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Monday, July 07, 2025

Opinion

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

How will artists react to President Trump?

Late in the evening of Nov. 8 of last year, a wildly entertaining electoral battle was fought before all Americans. But what was just as entertaining was reading and hearing the massive outpour of emotions and intense reactions from our country’s entertainers and artists. Think about your favorite actor or musical artist for a moment. Then, check their Twitter feed. There is a very high probability if you scroll down to early November, you’ll see some sort of election reaction, which was almost unanimously negative.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  DARTS LAURELS

Darts & Laurels: January 13, 2017

It’s Friday the 13th, and you know what that means — avoid all cracks, don’t walk under any ladders and turn around when the hoard of black cats crosses your path. It’s time to stock up on four-leaf clovers and rabbit feet (or whatever the vegan alternative to rabbit feet is) and toss salt over your shoulder. But if you’re running away from a man in a hockey mask, make sure to flip your newspaper open and prepare yourself for the Friday the 13th edition of...


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

The actual, actual dystopian reality of the US

Last week, we published an editorial discussing reasons why a hypothetical dystopian fate of the U.S. was more similar to a Huxleyan dystopia (massive inputs of meaningless information that detract from important news; control by desire and pleasure) instead of the typical Orwellian one (censored media; control by fear). This week, we’re going to re- evaluate that claim and amend it slightly.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Knowledge and intelligence: a few steps you can take to become smarter

What does it mean to be “smart?” When someone recalls obscure facts or demonstrates a remarkable feat of calculation, we say that person is smart. If someone demonstrates an unusual perspective, drawing from many sources to reach a conclusion, we may wonder how they are able to perform such mental gymnastics.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Why we must all resist the post-truth society

Truth is an elusive and abstract concept. Maybe Pontius Pilate understood it best when he looked at Jesus and asked, “What is truth?” This past year has been an echo of that question. Last year was a time of ineffable emotion, like that of a disgruntled spouse who has bottled up her marital frustration for years. It was only natural that democratic decisions — Brexit, Trump — would be made in order to spite the political establishment. It was the year that statistics, journalism and facts were cast down from their thrones. The populace no longer looks to news in search of truth. Rather, we understand every news outlet to have a predisposed bias or slant, so we abandon the notion of finding objective truths.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Diversity in sci-fi: To move forward, look back

For the past decade or so, fans of science fiction have been pegged as a specific type of person — picture the central cast of “The Big Bang Theory.” Though attributing science fiction to the stereotypical pasty, white male nerd may seem like a long-standing tradition, it is interesting to note that this has never been an accurate depiction of science fiction fans. In fact, much of the sci-fi culture we see today — conventions, fan fiction, online forums — was sparked by female fans. It’s sad though; whatever it was exactly that designated science fiction the genre of the intelligent, white man ignored a history of diversity and progress in fiction far beyond that of other genres. It’s sad to see science fiction reduced to such a small demographic, considering its past and the actual origins of the phenomenon of a fan base.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Weighing your options: genetic testing kits and the burden of knowledge

There is a lot to be said about the choice to remain blissfully ignorant, especially in regard to things we cannot change — like genetics. Having watched the science fiction film “Gattaca” on a slow day in my high school biology class with its depictions of a futuristic society driven by genetic discrimination, I am all too aware of the dangers of knowing too much about your genetic profile. So when my parents bought me the 23andMe ‘Health + Ancestry’ kit to find out more about our family’s ancestral background, I felt an unsettling mixture of anticipation and apprehension as I shipped my test tube of spit off to a California lab.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

