May 8 2019 (Vol. XXXI, Is. XII) - Binghamton Review

BINGHAMTON REVIEW

P.O. BOX 6000 BINGHAMTON, NY 13902-6000 EDITOR@BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM

Founded 1987 • Volume XXXI, Issue XII

Editor-in-Chief

Patrick McAuliffe Jr. Managing Editor Matt Rosen Copy Desk Chief Yvonne Tyler

Business Manager Mac Chasman

Social Media Shitposter

THE REVIEW REPORT CARD

Tommy Gagliano

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Editor Emeritus

3 Editorial

by Patrick McAuliffe 4 Press Watch

by Our Staff 6 The Implications of an Automated Future

by Brian Murray

Jordan Raitses

Associate Editors Adrienne Vertucci

Staff Writers

Jordan Jardine Sarah Waters John Restuccia Brian Murray

Contributors Anonymous

by Our Staff

8 My Story

by Anonymous 10 Expectations vs. Reality...and a Goodbye

by Matt Rosen 12 Things I Wish Students Knew

by Sarah Waters 13 The Future of Sudan: An Anarchist Perspective

by Jordan Jardine

Special Thanks To:

Intercollegiate Studies Institute Collegiate Network Binghamton Review was printed by Gary Marsden We Provide the Truth.

He Provides the Staples

14 Evil Motives & the Lies People Tell Themselves

by John Restuccia 15 Dearly Departing

by Patrick McAuliffe

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK! Direct feedback to editor@binghamtonreview.com 2

BINGHAMTON REVIEW

Vol. XXXI, Issue XII

EDITORIAL Dear Readers,

From the Editor

Y

ou can breathe a sigh of relief. The school year is over and we’ve made it to summer (basically). This is our last issue for the year and it’s a heavy one. We’ve got so many great staff members leaving us for “bigger” and “better” things beyond college. But honestly, and I don’t know about you, but the real world is both frightening and exciting to me all at once. Will I be able to meet the demands of real adult life? Will I get to own my own home?

Can I make time for my friends, family, and loved ones? What’s the cutoff age for it to be no longer socially acceptable to belt Nickelback in Tom and Marty’s in a drunken fervor? These are all questions we graduating seniors are undoubtedly asking ourselves (the last one especially). I know we can get through it and rise to meet the challenges that Binghamton has prepared us for.

Wait, I have an issue to introduce! Let me tell you what our final issue of the year contains. Brian, our Managing Editor for next year, writes about the increasing use of automation and compares it with rising 2020 Democratic candidate Andrew Yang’s plan for a universal basic income. Graduating senior Jordan covers the turmoil in Sudan and calls for the Sudanese people to take control of their destiny themselves instead of falling back on another military dictatorship. John, our incoming Treasurer and Social Media Shitposter, reflects on a female Classics professor’s complaints about representation in her field, and looks to the works of Ayn Rand to see that many people hide behind concern for others just to fulfill a desire for their own advancement. Finally, an anonymous writer shares his experience with male sexual assault and, by sharing his story, encourages other men in similar situations to speak out and have their voices heard.

This is a bit of a heavy issue, I’ll say it again. Graduating senior Sarah shares her tips on what she hopes that students will carry with them for the remainder of their college years. Matt, leaving us one year early (that overachiever…) looks back on his predictions for the year and bids his farewell to Binghamton and the Review. Finally, I share my reflection on my time here at Bing in my own farewell to college. Through the ups and downs, both as a person and a student, as a staff writer and Editor-in-Chief, I wouldn’t change anything about my time at Binghamton and in service to the Review.

I wanted to offer my thanks to you, dear reader. Through the grapevine (as not many people are willing to shout from the Library Tower that they enjoy the Review), I’ve received so much positive feedback about the work we do. The dedication of our staff also gives me so much encouragement for the future of the Review. Tommy will do an excellent job as EIC next year and I wish the best for the future of our paper. You may be getting your degree in a few weeks from Binghamton University, but you’ll always get your education from Binghamton Review. Cheers.

Sincerely,

Patrick McAuliffe Jr. Binghamton Review is a non-partisan, student-run news magazine of conservative thought founded in 1987 at Binghamton University. A true liberal arts education expands a student’s horizons and opens one’s mind to a vast array of divergent perspectives. The mark of true maturity is being able to engage with these perspectives rationally while maintaining one’s own convictions. In that spirit, we seek to promote the free and open exchange of ideas and offer alternative viewpoints not normally found or accepted on our predominately liberal campus.

We stand against tyranny in all of its forms, both on campus and beyond. We believe in the principles set forth in this country’s Declaration of Independence and seek to preserve the fundamental tenets of Western civilization. It is our duty to expose the warped ideology of political correctness and cultural authoritarianism that dominates this university. Finally, we understand that a moral order is a necessary component of any civilized society. We strive to inform, engage with, and perhaps even amuse our readers in carrying out this mission.

Views expressed by writers do not necessarily represent the views of the publication as a whole. editor@binghamtonreview.com

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CPampus resswatch “Why are pregnant people so closely scrutinized?”

Annick Tabb, Pipe Dream, 4/29/19 “Part of the problem seems to lie in the fact that pregnant people are often expected to love every single moment of their pregnancy. They are supposed to accept every bout of morning sickness, food aversion and fatigue with a smile.

They are supposed to not ever complain about the pain they are in because any discomfort, no matter how excruciating, will not matter once they are holding a baby in their arms.”

Pregnancy is not fun, that’s for sure.

I don’t know who expects pregnant women to be sunny and positive the entire time; there are dozens of groups on Facebook alone for pregnant women to let out their negative experiences to each other. If anyone wants a pregnant woman to put on a happy face the entire time, they’re either part of the paparazzi (and therefore don’t matter much) or are living in the Victorian era.

“In the article, [Ragen Chastain] told the story of a pregnant friend who had asked her husband to wash the dishes even though he had cooked the meal.

The husband responded by saying, “If Serena can win an Open pregnant, I don’t understand why you are having such a hard time with basic stuff.”“ And any normal person would say that husband is being a dick. Actually caring about your pregnant wife or partner is not and should not be the exception, but the norm.

“The fact that pregnancy and childbirth can have serious physical and mental repercussions is often downplayed, and pregnant people are expected to remain silent even if they are really struggling.

Pregnancy should not be viewed as a competition, and everyone’s experience is and should be their own.”

You’re right, pregnancy shouldn’t be a competition. Looking at the unique experiences of your pregnant loved one and supporting them through it is what most people do. Like anything

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Written by our Staff

We know you don’t read the other campus publications, so we did it for you. Original pieces are in quotes, our responses are in bold.

shocking yet rare, a few anecdotes of men being unsympathetic can’t speak for most people’s rational methods of coping with pregnancy.

