February 2021

The

Boomerang February 2021

New Year, New Dean The Boomerang’s very own Giulia and Stan talk to our new Dean, Susan te Pas What are you expecting coming to UCU? The first thing I expected was to meet a number of nice people, and I have! Besides that, I want to carry out the curriculum renewal, with the new clusters, translated into something we really want. This needs a lot of collaboration with everyone, between departments, teachers and students, and I also realize that we need to be realistic. Corona will obviously affect this year and things might take a bit longer than originally planned. That is also something I have to keep in mind: we have to be careful not to ask too much of people. We might make progress a little slower, but for now we are keeping what is good and making sure we have time to make nice changes. It is easier if we understand that we don’t have to change because it’s not going well, but because we want to make it better.

What challenges did you foresee?

Besides having to deal with corona, obviously, I was expecting the finances to present a bit of a challenge. They are a bit better than I imagined, but we have to find ways to make the college more efficient without compromising quality.

The main thing we need to focus on is more transparency.

tivity and the resilience. It was really a pleasant surprise.

What are your feelings about Campus Relocation?

Relocation is a challenge. Most important is that we make it clear what we need when we relocate. The location is only secondary - it would be nicer to be closer to UU (or at least not further away) so we can do things together with them. But as long as we are clear about what we need for our college to work it will be less of a problem, and the UU will have to find a match. It should stay a residential college - the university board agrees, it should be a campus that facilitates living and learning. That’s the most important thing.

What are your experiences with online teaching?

Last block I taught in an online masters course, a practical skills course. It was very strange online but it worked. I also taught a hybrid bachelor

What do you think the relationship between UCU and the UU should be like?

I think we can be more permeable, exchange more with students and teachers. I would like it to be more reciprocal - have teachers also teach at UU. The scholarship time for UCU teachers that we recently increased could benefit from doing research in research groups at UU. This was already the case but now there is more time to actually do so. Also possibilities to have courses where we co-teach where it is beneficial to collaborate. More interdisciplinary type course where there can be more working together with disciplinary and inter displicplonary students.

Most embarrassing Zoom moment you’ve witnessed?

How do you think your academic background will help you with this role?

Illustration © Annelise van den Akker

course, which was also strange… What works for a theoretical course doesn’t work as well for a practical course and vice versa. An hour for a video talk even for me, feels long, and different to sitting in a classroom. Sub groups for discussion often work better online - a pity when you want to have a debate in a whole group. But that said I don’t mind having some parts online, like Q and A sessions. Those work pretty well, even in large groups.

Well I won’t say who or what …but at some point someone on the call had their husband walking around in his underwear behind them.

Thankfully there was a blurred background but you know, typical zoom moment.

I actually studied physics, which helps, because I then moved around different disciplines and ended up in psychology. In cog neuro it's typical to have lots of different academic backgrounds which helps, also because it is necessary to understand lots of different scientific approaches. Always been interested in teaching, not only research, and helping others teach. I really found my niche in that. I think that's good for the college - it’s about research, but it's primary focus is on learning and teaching, more so than at the faculties.

Best memory/discovery university days?

from

your

I have to go back a long time..I really enjoyed teaching, already as a student, because it was with a whole group of other students and other teachers so I really enjoyed the community aspect, before that it was a really big program, I knew some people but I didn’t feel embedded in a proper group, so teaching made me really feel part of the academic community and that's why I liked it. also doing your thesis, we had one big thesis in a research group and it really felt like I was part of an academic family and I really like that feeling and I still do.

What are your previous experiences with UCU? I have taught a psychology course, and a long time ago, some of the cognitive neuroscience.

Then last year I became temporary director of education, and that was one week before corona so I got to see a very different college. I was instantly struck by the flexibility, the crea-

Favorite piece of Dutch cuisine?

I think pancakes, and maybe herring, raw herring, but there are many things!

Voices, Pots, and Pans Against Guns

2

Bar Brawl: Does Cancel Culture Exist?

10

Is the Campus Agreement Still Viable?

4

Stan Talks to Christian Lee Hutson

11

Colorism & Why You Should Know About It

8

How We Got Addicted To Cars

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The Boomerang | February 2021

WORLD

If you could take any UCU course as a student, what would it be?

some sort of screen thingy, my husband and kids.

What are you looking forward to the most?

Ooh I haven't studied the whole curriculum but I think the one on food! (the course mentioned is Gastronomy: Science and Art of Food).

Favorite quarantine activity?

That we can go back to normal and enjoy the college. Now I’m enjoying the people because we can still talk online but the whole ‘living and learning’ aspect has been disrupted..I want to walk around and talk to people without making an appointment..I've been in my office twice and that's it …it doesn’t feel like I’ve actually started. the atmosphere, the community, that’s what I'm looking forward to. Oh, and barbecuing on campus!

Three things you can’t live without?

I could say my husband and my two sons but that would be a bit corny, so probably my phone… or maybe my computer… Let’s just say

Everyone should have free time, even a dean!

I’ve been playing Among Us actually! I’ve also been having online meals together with friends.

We tried to split it in little groups but now we do it online and i didn’t expect it to work but it’s still fun!

Voices, Pots, and Pans Against Guns

Illustration © Akari Sakamoto

by Eaindra Aye

February 1st was any other mediocre day for me: I woke up, attended my online classes and passed the rest of the time with my mundane routine. However, the same could not be said the same for my country, Myanmar. In one morning, everything changes; the president who they have voted for has been house-arrested, the media transparency which it had obtained recently ceased to exist and fake news started to be shown on national TV, the internet connection and telecommunication got disrupted making it hard to validate the news. The war tanks began to patrol through several cities in Myanmar to give a strong warning to the citizens and to create fears in their hearts. In just one morning, the hopes that we of the Burmese citizens have for the future development of the country have been crushed and stomped upon.

conducted election fraud in the 8th November election despite there being little evidence supporting these claims. The Union Election Commission declared that there will be no rerun as the election results were ruled transparent.

Nevertheless, the military announced a state of emergency, arrested all the newly elected parliament members, reappointed the people of their choice, and placed the country under military dictatorship again. They also inaugurated commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing as the temporary president, who was banned by Facebook for inciting hatred against the Rohingya minority.

Where is Myanmar?

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a small Southeast Asian country between Thailand and Bangladesh. It has a population larger than 54 million people with more than 135 ethnicities.

The main language of the country is Burmese although other ethnic languages are also spoken in their respective regions. The capital of Myanmar used to be Yangon, but it is now Nay Pyi Taw. Yangon, the city that I was born in and grew up in, is a city full of life. It is blessed with people I grew to have a love-hate relationship with.

I’m not a politician, an activist, or a patriotic person who would die for my country. No, I’m just a mere citizen who grew up in that city and loves its character, regardless of its flaws. Now this city that I grew up in, in the country that I’ve grown to love, is being locked away from the world again. It is being put under a military dictatorship where its growth will be cut short.

What is happening in Myanmar?

On February 1st, the military coup against the lawfully elected president began. The military (commonly known as Tamataw in Burmese) arrested the state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, along with the president of Myanmar and other MPs in the National League for Democracy (NLD) party. Party members were put under house-arrest under claims that the NLD

Shortly after this coup was staged, telecommunications across the country were disrupted and we, the people who are abroad, lost all contact with our families and friends. I feared for the worst. This was not the first time a military coup happened. In response to an earlier coup, student protestors stood against the military and started an uprising in 1988. They were dealt with forcefully: shot, massacred, kidnapped, jailed, and exiled from the country. There’s fear that what happened in 1988 will happen again in 2021. A thin string of hope shone through the dark clouds when the disruption stopped and I could contact my family again. However, it still is very grim in the country. It is undeniable that if the people of Myanmar keep their silence, this will be seen as consent and another era of military dictatorship will begin again.

To voice out their disagreement to this forceful overthrow, the citizens of Myanmar began a Civil Disobedience Movement. It is a movement

brought about first by doctors refusing to work in their hospitals, with many other government workers then following suit. They began this peaceful protest to voice out their anger.

Nowadays you can also hear pots and pans banging in most houses in Yangon every night at 8 PM. A Burmese tradition has it that monstrous spirits hiding in one’s home can be chased away by banging pots and pans. My family and friends often share short clips of videos and I can’t be prouder to see how people are voicing their rejection differently than they did in 1988.

However, recently all these updates stopped.

I woke up to find barely any notifications from my friends. My friends who are also abroad told me how Myanmar’s internet has been cut off completely. The only update that I received described a massive protest ongoing in Yangon, but immediately after those pictures were shared by my friends the updates ended. I was left to imagine what could be happening in my country without knowing whether my friends are safe or not. If there is a mass protest occurring in Yangon, then is it inevitable that history will repeat itself? Will it be like 1988 when students and civilians were massacred?

The following morning I was faced with more news of the uprising. I felt relieved there was connection again, but the news was still not the best. Several people had caught wind of video footage where gunshots were heard and there was news saying that the military had shot someone with rubber bullets. Currently, more protests are going on across the country. Protests are still ongoing although there has been very little military response to all of this (except for the temporary ban of social media applications, such as Facebook, and Twitter).

What’s next? A plea for international support If you ever come across the petition named “Save Myanmar and honor the 2020 Election result” on change.org, please give your support.

Myanmar’s democracy is still in its infancy stage and we cannot afford to continue living under a military dictatorship.

A University College Student Association Magazine

WORLD

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Citizens Without Choice

by Klaudia Tokarska January 2021—one difficult year had just ended and many hoped the new year would bring more optimism and peace. In Poland, the events of January quickly proved that at least the beginning of 2021 was not going to be anything like that...

In October 2020, the Polish Constitutional Court approved a law which only allows abortion in cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is in danger. This action sparked nationwide protests which lasted for weeks.

Despite the unusual and difficult circumstances of being in the middle of a pandemic, hundreds of thousands of Poles took to the streets to show their utter resentment and outrage at the court ruling.

