ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how appeals to common sense function as a strategy of legitimization in everyday life through a critical discourse analysis of posts on a Japanese advice forum. Arguing that such appeals fall under Reyes’s (2011) strategy of rationality, analysis will show that while appeals to common sense can be used strategically for one’s own legitimization, using them in this way opens oneself up to having them be thrown back for one’s own delegitimization. As a result, these interactions force users to negotiate what constitutes common sense, thus dialogically shaping processes of legitimization. This prominence of common sense as a strategic tool goes against claims that contemporary Japanese society is typified by the loss of common sense and shared values (e.g., Yamada, 2009), and suggest that they continue to play an important part in Japanese discourse, particularly on online advice forums that act as alternative spaces for engagement.