“We must respond to climate change with urgency” Elizabeth Short, Pipe Dream, 4/25/19 “With all this information, I can’t understand why so many still choose to deny the effects of climate change. The biology student in me is desperate to shout about how it’s not about the literal weather warming up, that it’s about long-term weather patterns, ocean levels, circulation patterns and longterm temperature increase, but I won’t.

Instead, if you’re stuck looking at climate change through an “it won’t cause problems until after I’m gone” lens, let me remind you that we are feeling its effects now, and the most vulnerable nations are the ones facing the brunt of the impact.”

The same people that believe there is no climate change, period, are probably on par with the anti-vaxxer community and no amount of scientific talk will convince them otherwise. A lot of conservative climate skeptics question the urgency of many predictions, and rightfully so. Even before Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” the hype around climate change has been well-sustained, and the next excerpt will illuminate this.

“These increases could lead to soils in areas closest to the equator running the risk of drying out. That could lead to starvation and famine for entire populations...Tropical climates, which are where many of the poorest nations are located, are also most likely to face more extreme variation in their climates — yet another poor sign for crops.”

“Could lead,” “most likely,”...much of the discussion around climate change has included this terminology. The UN in 1989, Al Gore in 2006, and every doomsday prediction in between keeps pushing the deadline farther and farther back, but the supposed

heat death of the earth is happening much slower than the “experts” have told us. Pollution is definitely not good for our planet, but an honest discussion free from fearmongering tactics by environmentalists would be the best way to figure out how to save the earth. No outrageous urgency required.

“Recognizing the rebranding of socialism” Guest Author, Pipe Dream, 4/25/19 “[Bernie Sanders] used to ‘stan’ Eugene Debs, a radical leader and theorist of the early American socialist movement, but he now suggests that the welfare states of Scandinavia are the best model for how we could possibly be organized. That wording is important — we are being organized, rather than organizing ourselves.”

Right in the first paragraph, the author gives up the whole game about how socialism really works. The people get organized under the false delusion that they are organizing themselves. Powerful socialist leaders set the institutional rules and regulations

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BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM (quite heavy-handed ones in fact) and sell it to the masses that they’re all in it together. “Some more equal than others”?

“The vague wording of the guideline suggests the goals of the Green New Deal, but does not propose a single policy, nor does it explicitly ban the usage of markets in achieving these goals.

This means that a policy set revealed under these guidelines could very easily be the same kind of corporate subsidization that got us here in the first place, just with a green coat of paint over it.”

God forbid, the thought that markets are the quickest way for energy efficiency to gain popularity and reduce costs. (Hint: they are.) At the same time, corporate subsidization is something that someone who truly supports free markets would not endorse. The goals pursued through the Green New Deal could be achieved with market forces, if only the wording of the manifesto wasn’t so trigger-happy on relegating these tasks to the government.

“Even its definition of “green” is up for debate, since many allegedly “green” technologies still depend heavily on the production of plastics and the mining of conflict minerals, meaning fossil fuels and colonialist practices will remain in the picture indefinitely.”

The generally accepted definition of “green” is along the lines of “less pollution and waste”. We aren’t going to go straw-free and recycling-bin-happy overnight (a train to Hawaii isn’t built in a day), but the best way to get there is through market innovation. Also, are we supposed to believe that the first-world governments supposedly carrying on this modern colonialism would stop doing that AND set their countries back technologically, just to have to rebuild their countries back to the current level of technology and pollution, all while repeating the heavy environmental costs along the way?

PRESS WATCH the New Deal championed, was developed by John Maynard Keynes specifically to save capitalism and stabilize it for decades to come.”

The New Deal included programs that gave people government jobs to dig ditches and fill them back in.

Congratulations, economy saved! The Keynesian nature of the New Deal actually extended the Great Depression; World War II’s need for a massive boost in industry to feed the war effort - private enterprise - provided the stimulus for an economic recovery.

“My broad definition of socialism is “an economy managed democratically by the working class.” There’s a lot of wiggle room in that definition — so much so that anarchists and Maoists both fall under it, but not enough to say that socialism is “when the government does stuff instead of corporations.” In fact, liberalism is incompatible with all strains of socialism…”

Because anarchy and Maoism work so well in the real world. Even though they may fall under your definition of socialism, there’s enough “wiggle room” to also say, “It wasn’t true socialism!” Like we’ve heard and seen dozens of times in history and hundreds of times on disconnected college campuses.

It’s also interesting that you put socialism at odds with liberalism, the political philosophy that has made the West as prosperous and globally pervasive as it is today. Liberalizing markets and governments lets private individuals do what they do best - cooperate and make their lives better. I hate to think what the alternative to that is.

“If we want to save ourselves and the planet, if we want to combat atrocities like those at the southern border, if we want an economy that isn’t dependent on child labor in the Congo and dropping bombs on Yemen, we can’t be fooled into believing that these politicians — any politicians — are socialists. Capitalism cannot function, even in the impermanent pipe dreams the Sanders-aligned offer, without exploiting and murdering people around the world. We have to build socialism from the ground up, creating and sustaining alternatives parallel to and separate from the institutions that dominate our daily lives.”

Companies don’t kill people. Governments and psychopaths kill people.

You’re all for voluntary association and cooperation for mutual benefit, but when it has an “LLC” attached to its name...it’s gone over the line.

“This is all besides the fact that the original New Deal was an explicitly anti-socialist set of policies, crafted to appease the increasingly militant working class.

Keynesianism, the model of capitalism

editor@binghamtonreview.com

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THE IMPLICATIONS OF AN AUTOMATED FUTURE

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The Implications of an Automated Future

By Brian Murray

“Red wire: right temple, black wire: left temple, red wire: right temple, black wire: left temple” -Dismemberment Plan, 1997

A

ccording to the American Trucking Association, there are currently 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the United States. If we expand this figure to include all general driving jobs, the number jumps to 4.4 million. While estimates fluctuate depending on the source, most experts agree that self-driving vehicles will become commonplace by 2030. Once it becomes economically and technologically viable to do so, transportation companies will eventually replace their wage-earning drivers with software that can do their jobs for cheap, indefinitely. It’s also worth noting that according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, there are just under 500,000 trucking companies in the United States right now and 91% of them only operate six or less trucks.

These small businesses won’t have the means to shift to self-driving cars in any immediate way, but the eventual transition is markedly inevitable. This is just one example of the hundreds of industries prepped to replace a segment of their employees with new technology in the upcoming decades.

