Comment Log

From Salhoot
On "The Paris Agreement and the Future of Climate Change": I really liked this piece. I even wrote a piece on the future of climate change myself. This administration has been frustrating for many people. When I talked about my climate change piece, I mentioned that not many people our age don’t really deny climate change. With the advancement of technology, I think it is going to be harder and harder to deny something that is so obviously there. You say "Hopefully, the rest of the world will continue to stay strong on the climate change front, and America will eventually jump back on the wagon, if not for the sake of our future planet, then for the sake of not being left behind by the international community.” I agree with this, I think in the future, we will be able to accept it as a country and the administration we have will be on board.

On "How We Just Lost the Future of Our Internet Privacy": One thing people are really sensitive about is privacy. While some people might be ok with being spied on I, for one, am not. I definitely don’t have anything to hide, but I don’t see the reason why everyone’s information should be known. What is the actual point of this? Why should my credit card numbers be known if the person who knows them doesn’t plan on using them? I think I fear for the future where people just have to not put out any information. You word it really well when you say we don’t have to hide the information, just protecting it.

From Sisterfinger 2014
On "Why Can’t Celebrities Be Political?": Something I have learned growing up is a lot of people do not want to discuss politics. I have always been open to discussions, as long as they are discussions and not arguments. I think the issue people run into is discussing politics with people who are looking to argue instead of being open to the opposing sides’ beliefs. With people attacking the opinions of others, most do not want to vocalize their own beliefs. In the case of celebrities, it makes sense why from a publicity standpoint, they may not want to share their political views with the public. Many celebrities have been scrutinized for their political views. I believe we have to change the way everyone speaks about politics. We have to create a less hostile and more understanding environment so that people are more willing to present their beliefs. Once we have reshaped the way everyone talks about politics, then our society will be more accepting of people’s views and celebrities will be more forthcoming with their stances on political issues.

On "Please Vote": Your three points in response to “ He doesn’t like politics” are three important arguments. The right to vote is something people too often take for granted. I agree it is our right, our civic duty, to vote in the elections. I have encountered many people, particularly during the most recent election, who said they were not going to vote. I would start by asking why and most would respond with “I don’t like either candidate” or “it doesn’t matter if I vote” or “I don’t know I don’t really care.” All of these responses are needless to say absolutely ridiculous. Our generation has done a disservice to the country. As the youngest generation of voters, we had a significant influence in the most recent election. I cannot help but think how this election could have turned out differently. If our generation had spoken its mind and filled out a ballot, would the election turned out the way it did? Would we have Donald Trump as our 45 president?

From The Morgan Post
On "Please Vote": I definitely agree with you about the importance of voting. I came across many people around the November presidential election who did not want to vote because they weren't fond of either Clinton or Trump. Feeling that way is understandable, but it doesn't mean you should just give up and withdraw from the democratic process. Voting is perhaps the staple of democracy, and if someone truly has no preference between candidates (which is hard to believe), they should look up the policy platforms of each candidate and choose a candidate based on what they agree with most. I find it hard to believe that after actually knowing what candidates stand for, a person would still have no preference. Another point to keep in mind is that there is more to voting than just voting for the President every four years. There are ballot measures and congressional races, as well as local political races that are even more likely to affect citizens on a day-to-day basis. Besides the worn and incorrect "one vote won't change anything" argument, there aren't many arguments against the value of voting. However, the problem here is how to we motivate people enough to take time out of their day to care enough to go look up the information or go physically vote?

On "Why Celebrities Can't Be Political": I agree with you and Hamdah when you say that celebrities are unlikely to voice political opinions because they don’t want to alienate their fans. The entire basis of celebrity is having a large, public fan base that observes a person’s work and behavior and chooses to follow them and contribute to their business. Simply put, if celebrities do something unlikeable, it’s bad for business, and that’s why they have publicists to manage damage control. Political opinions tend to be controversial because they are always going to have people who disagree with them on varying degrees, making it risky for people who make a living off being likable to contribute to discourse. However, I think it is important for us to encourage anyone with a platform to bring issues important to them and larger society to light, regardless of whether we necessarily agree with them or not, because it encourages discourse that has the potential to lead to progress on an issue.

On "What Keeps Me Up at Night": I agree that unconditional patriotism is dangerous and generally that unconditional support of anything is dangerous. Obviously, unconditional support of an institution can be dangerous if the institution acts in a way that does not merit support or encouragement. But even something that you would normally think is good to support unconditionally, such as unconditionally loving your family, can be problematic. There are abusive families and partners and family members who do despicable things that should not be supported and enabled. On some level, we can love family, but not agree with their actions and work to help or change them. The same should go for our country: we should have some level of patriotism, or love, for our country, yet not necessarily always support it and remain aware of problems within it that we need to solve because we love it.

From Statements of the More or Less Obvious
On "How We Lost the Future of Our Internet Privacy": The New Age of the Internet has disrupted the long-standing policy of the  "Right to Privacy" guaranteed by the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Various sectors such as the government, private corporations, and private individuals have access to our emails, texts, search engine, the list can go on and on. While various technological and network services disclaim that users’, privacy is protected overall. However, as avid consumers of advanced technology we are both over trusting and over eager disregarding the fine print in terms in conditions which state the privacy policies of the service and devices we use. We trust that these services will protect our conversations and searches even if we feel we don't have anything to hide. However, the concern is what is the point of collecting our personal data.