BINGHAMTON REVIEW Editor-in-Chief Contents
P.O. BOX 6000 BINGHAMTON, NY 13902-6000 EDITOR@BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM
Founded 1987 • Volume XXXIII, Issue I Tommy Gagliano
Managing Editor Matt Gagliano Copy Desk Chief Madeline Perez, Harold Rook
Business Manager Joe Badalamenti
Social Media Shitposter Sebastian Roman
Editor Emeritus
Patrick McAuliffe Jr.
Staff Writers
Kevin Vorrath, Jon Lizak, Dillon O’Toole, Bryn Lauer, Will Anderson
Contributors
COVID-19, My Mom, Crippling Depression
ABCS OF BINGHAMTON
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by Our Staff
Editorial by Tommy Gagliano Press Watch by Our Staff Will BU Shut Down? by Our Staff An Epic Bite Out of an Apple Pie by Harold Rook 10 Ten Ways to Cope With Depression by Madeline Perez 12 Meowmeowbeenz, Nosedive, and Social Credit by Patrick McAuliffe 14 Antisocial Media by Joe Badalamenti 3 4 5 6
Special Thanks To:
Intercollegiate Studies Institute Collegiate Network Binghamton Review was printed by Gary Marsden We Provide the Truth. He Provides the Staples
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK! Direct feedback to editor@binghamtonreview.com 2
BINGHAMTON REVIEW
Vol. XXXIII, Issue I
EDITORIAL Dear Readers,
From the Editor
W
elcome to the strangest Fall semester of your life. If you are a freshman beginning your college journey with this mess, I am so very sorry for you. Freshman year is typically all about trying new things and leaving your comfort zone, and that experience is all but impossible given the over-the-top restrictions put in place by both Governor Cuomo and the administration here at BU. Things are about to get better, though! For starters, you just picked up a copy of the best student-run publication at Binghamton University, so that’s definitely a plus! Congrats on a great discovery. For readers that are new to BU, or for those that are returning students but may have just stumbled upon our wonderful paper for the first time, allow me to briefly explain what we do here. Binghamton Review is a nonpartisan, student-run news magazine that has been dedicated to protecting and providing a platform for freedom of speech at Binghamton University since 1987. Our writers have opinions, and we’re not afraid to share them. News, politics, and current events are certainly our most frequently discussed topics, but our content is far from limited to only those things. If you would like more information about Binghamton Review, or you are interested in getting involved, please feel free to reach out to me via email: editor@binghamtonreview.com. We appreciate all types of feedback, and we always love adding new writers to our team. It’s pretty bizarre that we’re nearly six months into this pandemic, and we still have no idea how to handle it, or how it will play out. Will any of the measures put in place to “protect” students actually do anything? Will there be a second wave? Is an outbreak among students inevitable? No one knows the answers, but we certainly have guesses. Five of our staff members make their predictions regarding how long the semester will last on page 5. This issue also features the return of our annual “ABCs of Binghamton,” a not-so-informative guide for incoming freshmen, as well as contributions from Binghamton Review regulars Harold Rook, Madeline Perez, Joe Badalamenti, and Editor Emeritus Patrick McAuliffe. The future of the Fall 2020 semester remains uncertain, but Binghamton Review will be a constant. We stuck to our normal production schedule and created three additional issues after the university was shut down last Spring, and we intend to stick to our normal schedule regardless of the circumstances this Fall. Best of luck everyone. I hope you enjoy the content we have created for you on these sixteen pages.