There are, of course, several optimistic predictions that liken the rise of automation to other economy-shifting developments of the past. The industrial revolution, the invention of the automobile, and the advent of the internet are all technological developments that didn’t destroy the economy, in fact they all significantly increased the standard of living for most Americans in the long term.

However, most apprehensive people are fixated on how the advancement of technology has historically occurred in an exponentially upward trend.

The rise of artificial intelligence in the American workforce will occur much faster than any other development on

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record. This change will happen, or rather is happening, so fast that we’re currently in the middle of it, and yet society as a whole has only just started discussing its potential ramifications.

Optimistic forecasters always include the fact that new jobs will be created by technological developments in the economy and the idea that American workers can overcome the impending frictional unemployment with higher education and worker retraining. This is completely true, but this assessment fails to take into account the likelihood that most of the jobs that will spring up in the wake of automation are highly technical S.T.E.M. positions (the rest being in communication fields).

These forecasters fail to understand the reality of the modern business sector: when a worker costs more money to employ than a firm expects to gain from them, they are fired. That’s not to say that exceptional people skills or a great work ethic won’t be highly sought after qualities in the post-automation world, but the fact is, when a job position becomes detrimental to the bottom line, that job is eliminated.

Finding new gainful employment isn’t always an option for individuals whose last long-term occupation was in a dead industry. Imagine being a truck driver who was 15 years from

retirement before you were replaced by a self-driving truck. Now, you’re instructed to go back to school for four more years to earn a degree in a difficult and intellect-heavy field just so that you can graduate and compete with a bunch of twenty-somethings with the same degree, who are willing to work for half the wages you were already making before you were fired.

Now imagine having a family that you have to support while working towards that degree, which in many instances doesn’t even guarantee employment after you graduate.

Many journalists have been quick to point out a study done by the World Economic Forum, which includes an estimation that across the globe 133 million jobs will be created along with the 75 million displaced by automation by 2022, but the study itself warns that this is by far the most optimistic estimate from a set of many. The study then warns readers to be cautious of these estimates and assumptions about future world commerce that led to them, especially since the study was nothing more than a small survey of specific companies, asking how they expect to deal with their own impending automation. The study also assumes that the companies themselves will enact programs to retrain their workers within the company to perform the new jobs that will be created by new technologies. This is a dangerous assumption to make; retraining workers is expensive and isn’t always as simple as its proponents make it out to be. All our existing and recent precedent indicates that mass retraining of existing workers has been anything but fruitful.

Furthermore, after the state of Michigan enacted their “No Worker Left Behind” program, it was discovered that one-third of its members were unable to find employment after the program. This figure is eerily similar to the 40% of workers who were unable to find new jobs without access to the program. Even worse were

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BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM the results of the Trade Adjustment Assistance, a series of federal worker retraining programs designed to diminish the job loss felt by American manufacturing employees whose jobs were outsourced overseas. Only 66% of participants in the program were able to achieve reemployment. The same percent of workers who didn’t participate in the program were able to achieve reemployment, indicating the program had little to no effect on reemployment. On top of that, only 37% of workers who did participate found jobs in the specific field that they were retrained for. All other large-scale job retraining programs in recent history have had similar results. This is all to say that the study by the World Economic Forum is incredibly optimistic at best, and unlikely to be in line with the actual future.

“Instituting universal basic income, in the form Yang suggests, would still cost around 1.8 trillion after deducting the amount of existing social programs that it would make irrelevant.”

So, what are we supposed to do about the imminent automation of significant amounts of our economy and the threats to people it presents?

The first option is to do nothing at all.

After all, what could we do? Demand that our legislators do something?

Government intervention in private industry always results in skewed incentives. There have always been unintended repercussions from administrative regulations. Why should we artificially protect jobs that the free market naturally suggests aren’t worth keeping? Every economic shift in the labor force in recorded history has led to a higher standard of living and better jobs in the long-term. However, as articulated on a recent episode of Ben Shapiro’s Sunday Special, conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson warns that the social cost of allowing millions of jobs to be eliminated would be too devastating for our society to handle. He claims that putting ten-million men out of work would result in ten-million negatively affected families and the resulting cascading effect

editor@binghamtonreview.com

THE IMPLICATIONS OF AN AUTOMATED FUTURE

could seriously wreck the country. For Carlson, the impact of automation will devastate so many family units that the societal detriment to the country would be irreversible.

But one problem with Tucker Carlson’s suggestion is that it doesn’t account for how other countries will adopt these practices regardless of whether the United States does or doesn’t. It won’t matter if ten-million jobs are saved in the United States in the short-run, if fifty-million U.S. jobs are exported overseas because their facilities can produce twice as many goods because they embraced new technologies. It’s not wise for U.S. policy makers to fall for the benefits of short-term security at the loss of longterm drawbacks.

There is one proposal designed to protect the stability of American families while avoiding the pitfalls of rejecting new technologies. 2020 Democratic candidate Andrew Yang suggests mitigating economic losses for workers with a policy of universal basic income in the form of every American receding around a thousand dollars each month. Yang ties growing suicide rates, falling marriage rates, low birth rates, and diminishing job opportunities to the unstable economic factors and limited disposable income affecting working class Americans. Yang also claims that a thousand dollars for every American each month will still not diminish the need for employment because twelve-thousand dollars per year is significantly below the pover-

ty line. The most pressing issue with Yang’s proposal is, of course, the fact that the U.S. government is currently 22-trillion dollars in debt. Instituting universal basic income, in the form Yang suggests, would still cost around 1.8 trillion after deducting the amount of existing social programs that it would make irrelevant. The current yearly budget deficit is about one-trillion dollars and that’s already debilitating. His plan to pay for the remaining 1.8 trillion dollars comes in the form of a Value Added Tax of about half the rate that many European countries already impose, but his estimates still ignore the economic strain that imposing a massive new tax would put on the economy.

The bottom line seems to be that anyone who claims to have the perfect solution to the inevitable frictional unemployment that we’re projected to see in the coming decades is likely full of it. No one can be certain of how to go about mitigating the damage that this could do to society, and we can’t even be sure of the extent of damage that will actually occur, but it’s important that the American people are aware of these developments and are talking seriously about their implications. The more people analyzing the automation revolution and considering how to help our society shift to accommodate it, the more good ideas are likely to appear. And of course, if you personally are worried about not being able to find employment after college, then just learn to code.

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MY STORY

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My Story

By Anonymous

I

am a male and I was sexually assaulted. This is not something that can be talked about easily, whether it be male or female. I tell my story to bring attention to male sexual assault.

