[[rhetoric|Rhetoric]] is all about [[audience]], audience, audience.[^not_to_be_confused] [^not_to_be_confused]: Not to be confused with [[Demosthenes|Demosthenes']] claim that the three most important canons of rhetoric [[for Demosthenes, the three most important canons of rhetoric are delivery, delivery, delivery|are delivery, delivery, delivery]] What will persuade a room full of life-long Republicans will not necessarily persuade a room full of life-long Democrats. An extreme version of this idea would argue that, regardless of what you're trying to persuade your audience of, for any given audience, there is always _some_ rhetorical presentation that will convince them. [[Gorgias|Gorgias']] "[[Encomium to Helen]]" is all about this idea. Another way of thinking about this is [[Douglas Hofstadter]]'s idea of [[audience and Record Player X|Record Player X as a metaphor for audience persuasion]] This is important for every facet of rhetoric, but I think about it a lot in [[ethos#Ethos and audience|in terms of ethos]].