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The online class cheat sheet for students adapting to the new normal

With COVID-19 sticking around, most schools have been transitioning to the online classes model or at least offering online courses for the Fall of 2020.

For example, take Columbia University, Ithaca College, and New School, which recently announced to all students that it would be completely online.

Or Rutgers, Pace University, or Trocaire College, which will be primarily online, but will still offer hybrids or some in-person classes. Regardless, chances are a good majority of class this year is going to be through a computer screen.

Sure, we’ve all had the occasional one or two classes online, but what about three or four?

Here’s the ultimate online class cheat sheet.

Let’s cut to the chase

Many of the classes online now use Zoom, and actually meet, unlike some online classes of the past. This can be a good thing: social interaction with students and a chance to actually ask your teacher questions directly, but it also removes some of the flexibility of online courses.

However, one of the most important aspects is knowing how you learn best. Whether you are an auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learner will not determine if you fail in the class, but it will definitely affect your learning process.


Make it feel legit

While real school is out for some of us, we shouldn’t dismiss online classes. This means treating it as an actual class.

For example, have a place beside your bed that you use for classes. Although this may seem comfy, studying, or having class in bed can impact our quality of sleep.

This is due to conditioning, as our brains start to see our beds and think oh, time to study. Then boom, your mind is awake, because well, that’s what you trained it to do.

The solution? Do little things to show your body, hey, that this class is a real class, with real grades and important stuff to learn (or just a course requirement).

Get up, actually get changed, put away your phone, or open a folder on your computer for the class (although writing is proven to help us retain information).

It doesn’t have to be a big deal, but these little things can remind us of our objective: to pass the class.


“This is your space, this is your area”

Another great way to make it feel more legit is to find a spot to go to that you can designate a ‘study space’.

If you have a laptop, even better; try going to your backyard, or even just your front porch for class.  If your situation is a bit cramped, try transforming your idea by perhaps getting headphones and using a corner of your room.

Associate the headphones with work or class, especially if you live in a loud environment.  Headphones not a priority right now?

With Zoom, you can actually mute just your background noise so that it’s undetectable. Reach out to your teacher about your situation so they know prior.

We don’t all have an extra, super quiet room in our house. But that’s okay; the important thing is that you can feel focused on what’s on the screen in front of you.


Switch it up

That being said, with online courses, if you are a kinesthetic learner or a hands-on learner, you might need some extra help from sites like My GRE Exam Preparation. Or if you are a visual learner, sitting through hours of lectures, you might be stuck in the same position.

So, try some variety—whether that is creating a study group with friends, watching Crash Course on YouTube, or even doing practice problems on Khan Academy—see what sticks to your brain the next day.

And how you study plays a big role in this supplemental process. According to the Learning Center at the University of North Carolina, consistency is key.

It’s better to study for little bits of time every day,  rather than a final cram session of seven hours (let’s be honest, it can be a bit unavoidable at times.)

“One of the most impactful learning strategies is “distributed practice”—spacing out your studying over several short periods of time over several days and weeks (Newport, 2007). The most effective practice is to work a short time on each class every day.”

Don’t be afraid to go a bit outside your comfort zone and explore different practices of study. It could actually help that slippy sliver of info to stick around in your head for good.

A great practice is actually reciting or attempting to teach the material you’re learning, to someone else. Saying it out loud can help you realize what area needs more focus and what parts you have nailed down.

And if you realize you don’t know it at all,


It’s not an L to need help

Ask your professor via email or hit up a student friend, or even go up and post on the discussion board that you have a question.

There is no shame in asking for help; the worst they can do, in this case, is leave you on read. A teacher or professor can answer your questions or maybe help you set up a study group, or help direct you to some good resources that might correlate with the class better.

As awkward as it may feel, try to take comfort in the fact that it’s a temporary discomfort unlike not knowing the answer a much-needed question.

There is no one-size-fits-all for how to pass the class, especially virtually. But these tips can (hopefully) help you to make the best of your online classes.

Celebrities are humans too: Inside the minds of superfans and stans

Ever think about how much you love that one celebrity? Celebrities are human but, in our heads, it’s soo easy to forget that. Enter superfans, stans, and fandom.

It’s not that it’s fair, but can you blame us? At the same time, how is it that the public can grow so close towards these figures that we don’t really know?

https://twitter.com/taaehhyungg/status/1293291999186038787


To all the superfans out there…

Before we ask why let’s step back and ask what. This type of relationship that a person adopts with celebrities is typically referred to as a para-social relationship.

These relationships aren’t exactly new. In fact, the term ‘para-social interaction’ was first coined in the 50s by two sociologists, known as Horton and Wohl.

This term was first used to describe the relationship between a performer and their audience members.