It is a hard topic to discuss for anyone male or female. For males, it is hard to even process. The environment that is created around males is one filled with masculinity; guys are supposed to be strong and able to tackle anything they are thrown. Constantly, guys talk about banging hot girls and are open about their sexual exploits. So a guy coming out and saying that he was forced into a situation that he did not want is a rare occurrence to be openly talked about.

The event occurred during my first year in college. It was a very normal Thursday, to begin with. I went to classes, hung out with friends at lunch, and at night got together to talk about video games with my usual friends.

The night was different, though. Every guy thought she was very attractive.

She had been flirting with one of my friends. She was drunk, very drunk.

On top of that, she was high off huffing Ozium. I didn’t drink too much so I was sober. I went back to my room to just play some video games. I heard a knock on my door: it was my group of friends. They wanted to go out but the girl was too far gone to go out so I was given the responsibility of “babysitting her”. I felt uncomfortable. After they left, immediately events started moving fast. She was very far gone and started hitting on me. No way in hell

“Male sexual assault happens. It is a terrible event and is never talked about.

Hopefully, my story resonates with someone - even one person out there.

Know you are not the only one out there and you shouldn’t be afraid to tell your story.” could I take advantage of her. I tried to get her to the lobby to hang out. She refused. Then she started to get on top of me. I told her to stop but she didn’t listen. She started kissing me and moving my hands on her body. I couldn’t get up. She weighed more than me and she was getting more aggressive the more I attempted to get her to stop.

Eventually, I just gave up after an hour of resisting. There was nothing I could do. After 3 hours of this, she began trying to undress me. I then began resisting again. Then there was a knock at the door and my roommate came in.

She said she was spending the night in my bed and she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She fell asleep for a while; I laid down next to her, scared and not knowing what to do. She wouldn’t let me leave, holding me in a strong grip. Screaming out wouldn’t have helped; the walls in our dorms were cinderblocks, making the rooms soundproof.

Eventually, I heard my friends coming back to the dorm. She got up and went to see them. I laid there, in

disbelief almost. The events didn’t hit me. My roommate, who only arrived an hour before, asked me exactly what happened. I couldn’t process what happened; I was scared and physically powerless. She was on top of me and I could not move the entire time. Even when she wasn’t, she had a tight grip on me, making me unable to move.

What could I have done? I couldn’t sleep that night. My heart was beating out of me. I still had no idea what even happened. Finally around 3 in the morning I walked out of my room and knocked on one of my female friend’s doors. I told my female friend what happened. She stared at me and finally said: “You were sexually assaulted.”

The feelings hit me all at once: a mix of shame, sadness, loss of innocence. I didn’t cry, I didn’t get mad, I just sat down on her bed and tried to process everything.

I never reported what happened.

It wouldn’t have done anything especially with the situation I was in. The girl left the school at the end of the semester; I haven’t seen her since. Since this, I have talked to multiple guys who have faced either similar situations or even worse situations. I understand how they feel, those feelings of shame and of being scared. I tell this story now because I need to. Male sexual assault happens. It is a terrible event and is never talked about. Hopefully, my story resonates with someone even one person out there. Know you are not the only one out there and you shouldn’t be afraid to tell your story.

“I couldn’t process what happened; I was scared and physically powerless.

She was on top of me and I could not move the entire time. Even when she wasn’t, she had a tight grip on me, making me unable to move. What could I have done?”

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The Review Report Card

By Our Staff

A

s we all prepare to get our real grades from the semester (to hang on the fridge at home, of course), we here at the Review wanted to grade the functions and institutions of our school through our own metric. Maybe it’ll motivate you to study harder; maybe it’ll tell you what you should continue doing. If you aren’t satisfied with what you receive or you really need that boost to graduate, unfortunately, all grades are final. However, there’s always next semester!

SAPB: C-

Good on the SAPB for getting the second half of Post Malone’s “Rockstar” (aka 21 Savage) for the fall concert.

Unfortunately, there weren’t enough Ms in our bank account to afford a really large umbrella, because the concert was rescheduled due to rain and later cancelled. I will be honest, I have never heard of this year’s Spring Fling performers, either (but hey, apparently they go off of student suggestions and budgetary restrictions?). They almost managed to salvage the grade, but a move to the Events Center (again with this damn weather) and the use of preclaimed tickets caused a bit of a stir among students and even discouraged some people for going. The freedom to come and go from the concert at any point is something people enjoy about Spring Fling, even if it’s more of a Waterfall-from-the-Sky Fling. The Weather Channel is your best friend when it comes to scheduling!

SA: B

The SA has been relatively unobtrusive this year. Speaking from an organization’s perspective, we appreciate the policy of relative autonomy given to their umbrella organizations. Special shoutout to the VPF Kevin Darrell, who is basically the Andy Dwyer of making sure your paperwork is filled out properly. He’s just so gosh-darn friendly! Otherwise, acceptable work as always.

editor@binghamtonreview.com

OCCT: B+

As we all get older and traveling by blue bus is a little less frequent, we don’t get as many opportunities to see how efficiently their service runs. If very little has changed, chances are the driver will be stone-faced and tuning in to their music from a speaker at the front, and the bus will arrive just after you wanted it to. However, we give them props for not backing down on the Birthright advertisements from February and the proposed cleaning fee for sick students on the bus. It may be a “free” (paid for by student fees) service, but the disincentive to do one’s business onboard and screw everyone else’s night over is a powerful one. Just wait until you’ve beautified Gorgeous Washington Street with your Technicolor Yawn and climb aboard afterwards. Also, servicing rides during Ramadan is a wonderful gesture of community.

Administration: B/B+

We mostly want to speak on the student safety issue. After last year’s tragedies, new cameras were installed in many public places and hallways around campus (one of which caught a vandal destroying issues on our bulletin board, by the way). These are a way of showing students that the administration cares about protecting their safety and detecting threats quicker. In the wake of the Shakeel Khan murder, the university released all details that they knew at the time and were pertinent directly to students. Not bending to calls for extreme changes in university policy or denouncing Khan’s death as a hate crime (it wasn’t), nonetheless the university got the chance to prove itself a week later regarding an off-campus violent incident. If any grade on here would be “Most Improved,” the university’s commitment to student safety, both on and off campus, is a great step in the right direction. Not great by any means, but much further and we’d have privacy issues.

THE REVIEW REPORT CARD

Other publications: B

This “B” stands for “B-acceptable”. Pipe Dream delivered another year of stuff we wouldn’t otherwise read unless it’s for Press Watch - very on-brand. Got some good tidbits in that area, though! Good work. Free Press took a different route than usual this year with new themes for their issues and artistic, full-page cover photos, and it was refreshing (as refreshing as it can be when every issue contains at least one sketch of a nude woman).

