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(02/14/17 5:00am)
The U.S. is rife with paradoxes. It was founded on a series of liberal principles, yet it ceaselessly revokes freedoms from the nonconforming and underprivileged. It boasts of a fluid and exceptional social mobility, yet its laws perpetuate a culture of inheritance, inequality and general selfishness. Its fingers supposedly extend toward the ideal of “democracy,” yet its eyes are now clouded by a regime of ignorant authoritarianism.
(01/27/17 5:03am)
Barack Obama’s legacy is difficult to interpret. Undoubtedly, he succeeded in achieving core objectives of the Democratic ideology — from providing health insurance to millions of underprivileged citizens to overseeing unparalleled gains in civil rights for homosexuals. Yet, Obama’s presidency was also marked by notable failures on the geopolitical stage. His foreign policy has done little — if anything — to improve stability in the Middle East. Syria remains a hotbed of death and destruction, and an influx of refugees has galvanized far-right political movements in countries across Europe such as England, France and Italy. The decades-long conflict between Israel and Palestine remains unresolved and terrorist factions are more mobilized than ever with an influence that has incited fear and destruction across the globe.
(10/17/16 4:10am)
I cannot fathom the pain of minority communities, nor can I internalize structural barriers to happiness. I cannot comprehend the constant feeling of discrimination; I have spent my entire life in a bubble of relative privilege — unscathed by the brutal force of law, nestled safely in the shell of white, wealthy skin. I have profited since the day I was born from the historical oppression of my outgroups, unaware of it for most of my life. Thus, as I am awakened to the world’s political realities, I must come to terms with the implications of my own condition, the reality that my existence is an emblem of elitism and injustice.
(09/01/16 5:35am)
Both the Libertarian Party platform and Gary Johnson’s words reveal a plain reality: The Libertarian movement is, at its core, a ploy to divert Americans from the realities of democracy and capitalism, staging its conception of freedom through a combination of falsehood and social convenience.
(06/27/16 1:33am)
While global quality of life appears to progress over time, the human race remains in a state of paradox, continuously expanding the limits of its intellectual capacity through technology and systems of belief, yet never coming closer to answering the questions at the base of its collective consciousness. We utilize belief systems to rationalize these questions (such as the purpose of our existence), but our beliefs — at the most fundamental level of understanding — deliver little other than comfort in a universe of mystery and chaos. And although academics have taken great strides in disproving the capacity of religion to explain humanity’s place in the universe, they often fail to recognize that the same arguments can be applied to the doctrine of scientific consensus, which I contend is as irrational as the belief in God itself.
(04/14/16 4:43am)
Two weeks ago, France experienced one of its biggest strikes in recent history. Over 400,000 people demonstrated across the country, lambasting President Francois Hollande’s administration with particular regard to the recently implemented labor code, an initiative that will make it significantly easier for companies to fire personnel on economic grounds.
(03/31/16 6:00am)
Last week, fellow writer Brandon Brooks criticized public support for ideologues on either side of the political spectrum in his op-ed “On the importance of moderates.” Brooks lays out an argument I have heard over and over when discussing elections with my peers: certain politicians should not be taken seriously because their proposals are not viable in the current climate of congressional politics (i.e., Bernie Sanders and his notorious single payer healthcare plan). Brooks then concludes by urging his readers to support centrist candidates and policies because “our nation’s most revolutionary legislation has always enjoyed bipartisan support.”
(03/03/16 6:51am)
I recently read a blog post by Sam Harris, an accomplished writer and one of the leading voices in the school of New Atheism. In his post, he argued the notion of “Islamophobia” is an “intellectual blood libel to protect intrinsically harmful ideas from criticism.” While this is a loaded phrase that may appear untrue at face value, I came to agree with his rather “extreme” ideas.
(02/18/16 5:15am)
I’m no stranger to being told what to do. Throughout my childhood, a variety of teachers and family members taught me to respect my elders, to treat others the way I want to be treated and to abide by a variety of other mantras from over a decade of operant conditioning — all of which successfully engineered my moral compass into that of a “proper” American citizen. In other words, my childhood was relatively normal.
(02/04/16 5:11am)
Last November, Paris experienced the deadliest terrorist attack in French history, a presumed “act of war” sanctioned by the Islamic State that killed over 125 people and injured several hundred more in the process. French officials reacted swiftly to this devastating event, declaring a state of emergency set to expire on Feb. 26 of this year, which elevates police power and military presence in high-traffic areas across the nation. During this period, the government aims to adapt its security measures to the increasing threat of radical Islam.