For example, a relationship where the audience member felt completely close, like a friend, to someone who really had no clue of their existence. In other words, it was used to analyze fan behavior.

In more recent definitions, the terms para-social interaction and parasocial relationships have separated, holding their own meanings. According to a study done by Sarah F. Rosaen, Tilo Hartmann, and Jayson L. Dibble,

“Parasocial interaction refers to a faux sense of mutual awareness that can only occur during viewing. In contrast, parasocial relationship refers to a longer-term association that may begin to develop during viewing, but also extends beyond the media exposure situation.”

It should also be noted that a parasocial relationship can grow without the other being acknowledged, for example, one where a fictional character is involved.

Unless a person thanks their fans or the character breaks the fourth wall, there is no acknowledgment of the viewer.


When everything changed

As time has passed and technology has grown, para-social relationships have flourished, thriving from these changes.

This is primarily since media has allowed an even closer bond to happen because there is so much content to gather about a performer or an individual.

Instagram Live Stories, Twitter, Twitch Streams, Facebook streams… It is so easy to keep track of anyone. Hell, the internet has allowed us to develop para-social relationships with anyone we see on the internet, not just mainstream stars anymore.

Even still, celebrities or media can offer a sort of comfort in being a constant. Unless an artist quits music or the series franchise flops, there is a consistency that exists in this para-social relationship.

https://twitter.com/V4MPRS/status/1292687799125188608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1292687799125188608%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fkulturehub.com%2Fwp%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D143976action%3Dedit

Stars are usually portrayed in very intentional lights, areas, and do not stray from that visual. It is easy for a star to seem perfect, of course—everything an audience member sees is purposeful.

That’s why we meme Youtubers who show up in an apology video, no makeup on, crying to the camera in sweats about how terrible the thing they got caught doing was.

We have kind of learned that, with a lot of these things, there is an algorithm, a function to it.


Correlation Causation

Of course, that only raises the question as to why we indulge in this. There are several theories that have tried to explain why we tend to do this, to develop these relationships.

Some studies say that this is due to the way humans process attachment. According to the book, The brain has a mind of its own: Insights from a practicing neurologist, and a study done by Gayle Stever, It is difficult for our brains to make the distinction between who we know IRL and who we know via social media.

Plus,  there’s also the fact that we are biologically predisposed to bond with people who are familiar, can help answer why we do it. We can’t help it.

Loneliness and adolescence can also exacerbate this type of relationship as well. According to the Social Cognitive Theory, our environment, behavior, and our own personality can also play into how susceptible we are to creating these relations.

https://twitter.com/butdaddyiIuvhim/status/1295566574800207873?s=20

However, don’t immediately tear that Harry Styles poster off your wall just yet. It should go without saying that parasocial relationships do not immediately mean infatuation.

Infatuation is a much darker side of a para-social relationship. It’s an extremity. While these relations are still a topic of hot debate in psychology, these phenomena are fairly common in adolescents.

The caveat is that this dependency can leave us at moments crushed when say, our beloved celebrity turns out to not be that smart, or quits music, or fails us in our expectations of them in some way.

In other words, we are in love with the idea of someone, rather than their actual person.


“I’ve never met him but he’s the love of my life.”

This isn’t our fault—we don’t expect celebrities to really fail our expectations because we have learned what to expect through media.

Except, like all things, they’re human, and sometimes that reality can drop on you like the realization that you didn’t submit your final paper.

https://twitter.com/jalboyhamirah/status/1293614549116035072

Also, that realization? It can be nasty. I mean, apply this type of relationship or attachment to well-known shows or games.

That’s why when games like Last of Us 2 don’t meet the expectation that we as an audience have come to meet (thanks to our head insisting it’ll be exactly like the first game), people can go off the deep end.

So the solution? Don’t sever the connection, but do take breaks in your disbelief.

Ground yourself in reality, whether that means pulling off of social media, interacting with friends, or straight up reminding yourself that this a para-social relationship.

You can still have your cake and eat it too, just so long as you remember it’s not your wife you’re eating.

The truth about growing up: Is your youth really the ‘best years’?

“These will be the best years of your life.”

Whether it’s in a teen drama, a YA fiction novel, an 80s movie, or even your dad patting you on the back before your first day of high school, chances are you have definitely come across this expression before. And why shouldn’t you?

Our teenage years and twenties are supposed to be the life of the party, the stuff we reflect on in our old age, blissfully recalling skipping class to meet with a crush or drinking at wild parties at University. Those moments we sat with our friends on rooftops and just talked are the highlights of our lives.

Well, sort of.

History of Being a Good Kid

Car Look GIF by euphoria - Find & Share on GIPHY

Honestly speaking, it’s easy to see why we have an infatuation with our youth. I mean, our media is filled with it.