From our few interactions with Ellipsis, we wish them the best as they work to grow next year, both in submissions and printing frequency. The BUTT... well, they finally came out as conservative and therefore EPIC, so we’ll give them (and only them) an A for the year. To be quite honest, we don’t read much Asian Outlook or Law Quarterly, so maybe we should leave it at that.

For the year, Binghamton University’s GPA is: 2.84! Certainly nothing to sneeze at, although it’s clear that those 9.5 hours of outside class work aren’t quite getting done. We’re rooting for you next year!

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EXPECTATIONS VS. REALITY...AND A GOODBYE

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Expectations vs. Reality...and A Goodbye

By Matt Rosen

F

or the first issue of the year, I wrote an article detailing my expectations for this year. In that article, I promised to reflect on those expectations. As promised, I now plan on using my last article to contrast my expectations, with what actually occurred over the last year. I will be providing quotes from my September article in bold and italics, and then commenting on whether those expectations turned into reality or not.

Foreign policy: “Best case scenario: both countries [Iran and North Korea] stay quiet, and no major moves are made on the international stage thanks to strong foreign policy.” In reality, both countries did stay relatively quiet this year. So looking at this year in a vacuum, this expectation did come true. Unfortunately, my next point did too. I also predicted that President Trump will probably let us down when it came to making a deal with North Korea, by being too easy on them. I suggested he give them the choice between a functional economy and a nuclear program in order to put us on the path towards a denuclearized North Korea. The most recent summit did show that the Trump administration didn’t have this clear plan, and that President Trump was too willing to be friendly with Kim Jong-un. So I give this prediction a good grade, as Trump was willing to have a strong foreign policy, but a weak stance in personal relationships with their leaders which led to North Korea and Iran to be quiet, with no real progress made.

Economy: “Optimistically, we will continue to see these numbers, take more steps to dismantle Obamacare, lower the deficit, continue to cut regulations, and negotiate towards zero tariffs with our allies. I do not expect to see all of that, especially in only one year, but that is best case scenario.”

There are numerous elements to this prediction. Some came true, some didn’t. We did in fact continue to see good numbers when it came to the unemployment rate, jobs, and eco-

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“Even after I graduate, I still hope that college students on both sides of the political spectrum can speak their minds without fear of being yelled at or called a racist/sexist/homophobic.”

nomic growth. On top of that, Trump still remains one of the best Presidents when it comes to cutting through red tape and deregulating. Unfortunately, when it comes to lowering the deficit, lowering tariffs, and dismantling Obamacare, the Trump administration has been stumped. A lot of that has to do with the Republicans losing the House of Representatives, but even without that fact, President Trump has put these issues on lower priority this year. Overall, the economy is still one of his better talking points for his 2020 campaign, which is as most of us expected.

Immigration: “I also fully expect another government shutdown, which really isn’t as big of a deal as the media makes it out to be… Hopefully President Trump can win this stand off and check off another promise that he kept to his voters.” Yep, this one definitely happened. In my article “Shutdown

and Dance With Me,” I talked about this issue extensively. The December-January shutdown lasted 35 days, making it the longest in US history. In my expectations article, I expressed my hopes that President Trump would not cave this time, force border funding, and eventually get a big “win” on this issue. The verdict is still out on whether he “won.” On the bright side, we will have more wall than we did at the beginning of this year. On the bad side, he didn’t do it the right way. Instead of forcing them to fund border security or even get a compromise, he did cave and chose the route of executive action (declaring a national emergency), which I have spoken out against.

Midterms: “If I were a betting man, I would bet on Republicans keeping the Senate and Democrats narrowly winning the House, but that’s only because of the little evidence we are given. With the polarized media, it is hard to see who is really winning. I, of course, want to see the Red Wave, and large Republican turnout to keep both chambers.” The Republicans did keep the Senate, gaining two seats, as I expected. Unfortunately, the Democrats won 41 seats in the House, which is much is much more than I would have thought. I predicted that it could be a toss up in the House, but that Democrats would probably win twen-

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“Overall this was an amazing year. I loved being a part of the Review for the past few years so much. I met friends for life. For the readers who don’t know, I am graduating in two weeks. I want to thank every single reader and everyone who likes, reads, and even respectfully disagrees with my articles and the paper in general.” ty-something seats, but in reality suburban areas trended much more blue than I would’ve thought or wanted.

Mueller: “Let’s also all hope that this illegal witch hunt known as the Mueller investigation finally ends on its own… The only real way this can hurt Trump is if (A) Republican enthusiasm goes down for midterms, or (B) Trump gets subpoenaed and tricked into a perjury trap. As for my expectations, I do not realistically expect this to go away this year, but I really hope it will.” Yay! The witch hunt did end! On its own! Just a few weeks ago the Mueller Report came out and go figure, Mueller did not find anything to take down the President! And I was also right that the most damage that they did to Trump this year was in the form of low Republican turnout in the midterm elections! I haven’t written about the Mueller Report yet, but basically what it showed was that the President did not collude with Russia and that he he was insanely (and rightfully) frustrated with with the investigation. Because of that, he said some immature things, but did nothing illegal that constitutes either conspiracy or obstruction of justice. Like I said in September, the ending of this investigation will not make this go away, as Democrats still cannot accept the results of it.

Come on guys: “Optimistically I’m hoping for less racial tension, less identity politics, fewer personal attacks, and no shootings…we can leave it at that. I hope that everyone reading this article can at least agree on those

editor@binghamtonreview.com

EXPECTATIONS VS. REALITY...AND A GOODBYE things.” Nope. These did not happen.

Tension between parties increased, the use of identity politics increased, and personal attacks increased. I have to admit, this prediction was fueled by a false sense of optimism and not a realistic expectation, but come on guys, we are tearing each other apart.

I will continue to hope for this until it happens, because it’s exhausting. Can we stop attributing malice where there isn’t? Can we stop assuming people are inherently bad when they disagree with us on politics? This is a problem on both sides of the political spectrum, but because Trump is President and I live on a very liberal campus, I see it more from the left. As for the shootings, we did see some shootings since writing in September. Again, I will leave it very simple: We should all be on the same side in wanting this to end, and hopefully it will.

Campus Environment: “I just really don’t want the concerns that I made in my final article from last year (about how badly myself and other conservatives are treated on our liberal campus) to go unnoticed or unchanged.” This one did not come true. I felt equally hated on this campus. I felt the same need to stay quiet during classes for fear that everyone would attack me (which they have).

I feel the same way now that I did a year ago when I wrote that conservatives were not treated right on campus.

