controversies

It seems every time one racially-charged incident ends, a gender or religious controversy takes its place; Ruminate on the issues dividing our nation and world.

Kissing Covid
For most, there is something innately fascinating about diseases and viruses. Zombies have been a staple of horror movies, books, and video games since the 1970s while games like Plague Inc (2012) have popularized the concept of epidemiology.
By Kellen Pifer5 years ago in The Swamp
CNN's Exposure Shouldn't be Partisan
If you're not actively consuming news, you may be unfamiliar with Project Veritas. If you've heard the name on network news, it's likely you've heard they're a right-wing political action group and not to be trusted. I'm not making a case for or against that. A few days ago, Project Veritas released tapes of CNN technical director Charlie Chester commenting on his network's operations. He was secretly filmed while on dates with a woman who was actually an undercover journalist for Veritas. This is unscrupulous perhaps; the poor guy couldn't have thought the dates were going well when all she could talk about was CNN, but the fact remains that this exposure does not come from any anonymous source as many stories do. The statements below come from Charlie Chester himself.
By Cody Volk5 years ago in The Swamp
Wake Up America
Over the last few days I have been watching online videos of police and black African American interactions, usually to do with some alleged traffic infraction. Now I don't have any statistics to hand about what percentage of stops are black as opposed to white, but it does seem to me that that quite often blacks are picked out and treated differently than whites. But this is not the main point I want to address here. What I do want to address is the issue of how things go down when it is a black person who is being stopped.
By Liam Ireland5 years ago in The Swamp
My Step-Sister or George Floyd?
In the early 2000's, one of my blue-eyed, blonde-haired, white step-sisters had multiple warrants out for her arrest for check forgery. She's been in and out of trouble for most of her life and also has a history of drug abuse and being defiant with authority figures. I've been reminded of it in the past year, especially as she and her dad are babbling about something they've heard on Fox News.
By N. Thomas5 years ago in The Swamp
The Masking Tape of Covid-19
***Disclaimer*** The information presented in this article does not reflect or represent the views and opinions of Vocal Media or any of its affiliates in any way.
By Amanda Spradlin5 years ago in The Swamp
Australia’s News Media: An Anglo-Celtic Panopticon
HOW’S DIVERSITY coming along in the Australian news media? Not so much. A study by the non-profit Media Diversity Australia, entitled Who Gets to Tell Australian Stories? and released August 2020, details just how white Anglo-Celtic the Australian news media is. But it was not surprising — not for someone from a non-English speaking background who’s been a journalist in Australia for 34 years: everywhere I’ve worked in the country, it’s been a wall of white Anglos as far as the eye could see.
By Wilson da Silva5 years ago in The Swamp
The US is currently under four-pronged pressure in Afghanistan
The US was to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by April. But there are no signs of it. Instead, the US is delaying the withdrawal. U.S. troops will withdraw if the Taliban refrains from terrorism under the terms of a peace deal signed under President Donald Trump. Last month, US President Joe Biden expressed uncertainty over the withdrawal of troops. Biden's remarks raised doubts about the implementation of the peace deal.
By Shoaib Rahman5 years ago in The Swamp
Hong Kong beat SARS in '03. Their experience has paid off in 2021.
In a stretch of time that has been all too literally plagued with troubles, the world has witnessed varying degrees of public health success and shortcoming. For much of the Western hemisphere - particularly in the US - COVID-19 has wreaked havoc, with cases piling on daily for much of the last year.
By Phil Rosen5 years ago in The Swamp
Politics: the New "Birth Control"?
There was an episode of Law & Order:SVU where a man and a woman were about to engage in coitus, until one of them mentioned their political affiliation. The woman was a democrat and the guy was a republican. Either way, they immediately stopped and no longer wanted to engage in any carnal activity. This is something that some can look over, but a question I have is this: Is it easy to look over a political affiliation of a partner? While there is an old saying that one should never ask for political views of any, I can understand one wanting to know what their potential partner is affiliated with. It is basically a taboo for some to date someone of a different political affiliation, especially in the past few years. I became curious about this and I have wondered if this can be a problem with finding a partner.
By A.A.C.5 years ago in The Swamp
Diversify or Darken your campus, what's the difference?
Someone famous and important and most likely white once said, 'A crowd is the main place you can simultaneously be surrounded by people and yet, feel utterly alone.' I hate using quotes to spread a point, but sometimes another person's words are just better than your own and you have a less likely chance of sticking your foot in your mouth in front of your peers. By no means am I a master communicator either, so quotes are the way to go. As a black, low-income student at my predominantly white university, feeling alone in a large crowd is one of the struggles we have to deal with in our educational system.
By SaMya Overall 5 years ago in The Swamp
Cancel Culture
Why is the cancel culture so scary? The first amendment allows for freedom of speech and religion. The first amendment guarantees you the right to have an opinion, even if it differs from others. Now, the cancel culture wants to do away with it. The first amendment is backed up by the second amendment which allows you to keep and bear arms, which shall not be infringed. Again, what part of shall not be infringed do politicians and the gun grabbers not understand.
By Lawrence Edward Hinchee5 years ago in The Swamp
Cancel Culture and the intellectual right
In the Plot Against America (an HBO series) a fictional retelling of history sees Charles Lindberg elected as president, instead of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In truth, Lindberg was part of the infamous America First movement of the 1940s. America First felt American intervention in a European war (World War 2) was a bad idea, and the U.S. was best to invest in domestic policy. Charles Lindberg was a famous populist, a US Postal airmail pilot turned celebrity by completing the first trans-Atlantic flight. In reality, Lindberg never ran for president, but his America First ideals had seeped into mainstream society as the debate abounded whether or not America should enter World War 2. In the series, the Lindberg presidency isn’t overtly anti-Jew, but the sentiment that American men shouldn’t die liberating European Jews leads to a racist outpouring in America.
By Jeremy Gosnell5 years ago in The Swamp