There are countless songs, movies, and books that are depicted either in high school or have a young protagonist. The teens are usually played by a 20-something in film and tv though.

There are notable exceptions that actually have age-appropriate actors like the film Eighth Grade and ongoing cult series Degrassi, or the latest HBO coming of age skater series Betty. This isn’t to say it’s a bad thing that our media represents youth. I mean, shit, I love Khalid’s album American Teen.

Being a teen is pretty much the last years of being a child but also learning and exploration of newer things that border adulthood. And that comes with the last remnants of childhood innocence.

Which, to be fair, childhood innocence is kind of an old concept. Maybe not as old as you think—childhood innocence first became a full concept in the 19th century.

This was particularly fleshed out during the Victorian Era and was an influence during the Age of Innocence, thanks to writings of Rousseau and Locke, in the 18th and 17th centuries, respectively.

But all this reasoning aside, it still puts a ton of pressure on us, during our youth, to make it the best we can be, and cherish it for all that it is.


Reality

Season 1 Hbo GIF by euphoria - Find & Share on GIPHY

The problem with that is that, of course, being a young teenager isn’t so glorious. I mean, hell, I never cut class to meet with a boy. And my friends sure as hell didn’t care about the highs and lows of high school football as much as some shows make you think you would.

Being a teen is cool because there’s no responsibility, unlike the overwhelming responsibilities of being an adult. But there are a lot more things that you essentially cannot control.

Like worsening politics, that are killing our postal service. Or the fact that North Carolina had their first ‘big’ earthquake since 1916, serving as a reminder that climate change is ever-present.

Teens under 18 cannot vote, they aren’t always able to find jobs (nor are they always allowed to) and go through a lot that is often beyond their control (like this pandemic).

A lot of what’s going on is incomprehensible even to adults. Like navigating love for the first time or handling family troubles. Teenagers have to figure out their major and their whole life track before they even go to college.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know if my teen years were really worth all that hype. In fact, I preferred adult things like living on my own in an apartment, choosing when to go out, and with whom, being able to travel by myself. I love the autonomy that adulthood brought me.

Media romanticizes youth, because of these innocuous notions that, well, have been there for a pretty long time. It’s also a lot easier, sometimes in a story format. Percy Jackson and Harry Potter are kids who find themselves suddenly in a fantastical world—if they were forty, would it still carry the same appeal? I mean, maybe it should.

But it’s not what’s always on the screens. It’s also an ageist thing. According to the AARP, only 15% of online images represent adults who are 50-plus. And often, this representation is overwhelmingly inaccurate and negative.


Conclusion

Hbo Rue GIF by euphoria - Find & Share on GIPHY

It’s easy to reflect on the happy moments of youth and want it all back. Simple, easy days where nothing was complicated and you didn’t have to figure out how to make rent or file for unemployment or search for a job during a pandemic. However, this does us a disservice.

Getting older means more freedom and power to chase after what we want in life. Obviously, it can also be scary, especially in today’s world—there’s so much responsibility, it can seem daunting. Everything that was out of control when you were a kid, is totally up to you to change when you’re an adult.

But it doesn’t have to be scary. It doesn’t mean we have to let go of doing the things we like or settle for things we don’t. Hell, this pandemic still sucks even for the kids who don’t have to worry about making rent.

There’s nothing wrong with getting old but somehow it feels like there’s everything in our way. Maybe it’s one of those movie hypotheses, you know, the one where it turns out that we were our own obstacles all along. But regardless, life is what we make of it. Or, if you can’t buy that right now, think about this:

Someday, quarantine and the widespread fear of catching COVID will come to an end (or more accurately, be severely less of a problem). This will eventually end and our circumstances will become different.

And what do you want to do when that day is finally here? And even bigger than that, will you be happy with who you are, instead of chasing after what was?

Femme love is not for your entertainment

Okay, so picture this: It’s the end of a sitcom episode. It’s the moment where the two protagonists finally confess their love for each other.

Or it’s the part where two side characters surprisingly announce their relationship and affection for each other. And everyone seems surprised but accepting. And then there’s that one, weirdly specific comment where the gross character seems…a little too interested.

No? Okay, maybe have you ever noticed when the conversation of lesbians come up, there’s always that one person, who says something like this?

Ever wonder why that is? Why do some people sexualize lesbians and lesbian relationships? In order to talk about that, we first have to talk about objectification.


It’s not a rock, damnit, they’re people

Objectification, in its’ simplest form, is taking a person and looking at them, well as if they were not alive. No, not dead—but like they’re a chair or something. Except usually, people are objectified for a reason, i.e viewing pleasure. Not making sense? Ok. The longer explanation is objectification theory.