If you think I am playing victim, I’m not. Even after I graduate, I still hope that college students on both sides of the political spectrum can speak their minds without fear of being yelled at or called a racist/sexist/homophobic. No Binghamton Review, College Republicans, or College Libertarians member is any of those, and in reality they are great people. I have to keep this brief for the sake of getting through all of my points, but if you want to know more about what I felt a year ago and still feel today daily when I am on campus, you can read my article that I refer to from last year “The Forgotten Minority on Campus.”

Binghamton Review: “For the club, I hope to expand our reach to new forms of social media, be a part of every event possible on campus, and

report as much and as fairly as possible. I hope to have more conversations with students. I hope that more people email the Review with respectful responses to our articles. I hope that more non-Review members try to talk to us and maybe even submit articles.

I hope to continue to have a great relationship with College Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians. I hope to make more serious articles, as well as fun ones. I hope to keep making puns and dad jokes. I hope to meet and welcome great new students to the Review.” We did expand to new social media, we did play a part in a big event, we did have some amazing articles this year, and we did attract FANTASTIC new members! I also published my first “fun” article, arguing that Luigi is better than Mario. I’m even writing an online exclusive on why the Battle of Winterfell was amazing, which you all should check out online in a few days!

Overall this was an amazing year.

I loved being a part of the Review for the past few years so much. I met friends for life. For the readers who don’t know, I am graduating in two weeks. I want to thank every single reader and everyone who likes, reads, and even respectfully disagrees with my articles and the paper in general. I want to thank the absolutely fantastic members of the Review. Meetings, and even just hanging out with all of our members, was a highlight in my time here at Binghamton, and I will miss all my Review friends so much. Being an e-board member was a true honor, and writing articles for this publication will always be something I will remember and love about my time at Bing. I promise that I will at the very least try to continue writing occasionally and sending some things to the Review to contribute, even after I leave. I really loved this publication and its members from the beginning, and want to thank everyone at the Review. I plan on continuing to write, but even more importantly, I plan to stay friends with everyone I’ve met at the paper for my life.

As the cheesy cliche goes: despite the article title, this is really not a “goodbye,” but a “see you later.”

Thank you, Binghamton.

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THINGS I WISH STUDENTS KNEW

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Things I Wish Students Knew

By Sarah Waters

L

isten up, kid. I have worked at two institutions of higher education in different fields. I have gone through undergraduate and graduate school. I know what I’m talking about. So sit and listen. Auntie Sarah has some life advice for you.

Your Identity is More than a Collection of Labels When I was your age, I didn’t know who I was. Sure, I thought I did. I was a queer, disabled, atheist, fat, gender-nonconforming, feminist rape survivor. But that’s not who I was.

Those were singular aspects of my identity, mere labels. I literally wore these labels on my sleeve. Anybody who disagreed with me politically was not only wrong, but evil and deserved to be silenced. I surrounded myself with a hug-box of like-minded people. My activism was my identity.

It took being thrust into an environment where I couldn’t parade my labels for me to truly begin to understand myself.

As my labels fell to the background, individuality came to the foreground. I started speaking with all types of people. I found myself listening to and engaging in thoughtful discussion with people who held vastly different opinions. My views were challenged, but this time, I had no safe space to fall back to. I had to confront unfamiliar and frightening views with research and deep reflection. Perhaps some of my views were wrong. Perhaps those who disagreed with me were not evil or problematic, but simply different. I ended up becoming religious, in an unexpected turn of events. I learned to admit when I was wrong. I learned who I was. I’m a baker. I’m a writer. I’m an artist. I’m an avid history buff. I’m a human being. None of these things have to do with being gay, or being disabled, or whatever. I am more than labels. Everyone is more than a collection of labels.

When we let labels dictate who we are, we stuff ourselves into boxes. We constrain ourselves only to those in similar boxes. We lose out on great friendships, mentorships, and self-development opportunities. Self-exploration does not end with comfortable boxes. It is a lifelong process of learning about and evaluating yourself. Let yourself enjoy things. Let yourself be friends with those who hold different opinions. Let yourself question what you know. Let yourself be in uncomfortable situations. Let yourself be human.

Fight Offensive Speech with Better Speech Of course, letting yourself be human does not mean you have to give up everything you hold dear. It doesn’t mean you have to throw your values to the wind. Many of my beliefs and values have changed, yes, but many are still the same. I get offended by things. But the key difference now is that I engage in dialogue with those who espouse offensive views.

A lot of students are the type to scream and storm the platform and bang on windows and try to silence others. Not only is it illegal to restrict others’ freedom of speech, it’s ineffective. It portrays you as unreasonable and hysterical. It makes the offensive speaker seem more appealing. You must fight speech with speech while respecting others’ rights to speak and to hear offensive speech. Hold a forum of your own. Write articles. Invite

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speakers. Host a debate. Fight speech with speech.

Be proactive. You have to be willing to engage in dialogue to educate others. Screw the “but it’s emotional labor” crap. The truth of the matter is, if you don’t educate people, neo-Nazis and the like will. Sometimes, it is our responsibility to make ourselves uncomfortable and tired. The alternative is much worse. You’re never going to convince everyone to believe what you believe. But you can’t refuse to speak to those with whom you disagree or to those with little knowledge on a subject.

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear So now that you are open-minded and willing to engage in thoughtful debate, you need to have the facts. Sometimes, finding facts is easy. Other times, you have to sift through fake news. Media is biased. Facts get skewed to fit a narrative. Do your research. Look at hard data. Look into methodology of studies. Use fact-checking websites. Get news from multiple publications with different political leanings. Compare and contrast. A lot of the time, the truth is somewhere in the middle of the extremes. If the truth contradicts your opinion, change your opinion. Seek knowledge and strive to understand.

Let Things Go You’ve learned the facts, you’ve tried to engage in dialogue, but it’s like you’re talking to a brick wall. We live in an era where people think that the world is flat and that politicians are secretly lizards. Sometimes, people are going to believe what they want to believe, and cling to beliefs more strongly the more they are challenged. Sometimes, you just gotta let things go.

So your Uncle Jimmy is a climate change denier. He’s also a firefighter. He dresses up as Santa Claus at the local children’s hospital. He’s kind to people. He’s a good human being. Accept Uncle Jimmy as the person he is, flaws and all. Let people believe what they want. Just let it go, and pass him the mashed potatoes. Both of you will be much happier. Don’t throw away good people just because they hold beliefs with which you disagree.

People Suck Perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give you is that people suck. Your boss may suck. Your mother-in-law may suck. People suck. People can be nasty and hateful and just generally awful to be around. Just focus on your own life and on becoming the best person you can be. Create a balance between your own well-being and the the duty to spread knowledge.