Sincerely,
Tommy Gagliano Binghamton Review is a non-partisan, student-run news magazine of conservative thought founded in 1987 at Binghamton University. A true liberal arts education expands a student’s horizons and opens one’s mind to a vast array of divergent perspectives. The mark of true maturity is being able to engage with these perspectives rationally while maintaining one’s own convictions. In that spirit, we seek to promote the free and open exchange of ideas and offer alternative viewpoints not normally found or accepted on our predominately liberal campus. We stand against tyranny in all of its forms, both on campus and beyond. We believe in the principles set forth in this country’s Declaration of Independence and seek to preserve the fundamental tenets of Western civilization. It is our duty to expose the warped ideology of political correctness and cultural authoritarianism that dominates this university. Finally, we understand that a moral order is a necessary component of any civilized society. We strive to inform, engage with, and perhaps even amuse our readers in carrying out this mission.
Views expressed by writers do not necessarily represent the views of the publication as a whole. editor@binghamtonreview.com
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CPampus resswatch “The U.S. government’s violence against protesters must be condemned as fascism” Seth Gully, Pipe Dream, 8/27/2020 “The implications of this display of federal control are immense, cutting to the very core of freedom of speech and thought. Anyone who claims to hold these founding principles close while ignoring the Trump administration’s fascist response in Portland is hypocritical at best.” The founding principles of the United States do not include the right to cause damage to people and their property during a riot. Considering that governments are given power to protect individuals and their property rights, arresting violent rioters is justified. “The vast majority of protesters are entirely peaceful. And for the small minority who do commit property damage, we have local law enforcement for that exact reason.” Federal officers are sent in when local law enforcement is not able to arrest violent individuals and control riots effectively. Could be related to the fact that any attempt by a police officer to do their job is met with violent responses from the mob that hates their guts. Also, you want to have local law enforcement arrest those that commit property damage...yet also support protests calling for the abolition of said law enforcement? This is called cognitive dissonance. “Take the countless accounts and viral videos of unmarked federal agents grabbing innocent people off the street, taking down their information, and simply leaving them somewhere else.” These instances are so “countless” that the author couldn’t even provide an example. “Trump’s conflation of a political ideology, anarchism, with anti-fascist action, Antifa, and terrorism is a true threat to freedom of speech as well. … [the Trump administration] is dangerous-
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Written by our Staff
We know you don’t read the other campus publications, so we did it for you. Original pieces are in quotes, our responses are in bold.
ly close to facilitating ‘thought police,’ detaining and denouncing those that merely don’t share their political opinions by labeling them as terrorists.” Terrorism, as defined by the Code of Federal Regulations: “The unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” I cannot think of an example that fits that definition more perfectly than Antifa does. “BU’s new sexual assault and harassment policies fall short” Nicolette Cavallro, Pipe Dream, 8/27/2020 “On the 2020 Sex Survey issued by Pipe Dream, 173 students indicated they had been assaulted at Binghamton.” ObamaGivingHimselfAMedalMeme. jpg “Since these happen off campus and have no connection to the regulated Greek life on campus, the University does nothing to punish these organizations as a whole.” Since these happen off campus and have no connection to the regulated Greek life on campus, the University shouldn’t punish these organizations. If you want to argue that the local police force should be doing more, that’s a valid argument to make, but why and how should Binghamton University take action against Greek life organizations as a whole for off-campus incidents unrelated to Greek life organizations? “In summary, simply shoving organizations off campus is just a way for the University to ignore the problem at hand.” The University is suspending organizations that are under investigation for sexual assault. If these suspended organizations choose to operate off campus, this is neither the University’s fault, nor their problem. The University cannot control what students
do in their own time while not on University property. “If a fraternity was removed from campus due to an assault investigation, the victim may even be harassed by members they once saw as friends. Overall, this is yet another way for the University to push away the problem and ignore survivors.” What would you like the University to do about that? Suspend everyone that says rude things to their former friends? You seem to have a lot of objections, but very few solutions to remedy them. “I hope to one day live in a world where this will no longer be an issue, but for now we need to take a stand and force our University to do so as well.” Force our University to do what, exactly? You have repeatedly stated that the University is not doing enough, or that their plan is bad, but you have not stated what you would like them to do instead. Living in a world where sexual assault is no longer an issue is a laudable goal, but if you have no feasible plan to make that a reality, then the current plan may be more constructive.