"The protesters are not being quiet, though - the messages conveyed during the protests read: 'It’s a right, not an ideology' or 'I simply want to have my rights and choice'" The protests did not result in a change of the ruling. Despite the government signalling it was open to dialogue, on January 27, the near-total ban on abortion was unexpectedly published in Poland’s Journal of Law, enforcing the court’s ruling. Just like in October 2020, the decision was met with an immediate wave of protests across the country. Restricting abortion is seen by the protesters as an attack on social freedoms by the right-wing government that openly

disdains Western liberal values, uses homophobic rhetoric and has eroded protections for the LGBTQ community. Pride flags have been a common sight among the crowds of protesters.

"The ruling party’s decisions continue to expose the undeniable truth of the Polish society" In October, after the first wave of the protest, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński described the protesters as criminals and warned that their actions in the middle of a pandemic would cost lives. However, neither the ruling party—PiS—nor President Andrzej Duda, who is backed by the PiS, have commented publicly on the fresh round of protests. The protesters are not being quiet, though - the messages conveyed during the protests read: “It’s a right, not an ideology” or “I simply want to have my rights and choice”.

Choice might be off the table in other aspects of life in Poland as well. At the beginning of February 2021, a new bill was added to the government’s legislative agenda. If the bill is approved, a levy will be imposed on media organizations which will cover contributions from conventional (radio, television, press) and online advertising. The PiS said that the tax is meant to help raise funds for healthcare and culture, both hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The newly proposed bill was met with widespread disapproval among the Polish people.

On February 10, a multitude of private media

outlets went off air in Poland, running blank pages and slogans such as “This used to be your favourite programme” or “Media without choice”, in protest against the proposed tax that they say is a threat to journalistic independence and diversity. Many groups and individuals are objecting to the planned tax in an open letter to authorities and political leaders.

Clearly, 2021 in Poland did not start off the way many imagined and hoped it would. The ruling party’s decisions continue to expose the undeniable truth of the Polish society. The dispute over women’s reproductive rights, freedom of speech, LGBTQ rights and religion lays bare the political, ethical and cultural divisions that run deep through it.

Media bez wyboru—“Media without choice”— a common slogan of Polish media outlets protesting against the proposed tax.

Why Social Media is Antisocial

by Emile Johnston

Social media is usually pointed out as a social tool, a social enhancer, a social connector, when it is faced with accusations. These accusations are numerous, grave, and have been gaining increasing visibility in the past few years, partly thanks to various experts and big tech ex-employees starting to sound the alarm, as seen in the Netflix documentary-drama The Social Dilemma.

Social media, because of the ways in which its algorithms work, systematically worsens depression, anxiety, loneliness, anger, fear, loss of identity and self-confidence, tensions and divisions on many levels. It also amplifies the spread of hateful content, fake news, conspiracy theories, scams, clickbait, fake sympathy, and many more unwelcome things. For most technology experts in the world today, this is no longer a hypothesis, but a rather well-established fact. So it might be time to ask ourselves whether the assumption that social media is positively ​social​ at all is as well-founded as we think.

Here I mean antisocial in the sense harmful to society, and harmful to the average social media user’s social life. If one takes a quick look at the macroscopic consequences of the arrival of social media into our lives, namely worsening social tensions, violence, the rise of populism, etc., one might be tempted to say that we already have our conclusion. Even though the ways in which all of these things happen and are interconnected can be quite complex.

won’t discuss in detail. What about the rest? The rest is usually where most of the perverse effects of social media happen, because it’s all governed by secret algorithms (yes, they are secret, in fact they are among the most highly protected files in the world).

Even if you’re already beginning to be convinced that social media’s influence on us humans on a societal level is visibly overall negative, it’s not so easy to see what’s happening on an individual level. One important thing that needs to be mentioned here is that it becomes harder to make generalisations about social media when looking at individual usage, because there are so many different apps and websites, and so many different ways people use social media.

That’s where the psychological manipulation is most effective, where the fabric of society is being redefined to the advantage of big tech companies, where technology constantly guides our emotions and reactions. If you stay clear of that, you’re avoiding the worst – although of course people sometimes don’t have much of a choice, and certain usages can be necessities. Whether private messaging has its own negative consequences and whether it should be avoided in certain contexts is a more delicate and complex discussion, but in the meantime we can say that it’s probably the least harmful aspect of social media.

Obviously, social media is ​social in the basic sense of the word: it’s about human interactions. But is it ​ socially good​ ? Is it ​ positively social​? Given all the flaws of social media, and the worrying findings of scientific studies on the matter, we might be content with these ideas as a starting point for the formulation of the following hypothesis: social media is antisocial​.

If we divide social media usage into a few categories, a few ‘types of usage’, some worse than others, it’s easier to try and assess what’s bad and how bad it is. Often what stands out is private messaging, which is the only aspect of most social media platforms that really allows you to connect to people in a (relatively) meaningful way – although even that varies across platforms and has its own flaws and subtleties which I

So far I only skimmed the surface of the whole topic, and I surely haven’t answered all your questions or solved all your problems with social media, but I hope to have at least stirred a thought in you and to have shared ideas that will make sense to most people. This article is part of a larger initiative to raise awareness about these issues and to organise critical thinking on the topic, here at UCU.

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The Boomerang | February 2021

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Is the Campus Agreement Still Viable?

UCU students do not have a rental contract.

That is neither a secret nor a conspiracy, because it is true. While most tenants in the Netherlands have a formal contract between their landlord and themselves, we do not. The reason for this rather odd arrangement can be found in UCU’s approach to housing. Instead of renting housing directly from a housing association, like you would normally do, UCU students are provided housing by UCU as an “essential part of the education’’. The housing that is provided is rented by UCU from the housing company Lekstede Wonen, who owns the various residential buildings on campus.

disturbing lack of legalese to give all of its many words any structural power. The Agreement is partly meant for UCU to inform you about the limitations and rules of living on our campus. Yet it is also meant for us, the only formal housing declaration that we have. Do you need formal proof of residence? It’s the Campus Agreement that you need to show. In practicality, this is our rental contract.

Thus, students are essentially subletting rooms as a part of the education that is provided at UCU. We’ll leave the details about why this system is used aside for now, but the short summary is that UCU needs a degree of flexibility in housing assignment to make the mixed and varied unit distribution on campus work without creating socio-economic divides, and the use of this setup provides UCU with that flexibility.

Yet in its current implementation, the Agreement is profoundly strange - no other adjective to describe it. It jumps around from incredibly specific guidelines on how to throw a party (did you know you have to contact BarCo if you want to throw a party with more than 30 people?), to pretty specific legalese regarding financials, to more general wellbeing tips such as how to reasonably consume alcohol, to a note that everyone at UCU should have a bike with working lights and brakes. To put it bluntly: the current Agreement does not serve our interests the way it reasonably could.

This arrangement between the student and UCU is formalized in the Campus Agreement. At the start of our first year, upon moving into our rooms, we are all required to sign the Campus Agreement. It is, at best, a well-meaning yet ineffective document, and at worst a jumbled mess of different demands, rules and guidelines with a

"It is, at best, a well-meaning yet ineffective document"

While we were aware of this, some of you had noticed it as well. As a result, after e-mail correspondence largely initiated by a fellow student

by Your CAR Board

outside the CAR board, we now have a meeting with management scheduled at the end of March.

In this, we want to present a list of changes and improvements we would like to make to the Agreement. These range from - for example taking the clutter out of the document to formalising what our landlord and housemaster can and cannot do inside our units.

But CAR is a representative board, and as you can see we would not get nearly as far without the help from students outside our board. That’s why we’re calling on you all to help us with reworking the Campus Agreement. If you’re really passionate about affirming your rights as tenants - and we know some of you are - or generally just interested in the legal workings of things like these, then please send us an e-mail before 28/02 introducing yourself, and stating why you would like to join our little task force.

Consider it an application of sorts, just slightly less formal. Together, we can hopefully declutter our Campus Agreement and actually make it a useful and legally strong document, with the help of UCU management. Because the Agreement in its current implementation is not striving for excellence at all, and is that really not what UCU is all about?

Applications can be sent to campusaffairs.ucu@gmail.com until 28/02

A 34 People Introweek by The UCSA Board Introweek in Spring is known to be of a smaller size then Fall Introweek. Normally approximately 100 people arrive in January of which roughly two thirds are made up of exchange students. These exchange students did not arrive this year (with an exception of 4), meaning Spring Introweek would be held for only 34 students. As soon as the lockdown was confirmed we knew Introweek would have to take place completely online, this in turn led us to the decision to shorten Introweek by two days and to have an Intro-Weekend when restrictions allowed for it., This Intro-Weekend still needs to be had.

In terms of Introweek itself this is roughly how a day looked for us UCSA board members: 9.00-11.00: Be in the office for Jumbo delivery 11.00-11.30: Lead parent briefing and check up with UC Student Council for the Academic & Residential Life workshop 11.30-12.00: Have a run through of day with the board 12.00-13.00: be on standby in case there is an issue with the Academic & Residential Life workshop 13.00-14.00: Make GastronomyCo packages and bring them around for committee events 14.00-15.00: Help ArtsCo delivery, CAO’s need to be at the committee market 15.00-17.00: Give a workshop on making banana bread 17.00-18.30: Do office hours and pick up dinner packages from Chris 18.30-20.00: coordinate dinner pickup with the parents then eat

20.00-22.00: Lead the pub quiz and clean up the online environment used for Introweek (MS Teams) 22.00-all night: Be on nightcall This was one of the slightly busier days this Introweek and we still got to wake up later than usual and go to bed at a reasonable time.

Our relatively peaceful schedule obviously does not mean the Introweek was not incredibly fun, it was! We had a great time speaking to the new halfies whenever we dropped stuff off at their unit (they might have gotten tired of us after a while though) and got good feedback on most events.

Obviously everyone missed the party nights and sports day but given the fact that we were and are still in a nationwide lockdown and global pandemic, people understood why these events could not take place. Some events even received such good feedback we think they should be incorporated in all Introweeks coming, such as Crazy 88 and the Unit Dinner.