Some people will suck simply because that’s the type of people they are. Know when to move on. There is a world out there full of interesting and good people. Go find those people.

As a professional in the field of higher education, I want my students to get the most out of their college years and the life to come. I hope you keep some of my advice in mind. Find yourself. Question everything. Make new friends. Maintain relationships. Educate yourself and spread that knowledge. Take it easy. Accept others. Enjoy life.

Be human.

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THE FUTURE OF SUDAN: AN ANARCHIST PERSPECTIVE

The Future of Sudan: An Anarchist Perspective

By Jordan Jardine

E

choing the now-famous Arab Spring protests of 2010 and 2011, the North African nation of Sudan is going down a similar path of turmoil less than a decade later. On April 11, amid pressure and growing unrest from Sudanese protesters, the military of longtime President Omar al-Bashir (who had been in power for three decades) turned on him and staged a coup, removing him from office. For the past few months, thousands of courageous Sudanese citizens have banded together to oppose the infamous tyrant and his gross mismanagement of the nation’s economy, which has caused costs of living to skyrocket. Though Bashir tried for months to quell the uprisings through military force, some of his soldiers took pity on the desperate dissidents and decided to join their side, according to an article from the South China Morning Post, a news outlet from Hong Kong.

Since Bashir’s forced exit from Sudanese leadership, the Transitional Military Council has now taken power in the country, according to the New York Times. Though the country was largely united in its revulsion toward Bashir, Sudan is now split between those who favor a civilian and democratic government and those who favor a military-led government. The New York Times has reported that additional disagreements have surfaced over how long the transitional government should last. The Times says that the pro-civilian government side prefers a longer period of transition until elections are set to take place and the pro-military government faction be-

“The Sudanese people need to consider their actions extremely carefully. The future of their country depends on it. Every single one of Sudan’s 39.5 million people deserve to have their basic needs met and they deserve to have complete control over their work and their own lives...” editor@binghamtonreview.com

lieves a quicker, military-led transition is the best course of action. As of the time of the writing of this article, May 1, 2019, the transitional government is still in power and many people in Sudan are uncomfortable with the prospect of military rule according to both the New York Times and a more recent article published by the BBC. It is very understandable that many Sudanese citizens feel uneasy about a military government.

The Sudanese people do not want a repeat of what happened in Egypt following the Arab Spring. While Egypt’s efforts toward revolution were noble, they were in vain. The Egyptian citizenry deposed Mubarak in 2011 only to have his government replaced with another military government which haunts and oppresses Egyptians to this day. As the aforementioned BBC article states, similar outcomes have plagued Libya and Syria. Again, most of the Sudanese population does not care to go down that same perilous path. I happen to agree with the Sudanese citizens who oppose military rule, but as an anarchist, I am also highly skeptical of a civilian government because I oppose representative forms of democracy. Representative “democracies” are often not democracies at all.

Direct democracies are actually democratic, whilst representative democracies are tyrannies masquerading as democratic institutions.

As someone who is highly critical of hierarchy and authority, I believe Sudan’s best course of action is to serve as an example for the Middle East and the rest of the world by dismantling the state apparatus as a whole and replacing it with workers’ councils. Sudan can become a fully independent and autonomous federation of worker communities and cooperatives. If all working Sudanese people had control over the means of production, their living standards would go up and they would be able to have unlimited access to essential resources such as food, water and shelter. Workers in con-

trol of their own work and their own lives is the ultimate manifestation of freedom. While no society is perfect, anarchists such as myself believe that the above-mentioned restructuring of society will result in a lesser number of problems and conflicts. While all anarchists respect the rights and dignity of the individual, most of us also believe that collaboration and cooperation will foster an environment that is conducive to the highest-possible level of harmony among human beings.

The Sudanese people need to consider their actions extremely carefully.

The future of their country depends on it. Every single one of Sudan’s 39.5 million people deserve to have their basic needs met and they deserve to have complete control over their work and their own lives without interference from a centralized bureaucratic state or from corporations, which are essentially, as Noam Chomsky puts it, “unaccountable private tyrannies.”

Sudan has a wonderful opportunity at this point to take the last three decades of tyranny, corruption and oppression and turn it into something beautiful, new and, most important of all, FREE! The country should not waste this opportunity, Not only should they become a worker-controlled territory for themselves, but they should also do it to inspire others to do the same.

The Middle East has been put through hell over the past several decades. Corruption, poverty, authoritarianism, ethno-religious and political violence have all ravaged the region, largely with the support of Western nations such as Great Britain, France and, yes, the United States. Along with most other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Sudan is long overdue for a massive systemic overhaul.

Do not return power to those whom you fought so hard to depose. Old solutions to old problems are not the answer. Only new solutions have any chance of liberating the people of Sudan and, ultimately, the people of the entire world.

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EVIL MOTIVES AND THE LIES PEOPLE TELL THEMSELVES

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Evil Motives and the Lies People Tell Themselves

By John Restuccia

E

veryone is a hypocrite. Whether we like that fact or not, it is true. We are only humans, after all, and we all make mistakes. Being honest with ourselves and others is important in overcoming that fact. However, it is not acceptable to respond to allegations of hypocrisy by lying and pretending that you are perfect. With this in mind, in the past few weeks I have decided to start having more debates and discussions with the other side of the aisle to see and hear how my left-leaning counterparts think. I consider myself a mix between a libertarian and a conservative, with a lot of my political thought heavily influenced

by Ayn Rand’s writing. Focusing on the individual and living for yourself are some of the most important lessons that I have learned in my life. When engaging with the other side, however, I have noticed the lies that some leftists are telling themselves; lies that show their true side of greed and envy. Despite the fact that many on the left say they want to help others and claim that they are looking out for those who can not fend for themselves, some leftists seem to be using these altruistic claims as a disguise for their true motive - trying to get ahead themselves.

Whether these individuals are doing this on purpose or without even thinking I cannot say. It is a fact, however, that their solutions usually require force against those that they label as higher up on the power structure, or that they deem to be in their way.

I experienced this first hand when debating a woman who wanted more female presence in her field. She said there were too many white males making the decisions for her, that they need to leave occupations with power, and, of course, that capitalism sucks. None of this was super shocking to hear, these talking points are nothing new among the other side. What struck me, however, was that in her specific field of study, Classics, I noticed a great majority of the professors were female. In fact, in that subject, I had yet to meet a professor who wasn’t female. Of course, male professors do exist in that particular area of study, but overall I would say females dominate Classics.

I mulled over her arguments and her viewpoint for some time, before I reread some of Ayn Rand’s essays in “The Virtue of Selfishness.” While I didn’t get a complete answer, I did begin to understand the malicious side of those comments.