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WILL BU SHUT DOWN?
Will BU Shut Down? Our Predictions... By Our Staff
U
niversities across the country have begun their Fall semesters, utilizing their instruction method of choice, with mixed results. There have already been full shutdowns, partial shutdowns, and threats of shutdowns if rules are not adhered to more strictly. What does this mean for Binghamton University? Will our school face a similar fate? Here are some predictions regarding how long the semester will last from five of our staff members. Will Anderson - Three weeks. If you fully believe that other students will follow all of the safety procedures for the next four months then I really have to commend your ability to trust others. My first semester of college wasn’t spent at Binghamton, but it was spent in a dormitory. About once per week, the fire alarm would go off because some student in my building thought it would be a great idea to smoke weed in their dorm, cover their smoke detector, or light a bunch of candles before going to bed. This continued right through finals week for the entirety of my freshman year. Following that experience, I can no longer trust other students not to light matches under smoke detectors, and I similarly don’t trust students to not go to crowded college bars on State Street, let alone stand six feet apart. That being said, I do trust the administration’s judgement. There’s no way they would keep classes in person if there was a massive spike in active cases on campus. They know there are several students on campus with pre-existing health conditions, and that keeping classes in-person for too long could become an existential threat to their lives. My guess is that they’re just keeping us here until we’re all financially responsible for the entirety of the semester, then they’re going to send us home. Harold Rook - Four Weeks. If I had to guess how long we truly have before campus becomes a barren wasteland again, I figure four weeks tops. Obviously, I don’t think that as soon as school starts we’ll suddenly be bombarded with cases of coronavirus; the virus itself has an incubation period of, at most, 14 days, meaning that the probability of immediate school closure is slim, at best. There is also the fact that New York was, for a time, the epicenter of coronavirus cases in the United States, which doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Then there are the rather...smart decisions by some individuals to eschew guidelines entirely in favor of partying. If you need a clearer picture for what I’m talking about, check out the Binghamton subreddit. Basically, students are packed together like sardines waiting outside to enter a bar or frat house, with not a single mask in sight. My belief is that you can never underestimate the power of human stupidity, and, put frankly, the people who are still partying are likely going to be the source of a new outbreak, if there ever is one. Compound this with the possibility of a second wave coming to the United States, and you have a recipe for disaster. Of course, I really hope I am proven wrong, and that the administration can properly address these issues. Until then, if there is a large enough influx of students contract-
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ing COVID-19, four weeks is the maximum timeframe we have until everything closes again. Dillon O’Toole- Five Weeks. I predict that Binghamton will return to fully online classes in roughly five weeks, but more specifically by October 1st. My reasoning comes from several different factors concerning the student body and the virus itself. Initially, I feel most students will follow the protocols laid out by the administration as students settle into the new semester. After a week or two, I think many students will start to relax and begin to follow these safety measures less carefully. Since the virus has an incubation period of up to two weeks, cases in Binghamton may not be seen until the middle of, or late September. If the cases spike enough the administration will likely be forced to send the student body home before October. Joe Badalamenti - Six weeks. If campus were to shut down again, it would likely happen in one of two ways. There’s the possibility that an outside force (such as the New York State government) could shut down the university like they did last semester. The second way would be a voluntary university shutdown due to a spike in cases in diagnostic testing. As time passes, I would assume that students (specifically freshmen) will adhere less to the guidelines. This could eventually become grounds to close BU. Tommy Gagliano - Full semester. I just spent my summer working at a summer camp in Suffolk County, Long Island. The camp ran for nine full weeks. The regulations we had in place were far less restrictive than the ones students are expected to adhere to at BU. Staff wore masks, but none of the campers did. In theory groups were supposed to be isolated from one another, but in practice they came into contact fairly frequently, such as when passing each other in the hallway, or when a ball from one activity ended up in the space of another. Social distancing within groups was virtually non-existent. During those nine weeks, there was not a single positive COVID-19 case among the staff or campers. The student population at BU is obviously much higher than the camper population where I work, but I am optimistic that universities in New York State can operate without causing an outbreak, much like we were able to. While it was an epicenter early on, the virus is no longer prevalent in New York. As of August 23rd (when I am writing this), Broome County saw only 33 new positive cases per 100,000 over the past week. Suffolk, Nassau, New York City, and Westchester counties, where a large portion of BU’s student body are from, each registered between 22 and 23 new cases per 100,000 over that same seven-day period. Statewide, the seven-day average for new cases is 609; on April 10th that number was 9,877. Binghamton University also has the advantage of having very few out of state students, which may allow them to succeed in operating during the pandemic when other colleges, such as UNC, were unable to do so.