This is when, for example, a woman gets sexually objectified. Her value, in a sense, is conflated with her physical appearance. In a study done by Dawn M. Szymanski, Lauren B. Moffitt, and Erika R. Carr, they stated that “sexual objectification occurs when a woman’s body or body parts are singled out and separated from her as a person and she is viewed primarily as a physical object of male sexual desire.”

Unfortunately, this can affect women in a variety of ways, including taking a toll on their mental health and eating habits, just to list a few. However, it doesn’t only affect women internally; this has major consequences for their lives socially, too. It essentially takes someone at face value (literally) and removes the depth of their lives to a shallow kiddy pool.

Sexual objectification takes lesbian relationships and fetishizes them by delivering them to audiences as a sort of flat entertainment. And deliver, they do. I mean, sex sells. Consider how Katy Perry’s song, “I Kissed A Girl” was not seen as an exploration in sexuality, but as something that was scandalous. Akin to porn.


Getting back on track

But this still fails to explain exactly why queer relationships are so sexualized, especially those involving femme lesbians.

One argument is this: you always want what you can’t have. Many men and others take it to be a sort of challenge when they see lesbians together. The argument of “she just hasn’t met ME yet” is prolific, as it refuses to die out.

Another argument, according to a study done by Kristin Puhl  titled, “The eroticization of lesbianism by heterosexual men” in 2010, suggests that it may just be because well, they’re women. It states,

“If women who self-identify as lesbians are still likely to have heterosexual sex during their lives, then it is reasonable for men to experience sexual arousal at the sight of women in a sexual context, regardless of the gender of the partner.”

It further builds that it could be perhaps a result of there being multiple women at once.


In the Grand Scheme of Things…

Or perhaps it’s because it’s not the relationships that are sexualized at all, but the acts done together. It’s not the marker of being gay that makes it sexual but the idea of women’s bodily involvement.

The study I mentioned previously says that maybe because it is done in a particular setting, the person in question isn’t thinking about homosexuality; they’re thinking about sex and women. This idea is totally dependent upon the person, too. The study also showed that men who were not as sexually open/explorative were not as likely to be turned on by lesbians.

Ultimately, it seems as though this occurs when there is a lack of understanding for the person, which in this case, would be the lesbian couple.

While there is no one exact reason to nail this down, there is a whole slew of them, and all of them involve some aspect of dehumanizing people as if they are content to chow down on, rather than actual human beings, with actual lives.

Witchcraft TikToks are the wave just don’t hex the moon

Let’s get into something different, witchcraft TikToks.

Suspect yes but more and more Americans, especially millennials are secular or identify with no religion. This is according to a National Pew Research Center poll dating back to 2015.

Perhaps, this doesn’t come as a surprise to you. This change from the past offers growth and offers great benefits, at least politically.

If no one religion is in power [in the future], it can prevent biases towards one or the other. However, there’s another side to this that perhaps you weren’t expecting.

Still, people are not as scared as before, and other religions that were once unfortunately considered taboo are now resurfacing. And, of course, they’ve found a home in a peculiar place: Tik Tok.

So what’s really good with witchcraft TikToks?

Yup, you can find all sorts of posts on the platform talking about spiritualities, such as Wicca and Paganism, in a subcommunity called Witchtok.

It’s quite interesting, as there are people who discuss their own experiences, talking to deities and even performing hexes.

It dismantles the ideas of taboo and offers openness, allowing people to really learn about things that perhaps they’ve been too scared to ask about. Yet, as with everything, this also had its’ own effects.


“Minions, I’m going to steal…the moon”

It was on Tiktok where a bunch of ‘baby witches’, or beginner witches decided to…hex the moon. A hex is a spell, but with malicious intent.

Hexes are not always recommended for beginner witches or warlocks, because it’s considered hard to do. If you’re super confused, you’re not alone. This is sort of “an outrage” in the community, and for other spiritualities as well.

The moon is a pretty important figure, in general. Controls the tides? Yes.  A powerful symbol, a representative in different mythologies and spiritualities? Yes.

Do some witches charge their crystals using full moon cycles? Yes. Do people use moon water for spells and whatnot? Also, yes.

If all of this sounds foreign, the point is this: the moon is very important for a witch. It helps with a lot of things and is a very, very powerful figure.

It’s not just for Pagans though; astrologers depend on the moon cycle to dictate what is happening in their field. The moon in Greek Mythology represents the Goddess Selene. The point being: people use the moon for a lot of things.

Hence, the outrage that ensued when several young witches decide to hex the moon. The baby witches apparently wanted to prove themselves, although, of what, I can’t tell you.


You did all this…For what?

Regardless of how you may feel about one particular religion, it’s not inherently a bad thing for others to be learning. The problem comes from the romanticizing of a spirituality.

