Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Socialist’s Journal: Quick Hits 2017 Pt. 2

 

prodigy
Prodigy

*I know I am biased because I was an A Tribe Called Quest fan and not a Mobb Deep fan. Nevertheless can we ease up on these tributes for recently deceased artist Prodigy.

Mobb Deep did not have the critical acclaim, commercial success, or cultural relevance of ATCQ. Prodigy wasn’t as well liked as Phife so I don’t see why the treatment of them has been so similar. Prodigy’s life and career deserve to be celebrated, but not overstated.

On Earth Day this year there was a march in support of science. People might disagree about trends in science or changes in conventional wisdom but who really thinks science is the problem? I can’t understand the perspective of someone who rejects data and observation. How else can a society progress besides adjusting to ever changing stimuli?

When you ignore or deny data and observation, when you resist adapting to new stimuli you get Chechnya. This area of Russia refuses to acknowledge that homosexuals exist within its borders.  Come on folks! Everybody knows someone that is gay. Stop lying to yourselves.

new-york

New York state has announced a plan to offer free college tuition to families who earn less than %125,000 per year. This is a great idea but I worry about the funding. As far as I know the state is operating at a deficit. Of course municipalities often work from behind because they know there is no danger of not being viable. But to intentionally and unnecessarily add cost to the state budget  is irresponsible; this is especially true when there is no clear plan for increasing state revenues. On the other the federal government could create a similar program and it does have the ability to pay for it. By cutting military spending numerous domestic programs could be funded. And our current military budget is so far and away more than any other country so decreasing it would not put the country in any further serious jeopardy.

BYU has changed how it handles sexual assault investigations on campus. Going forward, testifying about an alleged assault will no longer receive an infraction according to the school’s honor code. This was a step past blaming the victim to blaming the bystander. Welcome to the 21st century of understanding how to get information and view sexual assault. Hopefully no other schools are still holding out.

President Trump is in charge of initiating foreign policy and in that capacity he should exercise his best judgment about how achieve American stability. Perhaps sharing classified information is helpful toward that goal; perhaps having foreign leaders and diplomats contact him on his personal phone is helpful toward that goal. But it certainly seems hypocritical after some of the talking points he used against Hillary during the campaign.  I don’t know how much I care about his methodology. But I know his hypocrisy is problematic.

Trevor Brookins
Trevor Brookins

Trevor Brookins is a free lance writer in Rockland County, New York. He is currently working on a book about American culture during the Cold War.  His writing has appeared in The Journal News. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @historictrev.

 

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