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AN EPIC BITE OUT OF AN APPLE PIE
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An Epic Bite Out of an Apple Pie By Harold Rook
H
ey there, welcome back to Binghamton (or if you’re a new student, welcome to your new prison)! Since leaving for home early due to COVID-19, I’ve been a bit busy doing what I do best: gaming. Specifically, playing Fortnite. Yeah, I know, I can already hear you saying “Pffft, Fortnite is for ten-year olds!” What outrageous slander! Fortnite is for ten-year olds and me, thank you very much! Despite the criticism of many detractors, there is no denying the cultural phenomenon that is Fortnite; receiving nearly 350 million players in May of 2020, the three year old game is still continuing to maintain its dominance over the virtual world. Combine this with fast-paced, competitive gameplay in the Battle Royal mode, a simplistic yet cartoonish art style, and the upfront price being free, and you get a game that is more addictive than crack. Through selling a virtual currency called “V-Bucks”, Epic Games, the developers behind the game, have made an estimated $1.8 billion by the end of 2019. Of course, part of this success owes to the fact that the game itself is platformed on multiple devices, ranging from Xbox One to the PlayStation 4 to, of course, Apple iOS devices. Personally, I don’t really care that much about the juggernaut this game has become; I’m just playing to have fun. So, imagine my confusion when, on August 13th, 2020, as I load up another game one day, I am given a 1984 parody trailer made by Fortnite, announcing that they have “defied the Apple Store Monopoly”. What’s that all about? How will the game be affected? And what will this mean for the future of Fortnite? Before we begin, we should first establish some background on Apple’s services. On Apple’s iOS devices, developers are able to advertise and sell their apps via the official App Store. Although the App Store itself acts as a free marketplace of sorts, Apple Inc. manages the platform as a middleman between the consumer and the app
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developers. Because of this, Apple allows developers to utilize the platform in exchange for a cut of the profits; for every app purchased on the App Store, 30% of the proceeds go to Apple itself, with the remainder going to the developers. This also translates into InApp purchases, which serve as a revenue generator for many free-to-play games. Cue Fortnite and, by extension, their developers, Epic Games. Certainly a large corporation in its own right, Epic’s smash hit was no exception to what they allege as a “tax” of monopolistic proportions, with V-Bucks being subjected to their 30% cut. As you may guess, Epic Games was just a tiny bit miffed. So miffed, in fact, that they started to hatch a plan. An arguably underhanded and devious plan. But first, they’d need some help; to be in the best position possible to take down Apple, they’d need to hire the best lawyers money could buy. To do this, Epic hired Cravath, Swaine and Moore LLP, literally named the best corporate lawyer litigation team in 2017. At the helm of this crack team lay perhaps the most competent attorney in all of the United States: Christine A. Varney. Not only was she an official in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, but Varney is also an antitrust specialist, having experience in breaking up monopolistic practices. Having already prepared their preemptive lawsuit, Epic then set about the next phase of their plan, being the open violation
of the 30% “tax”. To accomplish this, Fortnite received an update on August 13th for iOS devices to directly undermine their adversary; instead of having to purchase V-Bucks through Apple, Fortnite had a direct payment, with an additional discounted price to boot. Obviously, this violated Apple’s store policy, with the game quickly being removed from the App Store, but for Apple it was too late. This removal resulted in the release of the prepared trailer for the lawsuit (ironically parodying Apple’s own 1984 trailer for the MacIntosh) along with its legal documents. Although Epic Games filed the lawsuit, the motion for the case isn’t seeking damage compensation itself, but rather injunctive relief. To simplify, Epic