Though the circumstances under which the new students were introduced to UCU and during which UCU was introduced to them were incredibly weird and unnatural, we as the UCSA board had a great time and really loved meeting all of the new students! They are a great group, so we hope everyone else gets to meet them soon too!

XXX The UCSA board

Dearest Campus, How’s it going? Are you good? Are you drinking water? Are you staying hydrated?

Are you trying to take a break from screens?

Have you tried switching from coffee to green tea? Have you been trying to fix your sleep schedule? Are you trying to be there for your friends? Are you trying to be kind to yourself?

Are you trying to be present in the moment?

Me too, man, me too. The Boomerang is back for 2021, and we’re excited to welcome our new members, Giulia and Senan, to the board. We also want to thank our previous members Justus and Rafaella for all their great work last semester. I also want to thank Rafaella for her work both conceptualising and organising this edition's POC at UCU spread which features stories and writing that expresses the voices of people of colour on our campus.

Yours Always, Stanley Ward Editor-In-Chief

A University College Student Association Magazine

WORLD

Walking Tips From an Observer

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by Elizabeth Moore view is an ocean of coppers and browns. By simply spreading your awareness over multiple planes of vision, you can better enjoy the human solidarity around you or the natural world peeking.

The city of Utrecht is rich, charming, and polished. Strolling through the forest or the city center never fails to disappoint. In non-corona times, I spend a good deal of time with my sisters in the suburbs of Essen, Germany.

This city is less manicured. Green spaces are abundant but tobacco products dot the ground and cracks rupture the sidewalks. Nonetheless, with attentive observation skills, these walks are exactly as enjoyable despite the less overt aesthetic.

2. Unplug I’m not saying to completely ditch your Doja Cat or your morning briefing, but taking a moment or two of quiet during your walks is a good practice. To quote the words of experimental composer John Cage: “everything we do is music”. In his piece 4’33”, a man sits down at a piano before a waiting audience. He is then calm and silent for 4’33’’. He doesn’t plunk a single key of the piano. Your attention is drawn to the sounds of the audience: faint coughs, rustles, chairs squawking. Your senses are attuned and focused with expectation, so you notice all of the background noise that typically escapes you. Like this composition, the birdsong, vehicle noise, and sound of your own steps while walking are all sounds that can easily escape your awareness. What happens if you shift your perspective, and make your background noise the main movement?

Here, I hope to share a few tools that you can use to prevent zoning out and gain more appreciation and insight from your walks.

1. Look up and Down With a podcast or an audiobook in your ears, this auditory stimulation need not monopolize an entire headspace. Consider this a reminder to remain visually alert and let your gaze sweep as you walk. Anything from a child’s pollockian sidewalk chalk to an explosion of pasty mushrooms at the base of a tree may greet you.

Similarly, if you look up, you might see buoyant crumples of clouds, or brightly lit apartments filled with bookshelves or flags. Maybe you are walking in a park and notice the color green dominating your vision, or it is fall and your

3. People Watch David Foster Wallace in a memorable speech pointed out jokingly that “everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence”. This elegant speech draws attention to our intrinsic and unavoidable egos. To

observe other people mindfully is to remind oneself that lives revolve outside of yours, completely separate from your own experience and benefits. Observe people for style inspiration, out of curiosity, or to notice your snap judgments and then question them.

4. Think about human needs and environmental ties Have you ever wondered where rainwater goes when so much of our urban land is covered in impenetrable cement? How does your city or town government satisfy primal human needs for exercise, clean air, and vitamin D. How many trees and parks does your city have?

Around abundant apartment buildings, do you notice careful ratios of greenspace or balcony to housing? By noticing the importance of environmental features to human well-being, we can better appreciate the land that we inhabit and the ways in which it provides for us.

5. Treat yourself Winter here in Utrecht is gray and drizzly.

It’s hard to resist the instinct to languidly curl up with a book and blast your space with artificial light. When gloomy weather strikes, it may seem quite counterproductive to leave the safe space of your home and face the outdoors.

Sometimes it’s annoying out there! Your wit is short and the street sweeper is loud and there is garbage on the ground and those joggers are breathing pretty passionately to not be wearing masks. If it is one of those days- incentivize your walk. Journey to a favorite cafe and pick up a cozy to-go drink. (Yo- shout out to the Town&Gown Utrecht city guide for ideas!). Or, decide to call your friend, or bring a novel. I guarantee that the exercise, both physically and in observation and gratitude, will leave you in a better space than before.

Like any skill, observation improves with practice. With a bit of work, it will become effortless. You will experience increased relaxation in tandem with a feeling of connectedness with yourself and with nature.

Is America a Supermarket Commonwealth? by Sam Wolters During its history, the United States has prided itself on not being like Great Britain: its Declaration of Independence, its revolution, and its general history of not being part of England. It even has a constitution, while Britain famously lacks one. Or, as one of my American friends puts it, “dumb-ass Brits lacking a constitution”.

Yet something strange seems to have happened in its almost 245 years of existence: America seems to have made itself into a weird, supermarket brand Commonwealth.

Let’s start with the monarchy: the Commonwealth nations largely recognize the British monarch as their head of state. America doesn’t do that. In fact, it prides itself on not having one.

However, our head of state is the President, who, curiously much like a monarch, attains a life-time title as “Mr. President”, even when out of office.

We also have the same choreographed polite-

ness towards our not-a-monarch, with specific etiquette for the State of the Union, which the media gets very upset about when someone violates it. We also have ruling political families, much like a monarch, with two presidents named Bush, almost two Clintons, the Trump children preparing for congressional runs, and up until recently, more Kennedys in different levels of legislature than anyone can count. This basically follows the basic tenets of the British monarchy, have strange etiquette that must be followed around them, and so forth, and so on.

In terms of sports, America has sort of copied and adjusted the Commonwealth sports leagues.

We don’t have rugby, but we still have a sport in which freakishly large men ram into each other as hard as they can in order to get a ball onto the other side of a field. While I’m sure this pisses off fans and players of rugby and American football,

they’re objectively extremely similar games. The US also doesn’t participate in whatever cricket is; instead, we play baseball, an equally strange game which takes very long and involves men in pajamas hitting a ball with a stick.

America has more or less seceded from the British empire and made an off-brand version of it. This invokes questions about the extent to which the rest of the Anglo-Saxon world sees itself as different from the creature that spawned it. Many English-speaking nations are marked by seceding themselves from everyone’s favorite problematic island in the North Sea; but are they truly that different? Is America not a watereddown version of everyone’s favorite monarchy?

These are the questions everyone should ponder.

Illustration © Maia Francisca

During these tumultuous times even the simplest things can turn sour– daily tasks are hijacked by feelings of anxiety or apprehension.

Thus, it’s appealing to escape our own plots by taking in constant streams of videos or podcasts or books; slurping up other people’s thoughts instead of spending waking hours fostering our own. This stimulation is not dooming– there are still plenty of hours left in a day to exist in a state of noble discomfort. That being said, we deserve to make choices for ourselves, instead of inadvertently sliding into these zombie, conscious-avoiding moments. Otherwise, we are apt to miss the gems of everyday life that make us richer people. One activity in which the zombie state can take over a light-in-the-dark activity is something active and outdoors, like walking.

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The Boomerang | February 2021

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An Overview of Dutch Elections by Sam de Visser So there’s a Dutch election coming up. As a Dutch person, someone who is into politics, and a straight white male to whom this has no stakes whatsoever, I can tell you that I’m excited for what is surely going to be another election full of weak imitations of American politics, Mark Rutte getting away with everything that has ever happened (ever), and casual racism that nobody seems to realise is actually a bad thing. Yet while I am Dutch, I realise that many of you are not. So I figured I’d take you through our election system and our many political parties, so that you too can yell at your computer in agony, powerlessness and despair on March 17th.

In many ways, the Dutch election system is a blessing because it allows for representation— a shocking concept in many democracies. We don’t have first-past-the-post like many Englishspeaking countries do. We don’t even have an electoral threshold, which means that I can theoretically start a party simply named SAM!, convince around 63,000 innocent souls to vote for SAM!, and become a parliamentarian based on absolutely nothing. Those 63,000 souls are based on 1/150th of our voting population, because our parliament has 150 seats. That’s all you need to win a seat in our parliament. Get a lot of those, you win the election. Then you find an electoral majority by joining forces with other parties, create a government coalition, and have your laws passed by your parliamentary majority. It’s awesome.

" If the Netherlands has proven anything over the last year it’s that we can be just as stupid as America" So who are the key players in this funny gameshow? Here are the thirteen parties, in order of their seats won in the last election:

Illustration © Sam de Visser

People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD): With 33 seats, the VVD has been the foremost ruling party for the last ten years.

Led by Mark Rutte, the party advocates for limited government, more individual freedom and classically liberal values. Before corona, the ten years of the VVD-led government had

the Netherlands experience constant economic growth—the only issue is that our population didn’t seem to reap the benefits of this, with income levels remaining unequal. Nonetheless, and partly due to the covid response they led, the VVD remains sky-high in the polls.

Party for Freedom (PVV) - 20 seats: The wacky hair man! Geert Wilders, the PVV leader, may just be our most internationally recognisable politician. Referred to as ‘Dutch Trump’, he did populism before it was cool, and nowadays represents some sort of classical populism. You know, he hates minorities, the rule of law, and democracy, but at least he doesn’t question election integrity (more on that later).

Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) - 19 seats: One of VVD’s coalition partners, some form of CDA has been part of every single Dutch government since the Second World War, bar three. CDA itself is marked by a centre-right approach to politics whilst adhering to Christian values. (They’ve kind of dropped this as of late, opting to hold on to power at any and all costs.)

Recently, they’ve come under fire for botching our corona response, as our current Minister of Public Health is a CDA member and the VVD is good at blaming others for mistakes they’re mainly responsible for. Yet they are especially popular in rural areas, and the chance they’ll pop up in the next government remains high.