There is an overwhelming amount of misinformation present, that can make it hard to navigate, especially for someone who is curious. It shouldn’t be something to flaunt.

Whether or not you believe in Wicca is not the point. Rather the point is that some of these spiritualities should seriously not be messed with for no reason.

Attempting to hex a Goddess (?!), I imagine, cannot go well for the people involved. If you actually believe in something like Paganism or Wicca, you should respect that, and not treat it like a toy.

What is the bystander effect? How inaction is f*cking society up

With videos being crucial for courtrooms, media and our own safety, I find that there’s an overabundance of them. Obviously, this isn’t always a bad thing.

Look at cases like George Floyd, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling… It’s not surprising. We need videos. Even in others, videos have been crucial to clearing names and finding connected events and problems.

Yet, videos can’t ever be reactive. Videos can’t jump in and save the day during a mugging or a sexual assault or any other injustice.

When you see people with videos ever-increasing, it’s important to remember there are other ways to intervene in the situation before it’s too late. Most importantly, avoid being a bystander with a camera.

The Market for Gore and Fights

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Videos aren’t just used for self-defense or help. With stuff like LiveLeak and WorldStarHipHop, it’s impossible to pretend that there isn’t a thriving market for videos just like these. WorldStar thrives off of fight vids. LiveLeak tries not to disallow anything and definitely has some heavy stuff up there.

LiveLeak argues that they are somewhat different; they try to hold an approach in which they hold no bias towards any videos, instead of creating an open forum for people to post whatever they want. Which is fair but still helps feed this drive to dehumanize victims and create a market of entertainment from suffering.

Still though, videotaping has a place in intervention. Videos have helped solidify innocence in some cases and helped to identify people who committed crimes. Intervention has saved countless people from worse fates. One recent example would be Iyanna Dior, a Black trans woman who was assaulted by a group of men in June.

Luckily, Dior was able to escape out of the gas station, into the convenience store, thanks to her quick wit and bystanders that stood in between her and the attackers. Still though, as great as this is, it’s hard not to think about all the other cases where things didn’t go this way.


The Bystander Effect

Most likely, you’ve heard about the bystander effect before. It’s a phenomenon that happens when a group of people witness something happen.

As it goes, no one does anything, because every other individual thinks that another person will get help or intervene. The more people there are, the less likely one person is to step up and intervene.


A fake origin story…Sort of.

In and of itself, the Bystander effect isn’t even entirely what you may think of it. There’s the infamous tragic tale: in 1964, New York City, Kitty Genovese was murdered in front of around 38 witnesses and no one did anything about it.

Unfortunately, the gruesome parts are still true; Genovese was still murdered. Yet, there weren’t thirty-eight witnesses there and the witnesses that did hear the crime did not hear the whole thing. Indeed, research appears to show that the bystander effect may not be entirely true either.

However, this could be argued due to the amount of work that has gone into prevention programs and opening a dialogue that has created this shift in consciousness.

Regardless of what you believe with the bystander effect, the documentation (or creation of it, depending on where you sway) has led to more focus on intervention programs in colleges, like Green Dot UCF or Step UP! By University of Arizona. Even typical programs to prepare one to work have zeroed in on this, all in the attempt to shut down the Bystander Effect.

And it’s not in vain.  Nearly one in five women have been raped in their lives, and 1 in 71 men. One in two transgender people are assaulted or sexually abused in their times. Most of my own friends try to avoid walking anywhere alone at night. So regardless if the origin is a fluke or not, it might not even matter. Just remember not to keep still.

Supreme Court rules asylum seekers do not deserve judicial review

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled controversially on asylum. This ruling impacts asylum seekers in a very drastic way.

Before we get into how, let’s talk about asylum seekers and who they are.

Asylum Seekers

People who are seeking asylum are people who have left their country and are, well, seeking protection. From what, you may ask? Typically, the reasons involve persecution or immense human rights violations.

Often, it means there is a threat of danger so bad, so overwhelming that the asylum seeker cannot return home for fear of their life. This plays an important role, remember this.

I know what you might be thinking. That sounds like a refugee, I think you made a mistake.

The difference, however, between an asylum seeker and a refugee is that an asylum seeker is in the waiting period. In other words, an asylum seeker is someone in the waiting period to become a refugee.

A refugee has a right to international protection, whereas asylum seekers are waiting to see if they have been granted this status. Asylum seekers do not have the official status yet.


How seeking asylum can be complicated

Let’s discuss the case: Department of Homeland Security V. v. Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam. Authorities arrest Thuraissigiam, a native citizen of Sri Lanka while he is crossing the Southern border of the US. Why was he trying to enter? He is a Tamil. Tamils are an ethnic minority group in Sri Lanka that have been subjected to human rights abuses.

