Downplayers p2

Downplayers consume my life. A Downplayer is a sort of argument that minimizes the significance of a claim.

When I was growing up my mom always called me a “minimizer.” Whenever I did anything wrong or didn’t follow directions I would try and make it sound like a little thing. Like it was not that bad and I shouldn’t be punished for it. I’m sure my intentions are pretty clear; I was trying to get the lowest possible scale punishment. Now, I find myself doing it just a little less. An example of a downplay I would have used back in high school would be: “yeah the test was only a 30 points so I will be fine.” The reason this is an example of downplay is mostly due to the word “just”. “Just” can help you indentify downplay very fast in an argument. Another example a little more current and relevant would be: “I’ve only missed one discussion week, im sure our teacher will understand that we are humans and sometimes forget, so she’ll probably drop our lowest discussion week.” Why this is a downplay is because of my lack of responsibility for my actions. A significant identifier is “only.” When something is “only” this or “only” that it is usually a downplay.