Hartnett (Stephen, not Josh)

When I read the author of this at first, I really hoped it was by Josh Hartnett....

This article takes a very bold step in expressing something that I think a lot of Americans share the same thoughts on: the idea that American politicians are very quick to accuse others in a much more dramatic way than other countries' leaders. This case is illustrated very well when they mentioned the "cyber-war" against China. Google is not a politician, but naming China as the source of the attacks very early on set our country into a seat of attack. Accusing their whole country (as apposed to a group of people in their country) was not a very thought-out act and the rhetoric of Google was sacrificed when they told China that they would redirect all web searches coming from their country to an un-filtered server.

The Google issue was something that makes us realize that, rhetorically, a global website can challenge foreign relations and investing. We, as Americans, have been thinking of Google the same way that we do many of the politics in our country. We see black and white - right and wrong, we do not see the grey area in between, and China see's us as a place that does not question our corporate leaders. Google is no exception. The scandal that broke out between Google and China was not questioned. American leaders, such as Hilary Clinton, were quick to defend Google and accuse others of being guilty without fulling knowing the extreme circumstances at hand.

I find it very interesting that America has always seen itself as a world leader in every aspect. Rhetorically, this is not a very good choice because we are constantly questioning other countries' digital sphere, but not our own.