Democrats ’66 (D66) - 19 seats: Another current coalition member, D66 is known for being the centre. Their approach to economics is right-wing; but they are profoundly left-wing progressive in their sociocultural policies. They are (or were?) also known as ‘the education party’: they tend to be vocal about students’ rights—the problem is they haven’t really practiced what they’ve preached during their stint in government, leading to them losing support in the last few years. The VVD has essentially forced them to drop a lot of their principles, then made them take the blame. Classic VVD.

GreenLeft (GL) - 14 seats: Four years ago, GL made a stormy rise and won its largest electoral victory ever, riding the coattails of increasing demands for green and sustainable politics and a charismatic leader. Most of their politics are very left and very green (shocker!), although they have been behaving a lot like the American Democratic Party lately, and not in a good way. “We should name navy ships after strong women.” That kind of stuff.

Socialist Party (SP) - 14 seats: Once upon a time, the SP was so communist they identified as Maoist, and nowadays, lots of their support can still be found

in our classically socialist northeast. Yet they’ve dropped a lot of their more radical left-wing viewpoints, which became clear due to a scandal in which they kicked members out of the youth party for expressing communist sympathies.

This, combined with a less-than-charismatic party leader and a continued struggle to get their message across in an ever-more right-wing country, means that they have been standing at a loss in the polls for a while now.

Labour Party (PvdA) - 9 seats: Together with VVD and CDA, the PvdA is known for being one of our ‘governing parties’: they’ve been a part of many a post-war government, and are perhaps the definition of a ‘broad labour party’ the way you can find them in the UK and Germany.

However, they made the colossal mistake of entering a government with the VVD eight years ago, and got punished hard for it during the last election, going from 38 to nine seats—the biggest electoral loss in Dutch history. It remains to be seen how they are going to recover from this, having recently switched party leaders at the last minute due to the previous leader’s involvement in the children’s welfare benefits scandal.

Christian Union (CU) - 5 seats: The smallest government partner, the CU has five seats that were given to them by an electorate of Christians that are too religious for CDA but not crazy enough for SGP. CU is defined by being moderate: they express moderate centreleft views on many things, with a Christian background. In the current government, they have been able to keep their heads above water through open and honest criticism of the government at times when it is needed. Yet they are still a religion-based party, don’t like abortion, euthanasia, or anything that goes against these classical Christian values—make of that what you will.

Party for the Animals (PvdD) - 5 seats: The PvdD was founded nineteen years ago and became famous for being the first animal-rights focused party to enter any parliament. Over the years, they’ve morphed into a more general environmentally focused left-wing party, more radical than GreenLeft or in some ways the SP, but with a sort-of-refreshing different perspective. That said, a lot of their goals are essentially unachievable. But dare to dream, am I right?

50Plus - 4 seats: 50Plus is a party dedicated to those who are fifty and over. Because in this country, in which this exact demographic has been able to dictate politics for years because of their sheer volume and their dinosaur-like shorttermed stupidity, a party dedicated to them is exactly what we needed. They want earlier retirement, or something. I really can’t bring myself to care.

State Reformed Party (SGP) - 3 seats: The SGP is wacky. The oldest political party in the entire country, for over a hundred years they have bounced around having either two or three seats, because one specific part of the country always (and I mean always) votes for them—our Christian fundamentalist population. They also

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have some very strong Christian fundamentalist views: they don’t like the LGBT+ community, abortion, euthanasia, or women having rights (they got sued over that last one). Yet their two or three seats are always a given, to such an extent that you can consider them ‘throwaway seats’—our wackiest Christians will always vote them in, no matter what.

DENK - 3 seats: One of two new parties that entered parliament four years ago, DENK is a split-off from PvdA that focuses on minority rights. Having been led by two Dutch-Turkish politicians for the last few years, this is the exact demographic that DENK has been focusing on.

That’s gotten them in some hot water, especially because they have refused to denounce Erdogan (who fundamentally opposes their leftwing values, by the way) in order to not piss off their base, pissing off the rest of the country as a result. Their current leader, however, seems to distance himself a bit from this and seems to be a shockingly reasonable and smart guy, so it remains to be seen how they are going to present themselves, and if they’ll profit from it.

Forum for Democracy (FvD) - 2 seats:

The second of the new parties, FvD has made a stormy rise in the polls over the last four years, and then just-as-stormy a drop. Different from PVV in that their populism is far more insidious and has even less regard for the truth, party leader Thierry Baudet has gone off the deep end lately in his hatred of the corona measures.

There was also a Trumpian stint in November where Baudet resigned in order to prevent a media scandal due to half of FvD’s youth party consisting of nazis, then re-announced his leadership less than a day later in the exact same manner—and then may or may not have rigged a referendum on his leadership, which caused most of his former allies to finally realise he had gone too far and abandon the party. Like most of Trump’s antics, it is as sad as it is dumb as it is funny as it is fascist, with the crucial difference that FvD has no power at all, and therefore no lives are at stake (yet).

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views) and JA21 (right-wing populists who split off from FvD, because we definitely need more of those).

I do hope this article has provided some insight into our strange political system, and the many incompetent parties that occupy it. I hope you can join me in horror as we watch the next elections unfold, because if the Netherlands has proven anything over the last year it’s that we can be just as stupid as America, if we want to.

Boy, I’m excited.

(Obviously, this article is very biased. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to know more about our parties, though, or what has been occupying Dutch politics recently—it is genuinely very interesting, and I am always down for a conversation, or just to link you to some sources.)

Anyway, these are our parties. I have tried to make this article as neutral as possible by hating every party equally, because they mostly suck.

There are some more parties outside of parliament that stand a chance to enter it: the most prominent are BIJ1 (most of UCU’s political

Riots over Curfew Restrictions

by Senan Cullinane The 9th of February has come and gone, but curfew still remains. On the evening of Monday 8th, the caretaker Dutch government voted to extend the controversial 9pm-4.30am stay at home order in an attempt to prevent a third wave of the coronavirus driven by more infectious strains. Naturally, when the overnight curfew was first imposed on January 23rd with its €95 euro penalty, no one was overjoyed - but most were willing to accept what had been deemed necessary. Here in the Netherlands there has already been over one million cases and almost 15,000 deaths, and with the numbers skyrocketing back in January, more drastic measures needed to be implemented.

From the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a certain level of reluctance among parts of the Dutch population to fully adhere to all the restrictions and to give up individual freedoms.

Police have issued over 8000 fines since the start of the curfew (as some on campus know all too well!), and while the vast majority of people have peacefully and properly observed the curfew, some people (predominantly young men) who apparently see themselves as the country’s lovers of liberty and champions of freedom have sparked widespread protests and riots.

Utrecht luckily escaped generally unscathed from these (violent) demonstrations, but unfortunately, elsewhere in the country damage was done. Police described it as the worst unrest the country has seen in 40 years. In the three nights following the initial announcement, large groups of violent demonstrators took to the streets at night across the country in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag and Eindhoven and also in smaller towns such as Den Bosch, Amersfoort, Zwolle, Alkmaar, Gouda and notably Urk, where

a test centre was burned down. One social media invite to an Amsterdam riot read, “Fireworks, dynamite, gasoline, bricks. Get everything”.

Fires were lit in streets, shops looted, fireworks flew and a bridge was blown up. Water cannons were employed by the authorities in some cities, and over 200 people were arrested and detained.

10 police personnel were seriously injured.

" Why is it that such an extreme reaction has been provoked when other Western European countries with similar restrictions have seen no such thing?"

But why is it that such an extreme reaction has been provoked when other Western European countries with similar restrictions have seen no such thing? Despite the strong social policies of the Netherlands, the Dutch are a people who are known to value their individual freedoms. After being governed by emergency measures, with little democratic control and everything that was once normal now forbidden, for some, the curfew was a step too far. Being told what they can and can’t do by their government to such an extent has, to put it nicely, ruffled their feathers. With #AvondklokProtest trending in the early days of the curfew, the Twitter warriors were quick to point out that the last time there was a stay at home order like this in The Netherlands, it was during Nazi occupation, and there is still tweet after tweet comparing the Dutch government to the Nazis. A few moments on social media reveal that these sentiments have been used to fuel wild conspiracy theories that the pandemic is a scheme from the global elites to reorganise

society and to control the people. Others among the protesters, however, are likely to simply be frustrated with the restrictions, how the country is being run, or how the pandemic has been handled. Frustrations over societal divisions and issues that have been simmering under the surface for years have finally boiled over into violence and caused even further discord in the country. With all kinds of people participating in the riots, there is a connecting factor that has brought them all to the streets - a deep distrust or hate of the government and societal institutions, arising from societal division, years of anger and perceived grievances.

The riots have received widespread condemnation from both politicians and the reasonable group within the Dutch people. Prime Minister Rutte denounced the riots, asserting that those on the streets have gone far beyond their right to protest and making it clear that rioting is criminal violence and being treated as such. Likewise, Rotterdam’s Mayor Aboutaleb branded the rioters “shameless thieves”. However, many demonstrators saw themselves as protesting legitimate concerns regarding the country’s direction and the handling of the pandemic. In times of uncertainty and fear, we can only hope that grievances are resolved and the violence ceases.

There were no further large scale demonstrations or riots following the decision to extend the curfew, with the snow storm perhaps serving as a distraction or deterrent. On the eve of a general election, however, it will be interesting to see if Rutte and the VVD can keep popular support or if they will suffer as a result of the situation instead.

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The Boomerang | February 2021

POC AT UCU

Microaggressions and The “Other Black Girl”

by Morgan Diakite Ever since the summer of 2020, with George Floyd’s murder and the surge in Black Lives Matter protests and coverage in the media, race and racism have occupied more space in my mind. It is not that these thoughts were not there before-- when meeting new people I am often conscious of how others perceive me in terms of me not being white in a majority white environment.

But race and racism really moved to the forefront of my thoughts and actions outside of these interactions. I had experienced racist remarks and discrimination before, but it was not something that I thought about more than I had to. Though after a summer of documentaries, conversations, and reading, I was re-evaluating experiences that I had not given much thought to before: my curriculum, how many friends of color I have, or how many teachers I have had that look like me.