Thuraissigiam explains to the border patrol officers that he was kidnapped, beaten nearly to death, and received death threats, so he came to the United States to seek asylum. His story matches what has happened to other Tamil people, too.

Yet, because he could not identify who kidnapped him nor definitively answer why (thanks to the blindfold they put on him after taking him), the asylum officer concluded that he did not have a credible fear.

From there, authorities moved him in order to deport him quickly. This was done without giving Thuraissigiam having a chance to appear before a judge in a process called expedited removal.

Several complicated judiciary processes ensued, that we’ll explain in a moment.

He filed a writ of habeas corpus. This means he asked appear in court to determine if his removal and detention were lawful. The US government did not grant him this, on the basis that the Constitution does not promise the courts’ review of the legislative branch’s decisions, (in a power called judicial review) for asylum seekers.

This went to the Ninth Circuit Court, who argued that asylum seekers were entitled to this right.  However, the official Supreme Court ruling was different.


The current Supreme Court ruling

So, let’s get back to the ruling. The Supreme Court in a 7-2 vote, rules to allow the deportation of asylum seekers without judicial review. Without judicial review, meaning that they have no right to a hearing before a judge.

This ruling also decides that the laws do not entitle asylum seekers to habeas corpus. Habeas corpus prevents the government from unlawfully imprisoning someone. Or at the very least, a writ of habeas corpus allows someone to bring a claim to court, in order to see if their detention by authorities is valid.

There are many things about this ruling but inherently, it assumes that the asylum seekers are taking advantage of the system and that the system itself has no bias in its’ process making. For people who may be in grave danger, this is a huge concern.

Without a way to fight back, they are subject to expedited removal, straight back to a place of danger.

In the majority opinion, Justice Alito states that the current asylum process is abused and that the majority of cases have proven to be without merit.

Except, here’s the catch. He totally fails to mention all the changes which the Trump administration enacted regarding asylum.

Correlation does not equal causation; and the increase of cases in the asylum system does not indicate that there are more people without justifiable concern.

Need some examples? Okay, that’s fair.


How Trump has made seeking asylum nearly impossible

February 2017,  the Trump administration alters the credible fear interviews, raising the threshold for showing credible fear during asylum interviews. These are interviews that asylum-seekers must go through prior to being able to present their case in court. Interestingly, as soon as this policy was in effect, the rate of denials jumped.


Sergio Gavidia Canas

One example case that was denied was that of Sergio Gavidia Canas. The case went to court with Canas pleading that they reverse the decision on his asylum interview. Despite having an attorney, the judge did not allow the attorney to present his case. So, Canas did.

Canas explained that he was scared for his life after three gang members beat him in front of his young daughter. He stated that they threatened him as well. In response, judge Morris Onyewuchi stated that “gang threats do not fall under the law for asylum.” And just like that, judge Onyewuchi maintained his denial.


More detrimental changes

July 2017, ICE ended the Family Case Management program. The program allowed for certain asylum seekers to stay in the community during their time. Instead, a new policy came out that helped keep people seeking asylum in detention centers, often indefinitely.

March 2018, Jeff Sessions removed asylum seeker’s rights of due process in court, removing their ability to testify on their own behalf in court.

April 2018, case quotas are enacted and judges are pressed to make decisions about cases. They now have to hit a number. The current administration enacted a Zero Tolerance policy for illegal crossing (however, it is no longer in place, despite family separations still occurring).


A deal with Guatemala that ignores clear danger

July 2019, the current administration struck a deal with Guatemala’s government. The deal allows the Trump administration to move asylum seekers to Guatemala, in order to seek asylum from over there.

The consequences of this deal affect Central Americans because it applies to individuals who crossed through Guatemala.

Ignoring the danger that occurs in Guatemala, this will affect Guatemala directly as well. There’s also a new program that allows border patrol officers to give credible fear interviews themselves.

Exhausted yet? I didn’t even get to finish all the changes that the government implemented in 2019, let alone this year. Suffice it to say, there is a lot of changes that would influence the asylum system right now. And this new case ruling, it only adds to it. The only two justices who ruled against this were Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

We cannot change our Supreme Court, however at the rate in which this current administration is going, it shows that the asylum system and asylum seekers are not safe in the United States. And it is only going to get worse.

Make sure to vote this coming November.

Postal woes: USPS needs our protection from the Trump administration

You know what had a resurgence in popularity recently? The United States Postal Service. With COVID-19 managing to shut down life across the country, there was still one normal thing that people could do. And that’s buy things online.

Unless, ya know, maybe you’re old fashioned and send letters instead. Either way, with limited ways to communicate and shop, USPS became a life-saver during some people’s quarantine.

