My Thoughts on Public Comments

• How would you describe the fears and anxieties being expressed in these comments? What are these commentators afraid of, specifically?

The fears and comments expressed in that section were general and not as personal as I had anticipated. By this, I refer that most people were making blanket-statements that all undocumented immigrants are criminals and unlawful and therefore should not be part of American society. One the other hand, those who do not agree with Mr. Trump fear that his rhetoric regarding Mexican immigrants only creates more problems and tensions.  

Another fear that is expressed by several commentators is Mr. Trump becoming President because they believe that he is severely under-qualified for such a position.  

An anxiety that was expressed was the current economic state of the U.S which was described as poor and lacking. 

• What kinds beliefs and values are represented in these comments? How would you characterize the kinds of values and beliefs being expressed in the comments?

There were several beliefs and values that were being represented in the comments and most were not linked to one another.Certainly one belief that was mentioned by several commenters was that those who come to the U.S without proper documentation are criminals and unlawful citizens. These comments were later refuted by a specific commenter who gave a personal account on the values that the U.S and the country's hospitality was able to teach his mother like a sense of civic duty, hard-work ethic, and perseverance. 

A belief shared by several commentators was the inability of Donald Trump to be a viable candidate for the presidency of the U.S. Several mentioned that he was not qualified for the presidency and they were adamant that he will not end up as the Republican contender. Overall, it is easy to decipher what values and beliefs a commentator felt strongly about with the tone and words they used in their post. 

• Which commenters came across as the most reasonable? What made them seem reasonable?

To me, the commenters that came across as the most reasonable were the ones that used proper grammar and complete sentences. It seemed that these commenters took more time to articulate their thoughts before posting and were not overcome with their emotions. For example, Al'n who's post was very personal also came off as reasonable because it was easy to read and comprehend. The same could be stated of Jake's post, who although has an opposite view to Al'n seemed like a reasonable person as well. The posts with too many errors or where it appeared that people were just rambling on do not seem reasonable and therefore made their comments seem less worthy. 

• Which commenters came across as lacking credibility or trustworthiness? Why didn’t they seem trustworthy?

As mentioned above, those commenters who has spelling mistakes, run-on sentences or who were too emotional seemed less credible and coherent and essentially less trustworthy. The one post that stood out was the second "Anonymous" post that talked about dog fighting. This person's argument was very scattered and did not fit in with the other comments taking place. They seemed only interested in a small niche portion of the argument which makes me assume that they are very one-issue people who would not be able to listen and take in the opinion of others.