My mom is a Black American, my dad is half European and half African, and I identify as Black. Throughout my life I have grown up in international schools, being one of the very few Black students. I was often mistaken for the “other Black girl” who looked nothing like me; these awkward encounters did not stop when I arrived at UCU. I often mention to friends that apparently I have at least five doppelgangers at UCU, and it has become a “funny” joke between my boyfriend and me. However, every time it happens it not only embarrasses me, but also gives me this feeling of dread when I know it is about to happen again.

Until last year I had not realized that there is actually a word to describe these daily -- usually

unintentional -- situations that perpetuate a derogatory or negative attitude towards marginalized groups: microaggressions. Other examples of microaggressions are expressions that include: “yeah, but where are you really from?” (to me) or “your English is so good” (to my mom), or “yeah but you don’t really count [as Black]” (to my sister). Knowing that this kind of terminology existed really gave me a sense of validation.

" I often mention to friends that apparently I have at least five doppelgangers at UCU" Thankfully, I do not think I have been confronted with explicit racism at UCU. Though usually, especially in this environment, it does not come in the form of racial slurs or overt prejudice based on someone’s race or ethnicity.

Racism has adapted into a more subtle form in order to remain socially acceptable in these environments. This brings me to another term I learned most recently: gaslighting. This is when people emotionally manipulate you by intentionally planting doubt into your perception of an experience as a minority by saying phrases like, “you’re so dramatic” or “why are you so defensive?”. This is definitely a common phenomenon, even at UCU.

reading this, you realized you have gaslighted or micro-aggressed someone in a conversation or have had it done to you, but that is why education on these topics is an important starting point for both sides.

These terms give names to the struggles people of color experience on a daily basis. This nomenclature is especially significant as these are the kinds of experiences that hurt the most and, simultaneously, make one wonder if their feelings are valid, leading them to think, “maybe I am over-reacting?” or “they probably did not mean it that way.”

Given that this is my last semester at UCU and at the same time a period in my life where I have attached more personal significance to my experience as a woman of color, I really wanted to work on projects that I would have liked to see in my first year. My goal is to help strengthen the voices of people of color by vocalizing my experiences and amplifying others’.

The first step was to create a group for people of color at UCU, and now that I have joined the Diversity Committee, it gives me continual hope that things can change and move forward.

Hopefully, these projects will help all minority students in the years to come.

I have always really enjoyed my time here at UCU and I have found that for the most part people are open-minded and kind-hearted here.

But most people, whether or not they are people of color, have things to learn about perspectives they have not experienced. Maybe in

Colorism, and Why You Should Know About It by Aila Dielemans

" I have been told that I’m 'lucky' to 'not be too Black'" If you are unaware of how this manifests, take a look at your favorite ‘inclusive’ brand or instagram account, or show, or movie, or music video, or whatever - a lot of the time the majority of Black people they cast are light-

er-skinned (and usually with more eurocentric features). Awareness on this subject is increasing, but there is still far to go. For instance, Beyoncé released the song Brown Skin Girl to empower and uplift dark-skinned Black girls and women, such as her daughter.

This led to quite some controversy as lighter-skinned people felt ‘left out’, not realizing the extent of darker Black skin erasure in the media and the sheer amount of songs about the beauty of ‘lightskins’.

If we ignore colorism, we ignore the lived experiences and inequalities faced by darker-skinned people. It is not enough to uplift lighter-skinned people of color and then call it a day in your equality books. That simply does not cut it. I urge you to be more critical when it comes to inclusivity and to reflect on your own views of race, and more specifically, Blackness.

Illustration © Tara Sitindjak

Colorism - an important phenomenon that is not included often enough in conversations about race. The term refers to the different magnitudes of racism experienced based on the shade of someone’s skin. It is the preferential treatment of lighter skinned people of color over darker skinned ones. In the words of Lupita Nyong’o: “colourism is the daughter of racism.”

As a lighter-skinned Black person I have ‘benefited’ from ‘less harsh’ forms of racism. I have been told that I’m “lucky” to “not be too Black”.

The whiteness in me grants me certain privileges, and so with every racist encounter I face, I’m aware that had I been darker, it could have been worse.

For more information, see ‘Colorism | Khadija Mbowe’ on YouTube.

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POC AT UCU

Surrender by Malaika Chidzero “Racism doesn’t exist anymore. It did in the past, but it’s not like that now”…

Growing up, history was something I couldn’t care less about. Why should the past matter if the life we currently live exists only in the present?

This version of myself might have even accepted this comment that was uttered by a student during a mildly heated class debate in my second year.

" What still remains for many people of colour is emotional pain that is intertwined with their racial history and identity" This is for anyone who might have read that initial quote and felt ambivalent about it, or perhaps even agreed with it. I want to ask you to surrender. Let go of your political stances and surrender any prejudice or preconceptions you may have about the subject of race and racism, just for this moment. Surrender these thoughts so what remains is your natural, emotional sense of being. It is from this place that I hope you understand why racial justice and equality is such an important fight, because despite the fact that “times have changed”, what still remains for many people of colour is emotional pain that is intertwined with their racial history and identity.

Before I turn to my own family’s history, I want to emphasize that I do not speak for all people of colour. I am aware of the privileges I have as a mixed-race POC, and I am aware that I cannot

even begin to express the pain that others have faced, and still do face. But I hope that by telling my own account, you may gain empathy towards others too and refrain from shrugging our voices off as easily as you might have once.

Just over a hundred years ago, my great-grandfather was a farm labourer who worked himself to the bone on multiple farms of white-settlers while journeying by foot from Malawi to Zimbabwe. His act of walking across countries was his statement to the world that he wanted a better life for himself and his family, and he was able to build this life that eventually allowed for his children to go to school.

His son, my grandfather, made the most of this opportunity and succeeded in ending a lengthy family struggle under the cycle of poverty by becoming a successful writer, economist, and politician. My father excelled too, and stands as a reminder to the African side of my family that success is possible despite many barriers.

But naturally, these successes did not come for free. As students we know that hard work and success often come at the cost of our mental health and well-being. When I think about everything these men in my family were able to achieve, it is impossible to ignore the simultaneous presence of mental-health issues that runs on this side of my family. For them, there was no time for activities of the spirit, for ensuring mental well-being and stability. The result of this is years of intergenerational trauma and the consequential genetic predisposition to mental health problems that run in my family, and those

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of many people of colour.

When I reflect upon my own problems in life and those of other people of colour, I can’t help but question how the history of our families has created a body and mind that is more prone to mental issues and susceptible to things like depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and heightened trauma responses.

If my great-grandfather wasn’t mistreated by white settlers; if my grandfather had a minute to spare on his own peace of mind; if my father was aware that his own pain has a history and that he should love and care for himself just a little bit more – dare I say – if they were all white, perhaps things would be different. Perhaps the body and mind in which I reside would display a different kind of resilience, and the pain I sometimes feel wouldn’t seem so deeply embedded in who I am.

" We carry the effects of racism in our blood" Racial justice is not just a political fight but one grounded in a history of emotional pain that can’t be isolated from our racial identity. Don’t tell us to get over it, don’t say racism doesn’t exist, don’t say you don’t see colour. Acknowledge the fact that our pain comes from something real, that we carry the effects of racism in our blood. And surrender yourself to stand with us instead of against us.

Insect Encounters & Similar Stories

by Alina Katz A series of anecdotes of the different ways I would coexist with insects and animals in Costa Rica. Disclaimer: I am sorry about the scorpions but none of them got hurt (I'm pretty sure).

"Ridiculous, entitled ants"

" We had read somewhere that if you put a scorpion in a ring of fire, it would realize that it couldn’t escape and commit suicide by stinging itself" Scorpion Ring of Fire There are scorpions everywhere. Any corner that isn’t already claimed by another insect will be housing a scorpion. Not only do they look

like lobsters and the devil had a child, but they are bold as hell. I used to find them everywhere, including one that happened to be chilling on my thigh (which I only realized once I sat down.

What the actual heck?). So as protest, my dad, brother, and I would trap scorpions that we found and put them to the ultimate test: the Ring of Fire. We had read somewhere that if you put a scorpion in a ring of fire, it would realize that it couldn’t escape and commit suicide by stinging itself. We tested this hypothesis dozens of times, subjecting scorpions big and small. I don’t remember if any of them actually did it, especially since no fire we lit was so big that they couldn’t just walk through it.

What is important was the journey, not the destination.

Illustration © Lea Litvak

Attack of the Ants Unbeknownst to us, the war had started long ago. They snuck past enemy lines and created strongholds on our side. They had ambushed us. We only realized because all of the paper we printed would have strange shadows on them.

Upon taking apart the printer to see what was wrong with it, we were confronted by what the ants had created: a nest. Every corner of the printer was filled with hundreds of ant eggs.

Honestly, it's a miracle that it was even able to print anything. We thought we had won the war, until ants started to come out of the bathroom walls. Yes, they were living in the walls of the bathroom. There were so many of them that you risked a lot of pain whenever you showered.

Ridiculous, entitled ants.

Tadpole-sitting The river by my house acted as a frog egg laying site. There were so many tadpoles that in some spots the water looked black due to their abundance. Naturally, my brother and I would fill empty, liter coke bottles with some river water and tadpoles to take home. We would watch them overnight as if they were our own makeshift lava lamps. The next day we would return them to the river. Fun fact: tadpoles mixed with river water smells like shit. Imagine an amphibian smell (which is almost fishy but not quite) mixed with water,dirt, and rocks.

That is how they smelled.

10 BAR BRAWL Is It Time To Cancel The Cancel Culture? by Ilya Genov What is cancel culture? At this point, with so many discussions and arguments happening around this term, it has turned into quite a buzzword.

But for those living under a rock: cancel culture is a contemporary version of ostracism – a procedure of expelling an individual from the society, which was quite commonly performed in ancient Greece. In its modern variation, cancel culture stands for a practice of depriving (often famous) people of their social and professional privileges, because of the expression of unpopular views, opinions, or beliefs. The name for this phenomenon is built on the assumption that any particular person can be ‘canceled’ as an influential figure in the public domain. But is it really so easy to do that in practice, without using toxic and violent instruments of control? Let’s try to get this sorted out.