The Electoral College is wack; and here’s why

With Inauguration Day just around the corner, I feel appropriate in bringing up the harsh reality of the most recent election — a reality the losers love to force into our ears, and the winners wish we’d all forget: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2 million votes. If Clinton won by such a large number, then how did President-elect Donald Trump secure the most desired seat in American politics? You already know the answer: the Electoral College. The Electoral College is like the ice cream machine at McDonald’s: Everyone knows it’s broken, but no one can tell you why or how to fix it, so we all just roll with it. I’m so tired of rolling with something that is confusing, ancient and ruining our country by disproportionately making some votes count less than others. Before you get heated and throw the Opinions section to the ground, just hear me out. Unlike McDonald’s, we can’t take our business to a real restaurant, keeping this presidential to keep it simple), and it’s the fate of our country. Why was the Electoral College first created? Well, two reasons: The first, because our Founding Fathers feared a presidential candidate could get tyrannical by swaying public opinion — which ironically enough is what the presidential campaign has become: a battle between people, not policy. Electors were created to select someone fit for the presidency because the Founding Fathers didn’t believe the population could ever make the right choice. The second, more important reason is because the Founding Fathers didn’t want campaigners to focus solely on the more populous states. They dictated that regardless of population, all states were given three electoral votes to begin with. To understand this, you need to know what’s going on with electoral votes in the first place — please read slowly; it’s about to get wild. The Electoral College is given electoral votes by the total number of representatives in Congress. This is summated from the 100 seats in the Senate — an unchanging number — and the currently held 435 seats in the House of Representatives — which is based on population. That gives us 535 total electoral votes. These votes are then supposedly distributed evenly among the population of the entire U.S. (approximately 324,118,787/ 535 = 605,829) meaning a single electoral vote is given per 605,829 people in the state. If you remember from earlier, the Founding Fathers dictated each state must receive three electoral votes out of the total 535 before considering their population. This means that people who vote in smaller states have an unfair vote compared to those who vote in larger states, like Florida, which has four fewer electoral votes than it should. This is eerily Orwellian for the U.S.: All votes are equal, but some votes are more equal than others. The Electoral College doesn’t even do the most important job it was designed to do. The smaller states always fall in favor of Republicans, so they’re rarely given attention by Democrats. California almost always votes Democrat, so Republicans rarely campaign there. You get the point. Campaigners typically push for four paramount swing states: Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and they just skip the small states or go there once to smile and wave. This wouldn’t be a problem if our system wasn’t also winner-take-all: If you win the slightest majority of 50.1 percent, then you get all the electoral votes of a state, excluding Maine and Nebraska. If you do the math, a candidate can win all the small states by 50.1 percent, win the electoral vote by 50.19 percent and lose the popular vote with only 22 percent secured. We should not have a system that allows for the possibility of anyone winning the presidency by only securing 22 percent of all the people who vote. And that is why the Electoral College is wack.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

The Hypocrisy of Calling Liberals Oversensitive

Let’s talk about Liberals — capital L — in the way people like Tomi Lahren and Bill O’Reilly refer to them. Perhaps the most common critique of Liberals is how overly sensitive they are, clamoring for political correctness and safe spaces. We’re familiar with Brown University’s backlash for having a ‘safe space’ full of coloring books and bubbles after a campus debate on rape culture, and conversely, the uproar following the University of Chicago’s decision to release an email saying they were not in favor of trigger warnings and safe spaces. But we’re not here to debate the validity of these safe spaces. We’re going to analyze the claim that conservatives keep going back to — that Liberals are awful because they are oversensitive — and refute it with one, big counterpoint: our current President- elect, Donald Trump.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Stop comparing your success to others this new year

Happy New Year, and happy Monday! Welcome back, everybody. I’m sure you all have read plenty of pieces discussing New Year’s resolutions and their pros and cons. Most people seem to either love or hate the idea of these goals many of us set for ourselves. Some of us make a note on our phone and a sign for our bulletin board detailing our plan to better ourselves. Others claim that if we wanted to change ourselves, we would have started when we conceived the idea, rather than waiting until midnight on a specifi c day to start living our lives a certain way. Both of those opinions are valid, I think. Obviously, we don’t have to wait, but Jan. 1 seems as good a day as any to start living our lives the way we want. I’m not going to tell you that you should feel one way or the other, because, truth


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Self-perception in the era of social media

It is safe to say that a majority of millennials and those who are even younger have some sort of social media account. After all, we are dubbed the social media generation by various media outlets. Whether your interactions with social media just involve the Twitter you had to make for class participation, or if you’re constantly picking the perfect Instagram filter, you have most likely had some degree of interaction with making a post. Think about the last post you made, whether it be a quick snap on your Snapchat story, a long Facebook life-update or a witty tweet. Would you say that post accurately represents you? Chances are, you’re rolling your eyes and going “duh.”


