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Tuesday, April 29, 2025

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Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  DARTS LAURELS

Darts & Laurels - April 6, 2017

Apr. 6, 2017

There’s supposed to be a witty introduction here. It’s supposed to be a short paragraph and elicit a bit of a smile or chuckle from you, dear readers, depending on how expressive you’re feeling today. But it’s that last stretch of the semester, so chances are the best we’re going to get out of you is a slight nod, maybe a twitch of the mouth in the upward direction. We’re just going to leave it at this and invite you to read the week’s…

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Gorsuch confirmation: A Senate turned sandbox

Apr. 6, 2017

By now, the U.S. Senate may already have dispensed with tradition and confirmed Judge Neil Gorsuch by simple majority. They would have done this by invoking what is dramatically termed the “nuclear option” — a process by which Senate rules are changed to allow a confirmation vote of Supreme Court nominees with 51 (instead of 60) votes.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letter to the Editor: Rebuttal to Nicole Dan

Apr. 6, 2017

One of the preeminent intellectuals of the last century, Noam Chomsky’s quote is aimed directly at our generation: “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” Nicole Dan’s recent publication posits that paying for Ben Shapiro’s appearance at UF by Accent represents not only their ignorance, but (at worst) sanctioned approval of his message. This is not only incorrect, but close-minded. Higher education is tasked with challenging assumptions, facilitating experiences and, god forbid, making us uncomfortable. To stick our head in the sand and ignore the perspectives of opposition parties not only insulates us from diverse perspectives and facilitates groupthink, but “other-izes” the very individuals we need to engage with the most. She argues that “there’s no room for dialogue when someone believes that a group doesn’t have the right to exist.” These moments necessitate discussion the most. As exemplified by the riots at University of California, Berkeley at the appearance of Milo Yiannopoulos, our fear of hearing things that disturb us not only closes paths to dialogue, but alienates others. With Shapiro’s appearance having passed, consider these words: Apathy is the greatest insult. Protest, post on social media, but above all, don’t close your eyes. To do so is nothing less than intellectual dystrophy and further entrenches that which you purport to hate in our mainstream culture.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letter to the Editor: Conservatism means consistency

Apr. 6, 2017

Young Americans for Freedom president Daniel Weldon’s recent letter to the editor missed the mark. Although the author raised a number of valid concerns regarding students’ ability to engage in conservative dialogue on a college campus, his conclusion in calling for administration to intrude in student affairs ultimately departs from fundamental principles of conservatism. To his point, attending the Ben Shapiro Accent show this past Monday was the first time I witnessed faculty protesting a student-organized and funded event in my five years at UF. While this was certainly concerning, demanding “change” or “action” from UF President Kent Fuchs and administration would prove to be both fruitless and counterintuitive for an organization championing the cause of individual liberty. First, Fuchs is no more able to prevent students from tearing down conservative fliers on campus than he is able to prevent white supremacists putting fliers up on campus. At a certain point, it becomes necessary for students to reassess our beliefs on what is reasonable to expect from administration in ridding our campus of bias. Second, the author’s sentiments have begun to mirror those of the students Shapiro so adamantly opposes. Self-victimization likens the author to the “snowflakes” much of Monday evening was spent criticizing. Rather than calling on administration at a publicly funded institution to step in, conservatives on campus should pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Bringing conservative speakers like Shapiro to campus is an excellent start, and I commend Weldon and YAF. Although I will concede there are campuses around the country like the University of California, Berkeley where students’ First Amendment rights are being trampled and administration intervention is necessary, this is simply not the case at UF. In between the sparse ranks of protestors, I also witnessed Dean of Students Office protest team staff working to deescalate the situation so the event could continue uninterrupted. Campus climate and culture should be shaped by students and students alone. When we call on others to fight our battles for us, we lose the autonomy and freedom we work so hard to maintain. Individualism and freedom from institutional intrusion is a hallmark of the conservative movement. Let’s keep it that way.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

What PBS Kids’ ‘Arthur’ can still teach us

Apr. 5, 2017

If you don’t remember the PBS Kids show “Arthur” from your late ’90s-early ’00s childhood, you might be more familiar with its surge into internet culture around fall 2016, in which the most ubiquitous image was Arthur’s curled fist. To the average person in their 20s, the mention of “Arthur” nowadays offers a chuckle and a flash of nostalgia. But if we take a look back and really think about the adventures of our favorite aardvark and his friends, we find that “Arthur” has a lot more to offer.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letter to the editor: UF doesn’t support conservative students

Apr. 5, 2017

On April 3, famed conservative Ben Shapiro spoke to a packed crowd of more than 750 students in the University Auditorium. Throughout the week, liberal students tried to bring down conservatives in their opinion posts by destroying promotional material and even trying to prevent students from attending the event by destroying their tickets. While there were little to no reports of this, there was zero outrage or any reports of the student in charge of the protest posting, “Hope this dude gets seriously taken out while he’s here. And not in the date way” on Facebook. Yet conservatives were labeled as the “dangerous” ones. We were the ones labeled in an opinion piece as not representative of “the morals and values UF promotes.” So, is threatening the life of another person the values UF promotes because they fit the narrative? It is sad, because in a meeting for the event, a school official asked me to make sure no conservatives brought signs that say “kill all trans people.” The only ones doing this were the protesters. Regardless of how disappointing this is to have a university official label nearly half of Gator students as murderous, it shows just how bad ignorance on conservatism has become. This is the U.S., not a country dictated by Sharia where LGBTQ people are murdered for being born the way they are. To deny conservatives their humanity — their wanting to be viewed as people with problems like anyone else — is the reason our political culture is so militant.

THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

Producer Herobust to perform at Florida Theater

By Natalie Rao | Apr. 5, 2017

Herobust had a formidable start to 2017 with the February release of his “Vertebreaker” extended play. The Atlanta-based producer’s collection of six tracks is gritty, powerful and heavily influenced by hip-hop, with a title that makes perfect sense after listening to it.

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