Most commonly, cancel culture is expressed through large-scale shaming and condemnation of a particular public figure on social media. The mass reactions to Kevin Spacey being accused of sexual assaults or Joanne Rowling making transphobic statements are quite good illustrative examples of such a process. If we consider the moral dimension of this phenomenon, at first glance it seems like a pretty efficient and justified instrument of social control. In the end, it simply provides people with an opportunity to voice their common ethical concerns. However, when expressed in such a form, cancel culture fundamentally differs from its ancient Greek prototype. While in the polis of Athens a canceled person was completely excluded from the society and its benefits, contemporary forms of ostracism often entail uncontrolled waves of hatred and judgement expressed towards a disliked individual. Even though it is quite obvious that none of the canceled people enjoys their dishonorable social position, it is also clear that a scandalous situation unfolding around them inevitably increases their publicity.

One could argue that it would be more efficient to simply unfollow someone in order to deprive them of their public influence and, therefore, truly cancel them. Moreover, it remains questionable whether it is really possible to directly express judgement towards someone in a constructive and civilized way. And if it is not really possible (as most of the real-world cases demonstrate), is it then ethical to get our aggression out on someone who is conventionally considered to deserve it?

"One could argue that it would be more efficient to simply unfollow someone in order to deprive them of their public influence and, therefore, truly cancel them" The current rise of cancel culture is arguably a rather dangerous trend for the further developments of global morality. Recent cases of canceling public figures have been marked by yet more radical forms of social sanctions. Certain books are taken away from libraries, certain music is banned from being played in public, and, let’s just face it, certain politicians are essentially being silenced. The question of censorship and its relationship with ethics rapidly acquires a new urgency. At times like this it is important to remember that every one of us should define their own ‘good’ and ‘bad’ themselves, independently and thoughtfully. It remains unclear to me whether we can make ourselves and the world in which we live more humane by either fiercely penalizing ignorance and dissent, or banning and blocking them. I would guess that the real solution lies in neither of those options. Perhaps, in order to constructively change the society to what we think is better for it we need to develop a new culture – one which would manifest itself in reflecting and correcting instead of judging and canceling.

"Certain books are taken away from libraries, certain music is banned from being played in public, and, let’s just face it, certain politicians are essentially being silenced"

The Boomerang | February 2021

Cancel Culture Doesn’t Really Exist by Stanley Ward There is no great deity in the sky that after hearing someone has been #cancelled on twitter, smites them with a bolt of lightning. This is a myth, much like cancel culture itself. Before going on a brief explanatory tangent, I’d like to pose two questions: what does it really mean to be cancelled?

And who is always talking about cancel culture?

Talking about any kind of internet phenomenon always feels like trying to map a complex landscape of references and ideas. To really understand what ‘cancel culture’ means, we have to understand the context of the ‘culture war’ - the struggle in our society between the woke-veganPC-Brigade and the swastika-tattoo-thin-blue-line-you-can’t-say-anything-anymore-crowd. It’s the BLM protestors fighting balding white men in London about what to do with a statue of Winston Churchill. It’s a polarizing idea, but not an organic one that naturally arises – it’s stoked by people to push an agenda of intolerance.

The fears of anti-cancel culture spokespeople (take trust fund failed actor and failed musician Laurence Fox as an example) are that cancel culture is dangerous. They fear that our freedoms of speech are being erased by the presence of a faceless mob deeming what is and is not politically correct.

But here’s where I’ll return to cancel culture. After you’ve said something racist (that you claim isn’t racist) on Twitter, what happens? Once you’ve been cancelled, what actually happens? Does a mob of Extinction Rebellion-granola-eating-social justice warriors invade your predominantly white suburb and beat the shit out of you? No. So what actually happens?

"Only by not tolerating intolerance can we really have a society which protects tolerance" Let’s introduce another character into this story: respected indie music artist (and regular cancel culture fearmonger) Ariel Pink. After years of questionable comments about a fear of cancel culture, he was caught attending the insurrection at the US capitol. This led to him being dropped by his record label, and appearing on Tucker Carlson to play the victim.

On this Fox News broadcast, the banner under Pink read “musician unfairly cancelled after Capitol Hill riot”. But what does this really mean?

His label dropped him. Okay, so that’s a consequence – but why? Because it turns out that if you say and do things that people don’t like, they don’t want to buy your stuff. It’s not complicated. There is nothing legally that is stopping Pink from releasing music – it’s just that his fanbase probably doesn’t want to hear him anymore, and his label probably predicted this. If you’re an asshole, no one wants to play with you.

The idea of cancel culture, and the ‘culture war’ often talked about by right wing talking heads and political commentators doesn’t really exist. When you break down what these people really want, it’s to be infallible. Rather than make the smallest effort to listen to others and be better people, they want to say whatever intolerant bullshit they want with no consequences.

They frame it as a danger to freedom of speech, rather than acknowledge a reality in which they cannot enjoy popular success with large groups of people if they say derogatory things about them.

Author and journalist Owen Jones, in a recent interview with comedian Stewart Lee, points out the fact that the idea of a ‘culture war’ most often originates from right wing voices, and only gains traction when left wing figures include it into the conversation – it’s not a great divide between the woke and un-woke masses, it’s a strategy to legitimize intolerance. That the best thing to do is to not engage with this strawman debate, and to let it die out on its own. Put a glass over the flame until it burns out all the oxygen and kills itself. But this idea of cancel culture touches on a greater debate; should a tolerant society tolerate intolerance?

No. And I’d be in good company alongside Karl Popper, who introduced the idea of the tolerance paradox. He argued that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually destroyed by the intolerant. Only by not tolerating intolerance can we really have a society which protects tolerance. And we do in fact live in a society that is probably streaming Ariel Pink a whole lot less.

A University College Student Association Magazine

CULTURE

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Begin the Begin by Stanley Ward Stanley Ward talks to Christian Lee Hutson about his latest record Beginners, and working with indie-folk stars Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers.

Illustration © Lea Litvak

In the Pitchfork review of his debut album Beginners, the writer asks ‘who is this guy, where did he come from, and how did he get so god damn good at this?’ The guy is Christian Lee Hutson, he’s been around a few years now, and his success may have something to do with his serial collaborations with some of indie folk’s biggest artists. We’ve arranged to meet over Zoom at 11AM Los Angeles time, and while waiting for him to join the call, I’m anticipating what kind of person I’m about to meet.

vocals. Lyrically however, Hutson references his love for the “simple but witty and satirical” style of Randy Newman. If (with some divine intervention) Newman and Smith were able to write a song together, the result wouldn’t sound entirely unlike Huston’s Northsiders.

The combination of melodrama, nostalgia, and humour is the driving force of many songs on the album, which employ a simplicity which is both conversational yet still poetic.

The narrators in Beginners are all distinct characters, and I can’t help but wonder whether I’m about to interview the tortured over-thinker from Twin Soul, or perhaps the emotionally distant and damaged character from Talk.

Instead, I’m joined by a gentle-seeming well mannered dude. He’s wearing a Black Flag T-shirt, and with his side-parted floppy blonde fringe, he looks almost as if he’s a schoolboy who’s cut class to go to the local record store.

He speaks very thoughtfully, and sometimes sparsely, but he is not the tortured artist one may have expected to be behind an album filled with so many varieties of heartbreak.

Bridgers is not Huston’s only high profile collaborator: another close friend and creative partner of Phoebe’s is Conor Oberst (of the band Bright Eyes) who Hutson met through working on the pair’s 2019 Better Oblivion Community Centre project. Hutson and I are both huge Bright Eyes fans, and he’s eager to talk about the experience of working with Oberst.

Hutson describes watching Oberst write as “surreal, seeing someone I grew up listening to, and getting to see how he works. He would write a song and then write a completely different version on the next page - it changed how I write and I learned to take more time with it.”

When talking about his other influences, Hutson also speaks fondly of Elliot Smith and “the way those records sound.” It’s an influence you can hear on the production choices in Huston’s recordings, from the delicately intricate fingerpicked guitar to the soft doubled

boygenius EP (2018)

Hutson is credited as a co-writer on this EP from Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus, but he ‘wasn’t even in the room’ [with Dacus and Baker] and still hadn’t met any of them by the time this indie ‘supergroup’ toured the record.

Better Oblivion Community Centre (2019)

Beginners was an album five years in the making, but with Phoebe Bridgers behind the mixing desk, the versions on the final record were recorded within two weeks at LA’s legendary Sound City studio. The production has a bare bones quality, combining mostly acoustic arrangements with occasional touches of percussion and some string arrangements courtesy of Bright Eyes’ Nate Walcott.

The rawness of the sound comes from a distinct change in attitude. “I thought my songs needed drums and shit, that they needed to be louder, sound a certain way, but [with Phoebe] we landed in a spot where we got to the thing that I like most, getting them to sound how they did when I first wrote them.” The struggle of songs being stifled by excessive production is so prevalent it’s almost become a cliché (often referred to as demo-itus) and it's a cliché that plagues even major artists with unlimited budgets. Having Bridgers on board for the production, however, seems to have been the catalyst for everything to work. “She’s my best friend” he says, when asked why the process was so much easier with her.

Where you may have encountered Christian Lee Hutson’s songwriting before:

This might stem from the fact Hutson is an avid reader, and reading has been his main quarantine hobby alongside writing songs and walking his dog Harry. It’s not a direct source of ideas for him, but he does note that “it can be inspiring, if the prose isn’t too crazy or dense” and that for him there is a connection between songwriting and literature. “It’s its own universe” he says when comparing William Blake to Leonard Cohen, describing the way it sometimes feels when an artist can envelop you within their world. This is an idea which rings through to the stories and worlds central to bringing every track on Beginners to life.

Hutson is also currently writing a novel, a fact he reveals relatively tentatively. He describes it as a piece of auto-fiction, and the autobiographical elements lead to a discussion of the ethics of referencing real life in songwriting. “I always try and change people’s names, and scramble details to protect people.”

