{"id":1618,"date":"2021-03-11T22:14:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T22:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoosierflipside.com\/?p=1618"},"modified":"2021-03-11T22:14:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T22:14:16","slug":"breaking-guy-in-your-discussion-section-argues-devils-advocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoosierflipside.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/11\/breaking-guy-in-your-discussion-section-argues-devils-advocate\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Guy in your discussion section argues \u201cDevil\u2019s advocate\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by: Owen Baker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Picture of Ben about to bring up a terrible point.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With just a few words, shockwaves were sent through the walls of BH103, when College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, Ben Bradley, announced that he was going to offer \u201ca devil\u2019s advocate\u201d<\/strong> in a discussion over the merits of current U.S economic policy in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt that we were doing a great job as a discussion section at arguing for policies that would benefit working Americans and the unemployed, but at the same time I couldn\u2019t help but think, hey, what about the opinions of people who don\u2019t think giving Americans money for silly things like food and heating is a good use of money, shouldn\u2019t we at least consider their viewpoints\u201d, Bradley said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Friday morning discussion section in which Bradley took this radical and unheard of rhetorical position was part of a required A&H course on the history of policies that followed major economic downturns and recessions. It focuses on both current and past policies, according to Lena Jameson, the associate instructor and Political Sciences Graduate Student leading the discussion section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBen has spent most of the semester on his phone staying quiet during our discussions. But I suppose he was spending all that time researching because the second someone mentioned stimulus checks he lifted his head up from his desk with a lot to say. Most of what he had to say concerned me until he ended his 10-minute monologue by saying \u2018Just playing Devil’s advocate.\u2019\u2019 Professor Jameson said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On whether the arguments he made in the discussion reflect his actual views, Bradley remained ambiguous. During an interview conducted over Zoom video chat, Bradley repeatedly said he thinks his fellow students were making good points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile my classmates brought up interesting ideas about stimulus checks and \u201cthe necessity of housing\u201d I felt like that conversation was a bit one-sided. I didn\u2019t hear them mention the term \u201ctrickle-down economics once!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though it was not brought up during the conversation and the Flipside has found no mention of Bradley\u2019s actions outside of the Canvas grading comments for the discussion, Bradley mentioned that he was rejecting the notion that his actions were \u2018heroic\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not a hero. I\u2019m just a normal guy who puts on his Fratagonia one sleeve at a time\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by: Owen Baker With just a few words, shockwaves were sent through the walls of BH103, when College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, Ben Bradley, announced that he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","has_thumb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hoosierflipside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/devilsadvocate-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1978&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7b5Hd-q6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1236,"url":"https:\/\/hoosierflipside.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/10\/breaking-fiji-pledge-bravely-challenges-brett-kavanaugh-to-a-game-of-beer-pong-for-supreme-court-seat\/","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":0},"title":"BREAKING: FIJI Pledge Bravely Challenges Brett Kavanaugh to a Game of Beer Pong for Supreme Court Seat","author":"Hoosier Flipside","date":"October 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By K.C. 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