To be fair, you can argue that the US post office, could never close down. And to that, I say… not exactly.

Money Problems

So, USPS has not exactly been doing well. Let me clarify that: in the first quarter of the year, USPS cited a 748-million-dollar loss. 2019? An 8.8-billion-dollar loss. There’s an array of factors that play a role here.

For example: the COVID-19 Pandemic. Many of Postal Service workers have been getting sick with the pandemic. It’s up to USPS to supply its’ workers with masks, gloves, and all necessary safety equipment. And it’s costing them.

This isn’t to say the Postal Service doesn’t want to fund safety equipment and PPE for its’ employees. Albeit, all of these costs have to come out of existing funds, that frankly, the Postal Service does not have.

Also, the post office hasn’t been just sitting around twiddling their thumbs. In the past, cuts have been made in staffing and other areas in order to make ends meet.

Still, the post office has not been doing well financially for years now. I mean, not a lot of people send letters anymore, and even bills can be paid online. Truly, the difference is that this year’s pandemic has exacerbated the issue.

However, with the current situation, it’s been overwhelming. According to the Postal Regulatory Commission website, much of the fixing to do is left up to Congress.


Lowkey holding it together on their own

This might be why things got spicey when the Trump administration refused to pass a stimulus package back in April that included a 25-billion-dollar package to save the Post Office.

This was immediately cut within the Senate. Instead, Congress responded with a compromise of “a $10 billion line of credit.” This is not going to be enough to sustain the Postal Service, according to a letter written by six House Democrats and Rep. Carolyn Maloney.

The letter also states, “As the coronavirus continues to worsen, the Postal Service projects a possible 50% decline in mail volume between now and the end of the current fiscal year.”

https://twitter.com/_christinelam/status/1285376833177792512?s=11


Just a bit sus

In an upcoming election that will primarily depend on mail-in ballots, the Postal Service is vital. According to the National Pew Research Center, “more than 46 million voters cast ballots in some manner other than at a traditional polling place on Election Day in 2012.”

During a pandemic such as this one in 2020, it would be surprising for those numbers not to increase.

Prior to this, many small businesses and online retailers on websites such as Etsy, Depop, Ebay, Shopify, and so many more utilized USPS. The Postal Service is still one of the most accessible means to transport goods in the United States.

This is especially true in rural areas of the United States, that are quite away from cities and harder to access. It’s also one of the most affordable options to send mail.

Losing the Postal Service hurts everyone; it is ever crucial, especially during a time like this. Luckily, there is action to take.

Petitions are still floating around, and there is always the option to contact your Senator. While these may seem small, they snowball quickly.

Accessible mailing is something that has always been available, and it shouldn’t come at the cost of Postal Service workers’ health. United, we stand…right?

Chrissy Teigen Epstein black book backlash shocks Twitter

Jeffrey Epstein…didn’t ki-

Okay, no. Not what we are here to talk about. But what we are here to talk about is definitely how this Epstein black book has made people feel.

Once that black book with flight logs of famous celebrities leaked, it definitely changed the way people viewed their faves. And right now, with Kanye’s temporary run for president, people started to remember:

Yeah, celebrities aren’t perfect.

And so, people took to Twitter to analyze the verified.

The Fallout

Of course, this had its’ own repercussions. Chrissy Teigen, a famous model and cookbook author, would come under fire for…quite a lot. One such example would be on Twitter, where people began digging up old posts of hers to tie her to Epstein. From there, users accused Teigen of a litany of things, that are not particularly nice, after digging up some…interesting tweets.

Admittedly, some of these tweets do seem questionable. However, it is easier for tweets to look suspicious when they’re together versus the individual times they were made.

Tweets in and of themselves, don’t always carry a lot of context. That’s kinda due to the 250 character limit.

And it’s hard to say, whether or not these were tweets are in poor taste or something more insidious.

I’m not here to comment on the right or wrong about this content, but mainly the intense reaction that followed without warning.

Obviously, the accusations aren’t minor; accusing someone of pedophilia is a very serious thing. Twitter was overwhelming.

So much so, that Teigen put her entire account on private. She deleted over 60,000 tweets, too. This only spurred the trolls that laughed at watching a massive account go private and added to people’s suspicions.

Yet, things didn’t stop. Then, on top of these accusations on Twitter, there were accusations about her own body.

This was as people debated whether or not Chrissy Teigen was telling the truth about, yes, you guessed it, her breast implants removal.

From there, it eventually led to her taking pictures of her scars from breast implant removals. This proved to people that hey, yeah, she wasn’t lying about her body after all.


But then…

But then, the pictures led to more criticism on her Twitter page, talking about how inappropriate it was for her to show that on her story, in between videos of her children. It fed the conspiracy theorists another piece of a puzzle, that they were trying to put together.