Whilst this period of social-distancing has been tough on smaller artists like Hutson, the time away from touring has allowed him to both work on the book, and his next album. When asked if it’ll be another five years until Beginners’ successor, Hutson laughs and tells me “all the songs are pretty much written, so we can start recording soon.”

Beginners is available now on all streaming services.

Hutson was a much closer collaborator with Bridgers as a member of the Better Oblivion Community Centre (BOCC) project. The band’s self-titled record, saw Bridgers partner up with Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst, a childhood inspiration for both Bridgers and Hutson. As well as receiving songwriting credits on the album, Hutson toured with BOCC playing lead guitar, as well as opening for the band on numerous occasions.

Punisher (2020)

Bridgers enlisted Hutson as a key collaborator for her Grammy nominated sophomore LP Punisher. He provides both guitar work and songwriting for some of the album’s standout moments; his lyrical voice seems particularly present on Saviour Complex, in its brutally honest picture of an unhealthy relationship.

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The Boomerang | February 2021

Traditionalism, Philosophy, and Transcendental Black Metal: Liturgy’s “Origin of The Alimonies”

by Jan Willem Marsden for its extreme antagonism towards anybody outside of itself. Members of the early black metal scene were involved with church arson and murder, and internal strife made the scene collapse.

Friends of mine know I have a thing for extreme music. I love the idea of artists pushing the limits of what is sonically appreciable and reinventing what music should be, and few artists are as ambitious in this regard as Hunter-Hunt Hendrix and her project: Liturgy.

" Death metal is just shock and anger, but black metal to me really does capture the essence of what an eternal winter would sound like" Traditionalists would say black metal as a genre was born in the dark forests of Norway, but really it came from dissatisfaction with the superficiality of death metal. Early black metalheads were purists when it came to metal, to them death metal had lost the edge it originally had. Bands like Mayhem, Burzum, and my personal favourite Darkthrone would lay down the framework for black metal artists. Meant to be exclusionist, early black metal was harsh, lo-fi, antagonistic, and built to be the antithesis of commercial.

Built around the musical structure of tremolo-picked riffs, harsh dissonance, and the ever-eponymous blast beat, black metal became one of the most innovative genres in the 1990s, but that is probably not why black metal became famous. Openly preaching xenophobia and Satanism, the early black metal scene was known

can think of: she chooses to take black metal and strips away the harsh nihilistic purities to turn it into something beautiful.

Black metal purists have a strict code for how black metal should sound like and have often responded poorly to bands trying to re-appropriate black metal.

Many elitists still plague the scene today, but bands like “Neckbeard Deathcamp” and “Olivia Neutered John” have also moved the genre away from its sometimes-racist roots. Some fun album titles from these bands respectively are: “White Nationalism is for Basement Dwelling Losers” and “Transphobia Annihilation Squad”.

Transcendental black metal distinguishes itself from Hyperborean black metal by being built on the burst beat: a concept where bursts of aggressive musical energy are contrasted with hauntingly beautiful classical/operatic instrumentation, swelling and shrinking to create constant movement. By rejecting the continuum of the blast beat, and turning it into the burst beat, she takes the musical nihilism and wants to prove that life cannot exist on negation, as black metal has never been able to reach their goal of reaching the ‘absolute plenitude of the eternal void’.

"She chooses to take black metal and strips away the harsh nihilistic purities to turn it into something beautiful"

"Liturgy’s albums are meant to be an affirmation to the very nature of life itself, and Origin of the Alimonies is an accumulation of this goal"

Enter Liturgy, led by Hunter-Hunt Hendrix. As a former student of philosophy and classical composition at Colombia University, she has spent her musical career exploring the interactions between theology, art, philosophy, and aesthetics in music.

On their new album Hunter mixes black metal, contemporary classical, IDM, and 19th century romanticism to create growth and musical evolution.

Liturgy’s albums are meant to be an affirmation to the very nature of life itself, and Origin of the Alimonies is an accumulation of this goal. An obvious evolution built upon the foundation that albums like H.A.Q.Q and The Ark Work had established previously, the standout track to me is SIHEYMN’s Lament, which mixes all the aforementioned genres into a beautiful track that really exemplifies her ability to blend raw aggression with a beautiful composition and orchestration. Even if you are not a fan of black metal, the orchestration and compositional skills really makes her one of the more unique songwriters currently active, and Hunter an artist to watch in the future.

Black metal has the unique ability to make the listener feel fully absorbed in its nihilism. The combination of overwhelming blasts of aggression and repeated patterns lends itself to the same quality ambient music has. Death metal is just shock and anger, but black metal to me really does capture the essence of what an eternal winter would sound like.

Hunter refers to this kind of black metal as Hyperborean black metal, and she rejects the nihilism and anger on which this genre is built. She chooses to take the occult and avant-garde aspects of black metal and distort them away from their negative roots. Hyperborean black metal is built around the worship of nihilism; everlasting dark represents the ultimate freedom. Hunter rejects this and in doing so, commits the most cardinal sin that any black metal purist

A figure explaining the burst beat in contrast with the general tremolo of black metal

Another figure exploring the musical and philosophical differences between Hyperborean and Transcendental Black Metal

A University College Student Association Magazine

CULTURE

13

Everyday I Put On My Silly Little Outfit and Do My Silly Little Tasks A Little Ode to Escapism

by Noor van Asseldonk Chen It’s now been nearly a year since the first corona outbreak.

Some of them were wholesome and Kinda crazy. Definitely crazy. topical: Ice skating (“I love NL”) And looking back, it’s odd to see how the Good detective stories (“I prefer reading about world and everyone in it has seemed to adapt to other people’s problems and mysteries”) these ‘strange and uncertain times’ in one way Walking the dog (“to avoid curfew, obviously”) or another. For most people, it's been a series Bullet journaling (“meticulously!”) of coping mechanisms - some good, others bad, Pasta Grannies (“God I love Italians”) most... spectacularly ordinary. Even though I Going to sleep early (“early-ish”) personally think it’s undeserved, escapism has a bit of a bad rep. Those that can afford dabbling Some of them were acquired tastes: in spots of escapism often blame themselves for Chess streams (“So what if Queen’s Gambit got procrastinating or not doing the ‘right’ thing. me into chess?”)

But for those prone to bouts of existential dread, Cottagecore TikToks (“sorry not sorry”) finding ways to keep themselves busy and Red Dead Redemption 2 (“I’m a cowboy”) connected becomes something of an art. And Horse riding (“I’m a cowgirl”) for those prone to bouts of hermetism, finding Ordering custom made corsets (“and correthings to do becomes essential in finding a way sponding with the seller over email about to thrive alone. sizing”) Garbage TV (“preferably binged all in one go”) Now it's a new semester with the same old, same old. Or nearly the same. Campus dwellers Some of them were habits: are officially stuck inside for the foreseeable Smoking (“so what”) future without the luxury of hybrid education Smoking~ (“the old wake and bake”) to cut through the humdrum of COVID living. Spiraling alone (“I’ll just let myself imagine the So, where do we go when we can’t go anywhere? worst”) What do we do when there’s nothing to do? The Journaling (“rage journaling is 100% theraquestion seemed profound enough so I turned peutic”) to ask some of my UCU peers. “What’s currently Unspiraling with therapist (“therapy is ok, I your favourite form of escapism?” I typed into guess”) my phone and sent off into the void. The void Biking every day (“fresh air is good for you, soon came back bearing answers... doy!”)

A can of Cola Zero and a bag of M&Ms (“I walk to get them from the vending machines”) Calling grandma (“I love her so much”) But most of them... were either very personal or very mundane: Humpback whale songs (“and imagining a simple life in rural Canada”) Paddington the movie and cold leftovers (“take a shot everytime the stupid little bear makes you cry”) Underwear dance party to 00s pop hits (“you really break a sweat”) Going to the supermarket (“the cereal aisle at Jumbo is sexy, IDC”) Brushing teeth (“dental hygiene is self-care, dude”) Staring into nothing (“brain empty, no thought”) It’s somewhat reassuring to realize that everybody is ultimately going through much of the same. We all eat, sleep, complain-about-andthen-distract-ourselves-from-corona, repeat.

And as we go, we’re either consciously or subconsciously reminded of our human condition. We still find ourselves in ‘strange and uncertain times’ but we do our best to deal and cope, just like everybody else. Hang in there, UCU...

Daniel’s Delectable Discussions

by Daniel Kamenkovitch

“Enough is enough” – where is the line? Imagine you are in a position of power, e.g. leader of a grand team, mayor of a buzzing city, a CEO of an influential company or even a president of a whole nation. Is there a time where you should autonomously quit your occupation? Not because you grew old but because you did what you could in your prime, and now it is for your successor to continue the legacy? How corruptible is power, and how much humility (being humans and imperfect) should we show? After all, seeking a job “forever” because you are good at it as well as a vision for the world which you follow and are determined to manifest, is all too easy to imagine. But is there a time where you should independently retreat, out of safety reasons to not be corrupted; is there a limit to the tower we are building, should we say stop and go back to downtown Babel? Or, in the words of Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Then again, think of a teacher who loves their job and is marvellous at it: (Why) should they ever step down?

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The Boomerang | February 2021

Living Deliciously

by Veere Boucher

How well – or long - do you remember foods?

Can you still imagine the taste of dinner three years ago? How about elementary school breakfast? Having the question posed like this, nearly anybody would disagree. In contrast, some food enthusiasts’ food memory seems incredible. My great aunt, who has been a food writer herself for decades, is a good example.

I once heard her congratulate somebody with her wedding cake, which my dear auntie could describe in detail: the marzipan, the flavour, the autumn-themed decorations… You’d never guess that the cake in question had been served over fifteen years ago! But isn’t this true for all of us mere mortals? Perhaps not to the degree of somebody whose life has, to some extent, revolved around food, but I think I have yet to meet someone who couldn’t have countless childhood memories roused at the taste of a mediocre supermarket-bought cookie. Food sticks to our memories, and in return our memories stick to food.