The first question of concern was “Why did she want fewer men in her field?” Well, to me it would seem the answer might just be because she wanted to be in the field. The study of Classics and Medieval History is not one with many open positions, and jobs in that field are thus incredibly difficult to obtain.

Facing the reality that the odds were not in her favor, she may have instinctively felt like that challenge was not her fault. So, using a veil of altruistic intention and excluding any mention of the fact that she was in effect arguing for others (men) to be held back in order for her to get ahead, she instead simply claimed her plan was for the greater good. In Ayn Rand’s work, she reminded me of Peter Keating, a man who cheated and lied to get ahead of the pack, not advancing by honest hard work (which eventually causes his downfall). It is this greed and envy

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of others, this desire to get ahead that forms a vicious cycle of sorts. Of course in her mind it isn’t her fault that the field is hard to get into. She’s not struggling because she didn’t work hard enough or didn’t try hard enough. Instead, she can just blame her troubles on white men - it is their success that is bringing her down! Why must others be held back, fail, and be forced to forget their passions, in order to allow some people like her to get ahead? I suspect anger and jealousy are what drive many leftists like her: jealousy of others’ success, and envy for their positions.

This is further proven by her attack on capitalism and how it “like, sucks.” Capitalism allows people to live with social mobility. My great grandparents came to this country with $20 in their pocket, and they suffered anti-Italian discrimination for many years in their time. This didn’t stop my ancestors from working hard and eventually rising into the middle class. Hard work and capitalism got my family there. Now my family is able to pursue their interests with such vigor and freedom as is available to those in the middle class. Can you imagine not being able to follow your interests and being forced to do something else day in and day out just to survive? Being bullied out of a position or job you loved? Or even worse, being forced out of that position for no fault of your own? That’s essentially what this woman was arguing for. How else are these “white men” supposed to be moved out of their position? This is fascism, plain and simple. This is not a stand-alone example either. The talking point of wanting specific groups in academia is nothing new. Many of my professors complain of there field being dominated with a certain group of people. The feelings come off as being jealous of those who are more successful than you and want to get them out of the way, by any means necessary.

So to all those pretending to hide behind the virtue of “progressivism” while really championing the use of force and requiring others to sacrifice their livelihoods for yours, know that your motivations are slowly becoming revealed. You claim to want to protect the minority, but in reality, you are hurting the real smallest minority, the individual, to get ahead in life, plain and simple.

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Dearly Departing

DEARLY DEPARTING

By Patrick McAuliffe

I

t’s all led to this moment. As I write for you for the last time as Binghamton Review’s Editor-in-Chief, I get that writer’s block that so many people saying goodbye get. Most of our content is opinion-style analysis, and while that may not be everyone’s cup of tea, a jaded senior’s musings on the past four years may be even less so. However, I want to at least get something out so you can hear from my perspective what this paper and this university means to me. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.

I picked up my first Binghamton Review issue on my tour of campus in the spring of 2015. It was the Police Brutality issue and my dad and I were instantly intrigued. He’s conservative, I was a burgeoning libertarian; what wasn’t to love? This was my safety school, I’ll be honest, but to see such a strong right-wing, liberty-loving presence on campus was one of the main reasons I ended up choosing this school. At my first U-Fest, I hunted down the Review’s table and got myself on that email listserv. Sean, the EIC at the time, and our forever-beloved EIC Emeritus Jordan, greeted me with enthusiasm and friendliness. My first article was a really cringey DC-Marvel comparison I had posted on Facebook about a month before (you can still find it on our website to this day).

From “My Awkward Sodexual Encounters” to “Society: What Is It?”, I dove headfirst into getting involved.

I’ve seen lots of people come and go out of our dungeon office door.

Some didn’t enjoy what we stood for; some people respectfully declined to get involved but were still patiently willing to have the conversations we have; some latch on like me and haven’t let go since. I will never be able to fully express the gratitude I feel for my persistent colleagues and staff over the years. Lord knows it takes a lot to handle my eccentric bullshit. One person can only take so much “Hi homies!” and relentless half-hearted dabbing on a weekly basis.

I had a dream...that one day, when

editor@binghamtonreview.com

I achieved the Editor-in-Chiefdom in my junior year, that I would bring the Review to the greatest heights it had seen in years. I had the honor to lead the Review in its 30th anniversary year, and we produced the most issues in one year than the entire history of the Review (to my knowledge; if you want to check for yourself, all of our old stuff is up on issuu.com/binghamtonreview). Fourteen issues over two semesters is a breakneck pace unheard of for any magazine on this campus.

We dug back into our roots, preserving the spirit of our past while looking forward to what would come.

Stacks have been stolen. People “mean tweet” us on social media.

Our issues and bulletin boards have been defaced. It’s nothing new; about twenty years ago, a vandal was caught stealing a stack from the Lecture Hall and was then plastered on our front cover. UPD has been extremely helpful in defending our property and enforcing the Code of Conduct on the would-be criminally mischievous. The funny thing is that I see some of these people in other activities or classes, or even just walking around campus. Like

in the paradox of social media, where people are closer than ever before but emboldened to be complete dicks to real people, a small but vocal radical minority on campus refuses to see us as people with our own ideas and opinions and not some sort of racist, sexist, neckbeard incel cult of neo-Nazis. I’m a person; I have dreams, aspirations, and opinions just like you. I don’t hate people; none of us do. All sides of the political spectrum talk about having the “real conversations,” but those conversations can never happen when people hide behind profile pictures, Twitter handles, and poorly scribbled Sharpie marker notes on copies of our issues. You saw us at U-Fest and Spring Fling; if that isn’t a time to talk, I don’t know what is.

For those that are interested, I have made the decision to stay in the local area and work with Fastenal, an industrial and construction supply company, with a focus on their industrial vending solutions system.

It’s a really neat concept that’s been in the company since their infancy in the 60s. I’ll be servicing the Raymond Corporation, working my hardest to grow with one of the Southern Tier’s biggest manufacturers. After that, at an unspecified time, I’d like to open my own “board game cafe,” a restaurant and nerd-vana all in one. I’ll have food, drinks, games, and a unique sense of community to bring people together.

I’m not sure where it’ll open, but you’ll be the first to know.

I’m honored to have led this publication for the past two years, and just to have been here for the last four.

My best intentions go out to Tommy Gagliano, our current Social Media Manager (Shitposter) and next year’s Editor-in-Chief, and the rest of the e-board. I’m not gone forever and will be more than happy to stay involved, but this is it for me as the head of the Last Refuge of Scholars. I know we’ll be kicking around for the next thirty years, and I look forward to being there for it.

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