a joke. I don't believe they were intending to cause any harm. The fraternity was just joking around and trying to have some fun. I recently rushed and experienced being in fraternity houses and saw their relationships with each other. These relationships are very relaxed. They constantly joke and prank each other. However I don't think that they are appropriate to have hung. Especially with the bad reputation fraternities have had with rape culture. Fraternities have to be careful because there are people out there who only want to punish and get rid of fraternities for any little mistake they make.
         While looking at the comments I noticed that the main rhetorical device used is logos. The first comment brought up Title IX laws and the first amendment. This allowed me to trust the comment more because they were referencing the laws. For this comment they were defending the fraternity. However there is a mixture of defending comments and attacking comments. One comment that lost all credibility for the writer said " Frat boys dish out fire but can't take it. Cool". This comment was more of a statement and didn't really mean anything to me.
         After reading all of the comments my opinion on the matter hadn't changed. Many of the comments deal with freedom of speech which doesn't affect my beliefs. Others go on tangents about LGBT rights which I don't believe has many connections to the article. Often the people writing the comments feel very strongly on the issues and allow their emotions to influence what they write. This can cause them to lose sight and stray from the truth and make wild assumptions so because of that I don't put too much value on the comments but they can be pretty fun to read.

   

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