(01/21/16 5:00am)
The United States has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, fluctuating around 40 percent based on the combination of taxes levied at the federal and state level. To a great extent, this rate stems from the pervasive “fair share” mentality, which demands that monetary excess be redistributed into federal social programs that directly impact the lower echelons of American society. Yet, while this ideology can — and should — be applied to certain domains, it has proven to be a counterintuitive measure with regard to corporate taxation, severely impeding the flow of money from private enterprise into the United States and ultimately restricting the ability of the country to act on a liberal, progressive agenda.
(12/03/15 5:00am)
Literacy in the United States is plummeting. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, or NEA, 19 percent of 17-year-old American citizens have never (or hardly ever) read a book, a value that has more than doubled since 1984 and coincides with a steady decline in reading comprehension among American teens.
(11/24/15 5:00am)
A few weeks ago, the University of Missouri and Yale University each reached the tipping point of racial tensions on their respective campuses, resulting in the ousting of a university president and a widespread movement toward the creation of “safe spaces” for minorities at colleges across the country. This initiative has raised awareness of numerous issues of racial injustice that certainly need to be addressed by the administrators of our nation’s schools — some that I find especially pressing are the disparities in grants and scholarships received by minority students, as well as the general lack of socioeconomic diversity at highly selective schools. However, while this movement has been largely successful in engaging administrators in conversations about the civil liberties that all students deserve, it seems to have diverged into an all-encompassing “war” on political correctness, which may detract from the very purpose of the movement itself.
(11/19/15 5:00am)
Last Monday, a law came into effect in the state of Wisconsin mandating drug testing for recipients of the state’s welfare and food stamps programs. Gov. Scott Walker lauded the legislation, stating in a recent speech, “When I proposed this, the status quo defenders cried that we were making it harder to get government assistance. My response? No, we’re making it easier to get a job.”
(11/05/15 5:20am)
Facebook, the world’s largest social media outlet, recently reached 1.49 billion active monthly users, a number that continues to increase by roughly 13 percent each year and surpasses the users of WhatsApp (500 million), Twitter (284 million) and Instagram (200 million) combined. This proliferation of digital social networks has had an unmeasurably positive impact on society, from its expansion of international communication to the so-called “Facebook revolutions” that shocked the world in the early years of this decade.
(10/29/15 4:15am)
Assessment grades are immensely important in the sphere of American education, but the way many students are currently scored in their courses is an inadequate and detrimental procedure. Specifically, the four-point grade point average system and in-class grading policies often succeed in victimizing students rather than bolstering their educational experience.
(10/22/15 4:00am)
Since 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act has protected the civil rights of citizens with disabilities. This expansive set of regulations covers issues ranging from discrimination in the workplace to barriers to telecommunication, and it has been immensely effective over the years in reducing inequalities that have existed in this nation for centuries. For example, according to a study conducted by the National Council on Disability, numerous disabled people “perceive improvements in their quality of life and… attribute those improvements to the ADA,” specifically in terms of “public facility access and public attitudes.”
(10/15/15 4:10am)
Healthcare plays a tremendous role in the U.S. economy. According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Americans spent $2.9 trillion dollars in the healthcare industry in 2013, totaling almost $10,000 per person and accounting for roughly 17.4 percent of our nation’s GDP. Because of this prolific spending, legislators are continuously pulled in different directions by organizations vying to protect their respective interests, from multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies to tiny non-profit healthcare providers. And, similar to other entities in our free market economy, those invested in healthcare who choose to pursue their economic interests often ignore the social impact of their actions, undermining the realm of common sense and hurting American lives in the process. The entity causing the most damage, though, is not Pfizer, Novardis or Roche; it is the federal government, which has legislated directly against the health of its population time and time again.
(10/01/15 4:10am)
Veterans of the American military are special people. They are protectors of the populace, guardians of American liberty who voluntarily risked their lives in order to preserve and extend the core ideals of our nation. They are individuals who embody the concept of honor while serving as models for bravery and unselfish sacrifice in their service, regardless of achievements or accolades. They are, for these reasons, deserving of protection from the punishing force of the American socioeconomic system, which overwhelmingly favors educational attainment over fairness and morality.
(09/24/15 4:10am)
I am beginning to question the degree to which the radical liberalism parading across the Internet is legitimately aiding in resolving social injustices. My skepticism was sparked last week, when Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school. Police detained the 14-year-old in Irving, Texas on the grounds that he had designed a “hoax bomb” posing a threat to the students and faculty. Not surprisingly, Ahmed’s wrongful arrest began to emerge in news outlets across the country the next day. It even reached so far as the Oval Office, where President Barack Obama himself was kind enough to extend Ahmed an invitation to the White House over Twitter, indicating his solidarity with the young boy in the most 21st century way possible and causing the hashtag “#IStandWithAhmed” to explode in social media spheres. Ever since Ahmed’s story became apparent to the American public, popular opinion has continued to stand overwhelmingly in opposition to the police and administrators who seemingly engaged in racially profiling an innocent, aspiring engineer.