Blog 3: How to be a Critical Thinker

In the Sarcastic Times, Rachel Maddow and John Stewart can be considered critical thinkers because they thought of a way for people more involved in politics. By using sarcastic comments in order to make a news interesting help more viewers to become more engaged and updated on what is event is going on today.

When the epithets used the words "goons" as a reference for Barney Frank and John Lewis, of course the reader would think "What did these 'goons' do?" By using those words, it grabs the attention to the reader by writing an informal term for maybe...um.. idiots? Because they happen to use derogative terms toward the congressmen shows a little output on immaturity and a way to attract the audience on such behavior.

What can get people involved into such matters are not by the seriousness that we see in on the news or sometime the newspaper. Maddow, Stewart, and the editors of New York Times found ways for the people to get more involved and to engage on the critical views that are happening today. It is a way for people to go more in-depth on these issues and have a more understanding on another's point of view.

As Fisher describes in Critical Thinking: An Introduction, where he refers back to John Dewey, how when people obtain their information from a various source, they "raise questions about it" and become more compassionate for that subject. And as a build up to Dewey's ideas, Edward Glaser sees it as "reflective thinking of what we believe and do". Just like Maddow, Stewart and the editors of the NYP, they were able to reflect their ideas to the public using various methods to make the topic interesting and to also form questions to the audience on what they think about that topic.