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Gutting Affordable Care Act : a misguided thought

Repealing the Affordable Care Act could be disastrous, especially for those who make up most of Donald Trump’s supporters. Coal miners, many of whom voted for President-elect Trump, benefited from black lung benefits that were written into the ACA, also known as Obamacare. Similarly, there were subsidies for helping people afford plans. While not perfect, the health care law did solve many problems of the old system, such as cumbersome insurance applications and rejections for pre-existing conditions. U.S. adults often skip care and are sicker than adults in 11 other countries that were surveyed, according to the Commonwealth Fund. While Republicans are fans of American exceptionalism, they have yet to find a better plan than Obamacare or a single-payer system. Instead of working on a plan that could be an alternative to Obamacare, Republicans simply opposed it and called for a repeal, as if the health care system was perfect to begin with until Barack Obama messed it up.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Should I stay or should I go: resisting the urge to live in Florida forever

During my time on campus thus far, I have come across very few individuals who have no desire to ever leave Florida. About 97 percent of UF students come from Florida, and many of the other 3 percent have lived in Florida in the past or have close family in-state, according to Study Point, a college-admissions website. As the premier university in this wonderful state, UF’s reputation dominates all markets up and down the peninsula. However, many students entertain the thought of starting their careers elsewhere. This is completely normal, as it is natural for young people to desire new landscapes, people and environments, but the level of longing for new sights and sounds seems to vary greatly among individuals.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Darts & Laurels: January 6, 2017

Let’s start with something completely trivial in order to ease into the new year. In a move that no one really asked for, Pixar and Walt Disney Pictures are set to release “Cars 3” this sum- mer. “Cars 2” is the only Pixar movie thus far to ever receive a “Rotten” score on movie-rating website Rotten Tomatoes, so it seems like a strange move. Perhaps it’s for the nostalgia factor? After all, children and young adults alike were excited for last summer’s “Finding Dory.” You’d think that, perhaps, visiting an old movie for the third time, the big shots at Disney and Pixar would know how to balance their new and old audiences, as they so masterfully did in “Toy Story 3.” But plot details released to Entertainment Weekly have revealed that “Cars 3” is going to be about entitled millennial cars. Yes. Millennial cars, according to Entertainment Weekly. So a dart to Pixar for giving us another reason not to see the sequel to the sequel that no one asked for.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Focus on the positives as we move into 2017

I was going to write a year in review. I was going to write about how crazy 2016 was with all of the atrocities that plagued our world, from our nation’s deadliest mass shooting in Orlando to everything that has been happening in war-torn Aleppo. I was going to write about how we lost popular-culture icons every month, from David Bowie in January to Debbie Reynolds at the tail end of December, and then we had an orange one elected to be president of the U.S. in between. I could have written all about every single bad thing that happened last year. I was going to, but then I realized that by doing that, I would be focusing on only the negative things that happened.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

The (actual) dystopian reality of the US

Ever since the inception of dystopian fiction, it has been a common trend to point at the direction a country is going in and liken it to a fictional dystopia better left in print. By far and large, the most common dystopia used in these comparisons is the one in George Orwell’s “1984.”


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

My new-semester resolution: be present

I’ll be the first to admit it. I tend to think New Year’s resolutions are a bunch of malarkey — and thank you, Joe Biden, for popularizing that expressive phrase. By Jan. 10, I’ve forgotten half the goals I’ve set for myself, and then I begin to hate the other half of the vague intentions I’ve set. (e.g. “Really, Mia? You wanted to ‘worry less’ this year? And how are you going to accomplish that?”)


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