I’m thinking of those juvenile snacks, which carry as strong a memory as the smell of your childhood friend’s home. Of my birthday lasagne, a delightful synthesis of my father’s signature recipe and my new friend’s allergies, which I’ll never be able to eat again without thinking of either my dad or said friend. Of the sweet potato soup I had this summer, which was the best I’ve ever had even though it was made on a little camping stove. Whenever I taste it now, I remember the surroundings, the people I was as with and how tired my legs were when I had it as if I’m still there.

Of course, the most famous example of this is from Marcel Proust’s novel À la recherche du temps perdu. Upon tasting a madeleine pastry dipped in lime tree tea, he remembers “…the old gray house, and with the house, the city. All the flowers in our garden and those in M. Swann's park, and the water lilies of Vivonne, and the good people of the village and all Combray and

its surroundings, all that which takes shape and solidity, city and gardens, came out from my cup of tea.”.

I invite you to let your mind wander to your own madeleines; the positive as well as the negative ones. You’ll find that you remember dinners from 3 years ago - and even further in the past - very well indeed. Perhaps you had a deeply mediocre sandwich at the end of an amazing hike, now forever chaining Emmental cheese to beautiful scenery. Maybe you associate tuna pasta salad with a rainy picnic. Or you remember the cake a friend’s mom made when you visited. I would like to challenge you to pick one of these memory-imbued foods and recreate them. You could go with a positive memory, but it could also be nice to pick something with a bad connotation and rehabilitate it, so to speak. Personally, my madeleine will be sweet potato soup. And yours?

Your Monthly Culture Fill with Ricky & Mill

by Ricky Maggioni and Milena Stoilova

How We Got Addicted to Cars Welcome to our monthly column on what’s culturally popping in and around Utrecht, we hope you’ll be amazed, amused, or maybe both!

For this month’s edition of “Shit it’s still lockdown and we can’t visit a cultural event”, we thought we’d give an online lecture a try. UU’s YouTube account ‘StudiumGeneraleUU’ has weekly live streams with various lecturers.

We followed Ecological Economist Prof. Julia Steinberg’s lecture on “How we got addicted to cars”.

To start off, even though you might be familiar with this topic, we must address the question of how cars are related to the climate crisis. It is well known that climate change is the result of greenhouse gas emissions heating up our atmosphere. It is also well known that climate change’s main cause is the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heating, industry and transport. What you may not know is that, of these categories, transport is by far the largest culprit. Transport, cars...see where we’re going with this?

This brings us to the lecture’s focus, which we can best describe as “carconomics”, the economics of cars. Steinberger explained how our car dependency is not just rooted in car manufacturing, but also its infrastructure: roads. As she puts it, whether times are good or bad, roads seem to be the solution. Facing a recession? Make that Kenyesian money rain by building and renovating roads. And sure, why not? Roads are a form of social inclusion, aren’t they? They improve interconnectedness and ease of transportation. However, investment in roads is also investment in cars. The more money goes into making roads, the more motive there is to purchase cars. It’s a positive feedback loop: the infrastructure which makes car-ownership convenient leads to more cars being purchased; the increased purchase of cars leads to more traffic congestions, which encourages more road-building...

Okay, we get the bare-bones economics of it, but why is it culturally so hard to ditch cars?

In the Q&A session after the lecture, Steinberger elaborated on the origins of ‘car culture’, speaking of the “alluring freedom of movement” attributed to cars. When traffic congestion became a prevalent issue, freedom of move-

ment lost part of its appeal, but cars did not.

Now, the allure has switched to the interior of the car as a significant space in itself. Gadgets, comfort, luxury, personalization. These constituted the next step in car culture’s development. Finally, we’re now at the point where cars are treated as a bubble of safety from the outside world. As Steinberger puts it, “a sort of tank protecting you”. At the end of the day, car culture and ownership is a selfish phenomenon.

People want to own their car; it’s a status - dare we say, identity - symbol.

In response to this, Prof. Steinberg quoted as examples environmental activist movements such as Extinction Rebellion. One of the proposed solutions is to present cars negatively, in much the same way as the previously-cool cigarettes have been campaigned against for years now. She concluded that a gradualistic transition from a bigger-is-better car culture will not suffice - a radical change is needed.

Watch the lecture back on Youtube ‘How we got addicted to cars’ by StudiumGeneraleUU.

A University College Student Association Magazine

CULTURE

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Important Opinions on Important Movies

by Sam de Visser Hi there, new semester, same ego-tripping column! Fun fact: this is also my very last semester at this school, which means that this is my very last batch of movie columns.

And I really want to use this last opportunity to discuss some films that are very close to my heart, even if they kind of shouldn’t be. Therefore, I want to welcome you all to a hill I will die on: Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) is one of my favourite movies of all time.

I always feel a little awkward praising Fight Club because Fight Club is the definition of a ‘bro movie’. The entire plot revolves around a dude and his new, hyper-masculine best friend who start an underground club where disillusioned men can beat each other up in basements to finally feel something. The themes of rising up against empty consumerism, the search for meaning through violence, and the position of white masculinity in contemporary society are ripe for misinterpretation.

It’s not very surprising that Tyler Durden, the aforementioned hyper-masculine best friend, keeps showing up on alt-right message boards.

Basement dwellers all over the world see him as an icon, casually disregarding the very real

harm he causes throughout the entire film, see themselves participating in the fight clubs, and are genuinely convinced that Fight Club is somehow a paradigm on how to organise oneself as a white male.

Needless to say, that is an interpretation I disagree with, and I think the film as a whole didn’t intend to carry out that image at all. What makes me kind of sad is that, as tends to happen with films like this, the film itself is drowned out by the crowd of internet edgelords. When I first watched Fight Club, over six and a half years ago, it was the film that introduced me to cinema as more than just something fun and casual; it was what made me consider cinema as art (give me a break, I was fourteen). Nowadays, I don’t think Fight Club is the pinnacle of cinematic art—but it is still incredibly wellmade and entertaining.

David Fincher created a depressingly gritty atmosphere with this movie, which stands out above everything else. The whole thing feels dark and kind of gross. Nobody in this movie is really having a good time, and it sucks you in as a result. It’s something you want to look

away from, but you can’t, because it is kind of disgusting and weirdly relatable at the same time. The techniques used here, lots of close-ups, quick single-spliced frames and some wack rudimentary CGI (the shittiness of which only underlines the themes of the movie, although probably unintentionally so) are excellent, because Fincher is an excellent director. And while this is an inherently masculine movie, I think the themes of just feeling disillusioned with empty consumerism are pretty universal.

Those of you who have seen this probably understand why I can’t get into the storyline too much, but it’s a storyline that blew me away as a fourteen-year-old and to this day, is still really good at what it’s trying to achieve.

I’m not going to lie: because I’m a white dude, Fight Club is probably more easily appealing to me than it could’ve been otherwise. But please, consider giving this film a chance outside of the fucked-up context that others have ascribed to it, and appreciate it for what it is: a very well-made film, and yes, to some extent, a thought-provoking piece of art.

Harry’s Hedonistic Hotspots

by Harry Mills Sweet Green Greengrocer Ina Boudier-Bakkerhof 2D, Utrecht Cost: € Price to Calorie Ratio: Excellent Welcome back to Harry’s Hedonistic Hotspots, a column which (as of this edition) transcends the physical boundaries of space and launches you into that ethereal world known as the Internet. Given that most eateries are closed due to corona, I figured that this month we might as well explore the glorious, if sometimes chaotic and volatile, world of home cooking. Now I know that cook books are more or less out of the question for us Zoomers, but in an effort to tear readers away from the all consuming embrace of TikTok, I recommend that you head on over to YouTube and check out Joshua Weissman’s channel (youtube.com/JoshuaWeissman).

Weissman is an amazing (though not pretentious) and entertaining chef who has dedicated his channel––nay, his career––to showing that it’s possible to make stunning food with relative ease and on a reasonable budget (for the most part; sometimes he do be reaching up to that top shelf). In addition to one off recipe videos, in which measurements are given in both imperial and metric forms (so don’t worry if you’re someone who needs to use an electronic measuring device instead of a humble and omnipresent drinking vessel to measure your food), Weissman’s channel features multiple recurring segments including But Better, where he recreates iconic fast foods from scratch, and But Cheaper, where he makes conventionally expensive foods and meals but (you guessed it…) for cheaper (without skimping on quality

though). So go check him out, his channel is one you’re not gonna want to miss. Personally, I would recommend the Korean fried chicken and/or the Basque cheesecake––I’ve made both, they’re insane––but, you know, whatever tickles your flavour buds.

And where better to acquire the ingredients for these recipes from than Sweet Green. For those of you who have not yet acquainted yourselves with the wonders of Sweet Green, it is a greengrocer located right next to Jumbo. In addition to all manner of fresh fruits and vegetables, which are both significantly cheaper and better quality than those at Jumbo (not to mention not packaged in turtle asphyxiating plastic), Sweet Green offers a multitude of other items bound to satiate your grocery related needs. These include, but are not limited to, fresh breads and dips, nuts and seeds, condiments and canned goods (including a number of Asian products), yogurt and cheese (and other dairy products), and frozen foods; perhaps one of the most important things to stress is that Sweet Green sells herbs and spices at a much more reasonable price than the big supermarkets (please never buy one of those thumb sized jars of garlic powder for three to four euros ever again). In addition to saving on groceries, you’ll be supporting a local business instead of some faceless multinational corporation.

So, as the semester begins (or if you’re talking thesis, barrels), and you’re deciding what to cook in the coming spring season, then look no further; a banging channel and an endearing store, it’s a match made in heaven.

16 QUAD QUERIES

The Boomerang | February 2021

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THE BOOMERANG BOARD Stanley Ward | Editor-in-Chief Giulia Martinez-Brenner| Managing Editor Ivan Ryan | Executive Editor Sam de Visser | Executive Editor Khoa Tran | Layout Manager Sofie Ryan | Art Director Senan Cullinane | PR Manager

Boomerang uses wind energy printers The Boomerang is a periodical newspaper.

It comes out eight times a year.

This is the fifth issue of the academic year.