For over two millennia rhetoric has been one of the most debated topics by scholars and there is still disagreement on what rhetoric truly is. Rhetoric, which is the ability to see multiple sides of an argument and pick the best one, has constantly changed over 2500 years. In today’s age, with the advancements in technology, we see an entirely different form of rhetoric. A form of rhetoric that is more persuasive than ever and that can lead people to false truths. The rhetoric we see today, particularly in social media and politics, is based more off of subjective truths rather than objective truths. Does this mean that the rhetoric we see today is similar to Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric? Or maybe rhetoric has completely changed from the time of Aristotle and Plato.

Most of the rhetoric that is currently being used today is used in social media. This causes rhetoric to be much more influential because almost everyone is able to access it at almost any given second. Furthermore, the rhetoric used in social media is short and to the point. Mallory Peterson, a scholar from Penn State, states “For instance, in order to catch a viewer’s attention, a Facebook status must be short, to the point, and intensely interesting. “ Therefore, this rhetoric would be less elegant to either hear or read but would be more direct. This can be very persuasive and can lead people to false claims because people, especially those that do not have much knowledge on a particular issue, will take this as a fact and believe it.

A common occurrence of this issue can be seen when politicians use social media. If you log on to twitter, Facebook, or any other social media platform you will most likely see politicians campaigning or stating a claim that, some of the time, is not completely true or proven. Most of the time politicians say what they think is right and say that what their opposition believes in is incorrect. Therefore, we are able to come to the claim that political rhetoric is based off of subjective truths. Since political rhetoric is based off of subjective truths, does this mean that there is no such thing as a complete truth as defined by Plato? As we all know, there are many ways to do things and people either think they are correct or incorrect based off of their opinions. For example, a democrat would not think a republicans tax plan is correct, but a republican would most likely think so.

If there is no such thing as a 100% truth, are we able to say that the rhetoric used today is similar to the rhetoric Aristotle defined. Aristotle believes that rhetoric is based off of common belief, or shared values and ideals in the case of politics. He states this in his On Rhetoric saying, “rather, it is necessary or pisteis and speeches to be formed on the basis of common [beliefs].” (Aristotle 35).