Needless to say, it was a lot. Each action garnered another unhappy reaction, one after the other. “

I have block chained over one million people, ONE MILLION people today and I am still flooded with sick psychopaths. So please, spare me the ‘just ignore them, they’re just trolls,’” Teigen tweeted.


It’s all about the method.

The sort of fire Teigen received is flabbergasting. It’s a lot for one person. And of course, we can argue that she is a celebrity, which therefore means she somehow invited it…but truthfully, this flaming ignores the real issue.

Bullying or attacking someone on the internet like that may seem like the right course of action to receive a response from your subject.

It also tricks you into thinking it’s doing something about the issue because they’ve somehow acknowledged you. But it comes at a heavy cost because millions of comments can drive that one person over the edge, over allegations that are not rock solid.

It doesn’t always garner accountability and also prevents real dialogue from occurring.

Chrissy Teigen is but one celeb in these rumors and allegations. They are not well-established nor concrete. But you know what is well-established? A lot of the dirt on Trump.

And there is more information out there about sex traffickers that should be discussed. Focusing on Chrissy Teigen solely diminishes the conversation to a very specific blip. One without much to go on except old weird social media posts.

Running out of time: Trump admin considering ban on TikTok

Ah, TikTok. Depending on your age, you probably either love it, prefer vine, or don’t know about it. But obviously, this isn’t always true.

For example, TikTok has somehow managed to garner the attention of the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump. In a statement earlier this month, the Trump administration stated that the U.S. is considering banning the app altogether.

TikTok is a huge platform, rife with creators. So naturally, this announcement is worrisome, as it is estimated that about 20 million Americans use the app monthly.

The reasoning behind it’s banning is due to ‘national security concerns’. This wouldn’t be the first time TikTok receives attention for the way it collects data, either. Companies like Amazon and Wells Fargo even told their employees to delete the app entirely (although Amazon later stated that the email containing the announcement was sent by mistake).

People are now speaking out, talking about the dangers of the app. India also banned the app, along with several others, in which they said that these apps pose a “threat to sovereignty and integrity.”


What’s wrong with TikTok?

So what exactly is TikTok doing that is so dangerous? Well, it’s not a secret that TikTok does collect your data. It stores both the data from when you use TikTok, but also other things, too.

For example, your location data, phone number, and what device you’re using. With this information, it can often be sold in places that China has access to. Yet, TikTok is not the only app that does this. In fact, there are other apps that do much of the same thing.

There are other concerns, though. Take the concern of TikTok handing over information to Chinese authorities if prompted to. Although TikTok has made a statement that this is a line they are not willing to cross, the question of this happening still remains.

Of course, not everyone reacts the same way. Many people on the internet seemed unfazed by TikTok’s privacy breaches and found this discussion to be silly.


Data selling, anyone?

The way TikTok collects data may not be the only reason for a possible ban. A lot of people question if TikTok is even dangerous in the first place. Or at least, is TikTok more dangerous than other apps, such as Facebook? Facebook is not a stranger to issues with data privacy in the past.   The differences appear:

A.) TikTok has a far larger younger audience.

And B.) The United State’s relations with China.

The ongoing tensions between China and the United States may be playing a role in this decision.



Or just international political play?

This may not necessarily involve politics with the United States passing the Hong Kong Autonomy Act. Instead, it involves the politics of cybersecurity historically.

In the past, there have been numerous breaches of national security, such as the Equifax hack of 2017. These breaches in the past were considered to originate from China.


Sorry, you’ve been banned.

In addition, TikTok has suffered censorship scandals in the past. One such example occurred in 2019, where TikTok had policies that apparently hid content from people who are not considered “traditionally” beautiful.

In other words, anyone who does not fit into a narrow set of criteria would be shadowbanned on the app (with these policies in place). TikTok’s response states that these policies were never enacted in the United States. However, even disregarding that, there is still more censorship occurring.

According to the Guardian,  TikTok censors users on topics like China‘s socialist system or history of local countries. This is if TikTok finds that the content is ‘twisting the history’ or spreading criticism. The severity of the ban depends on what rule TikTok considers broken.


So is TikTok over?

In short, it’s hard to say whether or not a TikTok ban would be justifiable, or actually happening.

Of course, cybersecurity is vastly important to our society. However, this threat of a TikTok ban is not so altruistic; it’s not just for the American people.

A ban would devastate hundreds of thousands of creators on the app, and even more who just enjoy content alone.

No, this is also due to the tense foreign relations at the moment. Unfortunately, what will happen with this tension still remains to be seen.

In the meanwhile, though, enjoy your TikTok and maybe ours too. There’s still some time.