Posts

nov/dec pundit 3

Charles M. Blow "The Horrible History of Thanksgiving" The New York Times Nov. 27, 2019 Blow begins by discussing a set of events many of his readers likely experienced as kids. In an effort to get readers to relate to his story, Blow describes making paper turkeys in elementary school, gathering with family over turkey and dressing, hearing about Native Americans and the Pilgrims eating the first Thanksgiving feast together. He uses this lead up to make his main claim: that much of American history seems more pleasant than it really is because white people have hidden the less-pleasant parts. While Blow provides ample evidence that this claim is true of Thanksgiving specifically, he leaves it at that. His only other piece of evidence was the Trail of Tears, which he doesn't dive into much detail about. I feel as though Blow's broad claim could have been strengthened by mentioning other marginalized groups, not just the Natives. What about segregation and slavery?...
10 comments
Read more

nov/dec pundit 2

Charles M. Blow "Trump's Black College Spectacle" The New York Times Oct. 27, 2019 Charles Blow examines Trump's history with criminal justice reform after he is awarded the Bipartisan Justice Award by the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center. The Justice Center is a group of black activists who organized the 2019 Second Step Presidential Forum at Benedict College in South Carolina. The group gave Trump its Bipartisan Justice Award for his signing of the First Step Act, which allowed for the release of a few nonviolent federal inmates. Blow introduces his bigger purpose by bringing up Trump's unfortunate record regarding the intersections of people of color and criminal justice. Blow supports his claim that Trump is the enemy of progressive criminal justice reform with solid evidence. He brings up how Trump advocated for New York to adopt the death penalty in response to the Central Park Five. He supports the Stop-and-Frisk program in New York City after a feder...
8 comments
Read more

nov/dec pundit 1

Charles M. Blow "Where Went My Empty Nest?" The New York Times Aug. 18, 2019 In this column, Charles M. Blow addresses the elephant in the room when people talk about parenting. Despite what many parents may believe, it is necessary to have a personal life separate from children. He shamelessly discusses how becoming an empty nester made him feel free and independent again. Then, when his kids moved back home after college, Blow felt as though his privacy has been invaded. Blow's main claim comes as the last sentence of the piece. He claims that when grown kids come back to an empty nest, the loving thing to do it to firmly nudge them out. But he doesn't mention anything else related to this claim at all in the piece. I wasn't quite sure what the purpose of this article was as it did not inform, entertain, or argue. It seemed like a simple statement of a life event with no deeper meaning.
3 comments
Read more

oct/nov monthly project

Image
oct pundit 1 oct pundit 2 oct/nov pundit 3 oct/nov pundit 4
Post a Comment
Read more

oct/nov pundit 4

Ross Douthat "Liberalism's Latinx Problem" The New York Times  Nov. 5, 2019 In this column, Ross Douthat discusses the term "Latinx" and Elizabeth Warren's recent usage of it. Douthat soon appeals to his audience's sense of logic by citing a study that shows 98% of Latinos preferred a different term to describe their ethnicity. He argues that the purpose of a word, especially with regard to races and nationalities, is to address members of the certain race or nationality how they would like to be addressed. Douthat believes that "Latinx" misses this mark and is Elizabeth Warren's attempt at ineffective progressive language. Douthat mentions the term "P.C." in his article, which is obviously an abbreviation for something, but he never says what the term actually is. This confused me and I thought it would've been good for Douthat to use the full term before abbreviating. A really nice touch that he also included was conn...
1 comment
Read more

October pundit 3

Ross Douthat "Elizabeth Warren's Health Care Albatross" The New York Times Nov. 2 2019 In this column, Ross Douthat begins by discussing the dangers of political parties becoming ideological. He supports this claim by pulling examples from the 2020 election and the 2012 election. Douthat then brings Elizabeth Warren into the mix by claiming that her single payer healthcare plan is just as unrealistic as Republicans' dreams of a flat tax. Towards the beginning of the column, Douthat makes the bold claim that part of the reason Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election is because she did not run on as much of a centrist platform as her husband did, making Trump look like the more moderate candidate. Aside from this claim being strangely placed, Douthat does not offer any evidence to back it up.
4 comments
Read more

October Pundit 2

Ross Douthat "The Age of American Despair" The New York Times Sept. 7, 2019 Ross Douthat opens this column by comparing climate change-related deaths to suicides. He expresses that since TV networks set aside a nice chunk of time to interview the Democratic presidential candidates about climate change, they should do the same regarding the ever-rising suicide levels in the United States. Douthat swiftly appeals to logic in the beginning of his piece by mentioning that an estimated 4,000-10,000 heat-related deaths are estimated to occur by the end of the century, while if suicides had stayed at 2000s-era levels, about 70,000 fewer people would have died this year. Douthat also jumps to appeal to his reader's sense of authority by citing prestigious sources like the Senate's Joint Economic Committee and the National Climate Assessment. Douthat gives his piece a unique touch by writing imaginary dialogue for how a debate on this issue might go. He mentions Bernie ...
4 comments
Read more