Final answer:
True, rhetorical devices can affect our thinking subtly by utilizing various strategies to elicit certain responses from the audience, even when they strive for objectivity.
Step-by-step explanation:
True, rhetorical devices can indeed affect our thinking in subtle ways, even when we believe we are being objective. By appealing to our emotions, ethics, or logic through strategies like ethos, logos, and pathos, writers can use these devices to guide us towards a particular viewpoint or response.
Writers may deploy various rhetorical strategies such as bandwagon, ad hominem (name-calling), or bait and switch to influence readers away from rational and logical thinking. Understanding these techniques is crucial for identifying when we are being swayed by rhetoric instead of evidence-based arguments.
Media as well plays a significant role by framing events or issues in a way that cultivates our perception, which is an example of how rhetoric is used outside of the traditional realms of speech and writing. The media's power to prime audiences can lead to changes in how we interpret and react to new information.