Games isn’t suing on behalf of itself, but rather to change Apple’s practices on behalf of all app developers. The premise of the lawsuit revolves around the idea of a free, competitive market, which Epic claims Apple has stifled through their practices. This is primarily due to two facts: firstly, that the App Store is the only platform available on the market, run by Apple, and secondly, that there is no non-iOS alternative, making Apple have a virtual monopoly. Is this really the case though? In practice, and when taking into consideration additional facts, it certainly seems so, or, at the very least, Apple has de facto monopolistic power. The first fact to consider is the market to which App developers have access to: nearly 1.5 billion devices (including both iPhones and Macs) are currently active in the world. Considering that App developers only have
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BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM access to this audience on iOS devices, and that there is no real competing alternative outside of Google (who are also being sued by Epic), the case for a de facto monopoly hindering the free market is strong. Another fact to take into account is the amount of money being taken from app developers; nearly 30% of all revenue generated from the sale of an app goes directly to the middleman, Apple. To put this into perspective, electronic payments made through other similar services, such as PayPal or Stripe, only take a 3% slice of the total profit. The last point of consideration is how this ultimately affects the consumer. Truly free markets necessitate competition to allow what were once considered luxury goods to be affordable to the average consumer; corporatism, or formation of monopolies, negates this. Economically speaking, Fortnite’s V-Bucks being upcharge beyond their value is an example of this. For consumers on the App Store, this 30% upcharge not only affects developers, but by consequence can result in higher prices for the consumer. Thinking of the App Store as a complex ecosystem of economies of scale, it can safely be stated that Apple practices aren’t exactly consumer friendly. With all this stated, what’s going to happen to Fortnite? As of the time writing this article, Fortnite on iOS devices is in a state of limbo. Although those that have the game already downloaded on their phones as apps can still access it, Fortnite is no longer featured on the App Store. However, it is still possible to download updates, and those that already have the game are
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AN EPIC BITE OUT OF AN APPLE PIE
still able to access matches. Of course, creating a sudden scarcity of Fortnite on iOS devices has led consumers to, of course, panic. Think what happened when Flappy Bird was removed from the App Store, but on steroids. This can best be seen on eBay, where the markups for pre-downloaded Fortnite apps have been ridiculously high, with prices as much as $4,000, according to Forbes. You would also be forced to use the seller’s own Apple account, and there are other devices that you can play Fortnite on, but petty ideas such as logic have not stopped buyers. Until the conclusion of this legal battle, it is likely that this practice will continue. There has also been a massive publicity campaign launched by Epic Games to win public support for their lawsuit. The 198-Fortnite trailer is the most obvious example of this, perfectly casting Apple as the villain in the public’s eyes. Of course, this also neglects to mention the premeditated nature of the lawsuit, but, to be fair, Epic Games isn’t seeking damages. Currently, those supporting Fortnite in their battle have been using the hashtag #freefortnite, which exploded on Twitter following Epic Games’ announcement. For their part, Epic Games has also received public support from other companies and app developers, with Spotify and Match Group being the most notable proponents for the lawsuit, according to MarketWatch. As of right now, the judge presiding over the case, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, ordered a temporary restraining order for Epic Games, meaning that Apple is unable to remove Epic Games as a developer from their storefront, yet also affirmed Apple’s right to remove Fortnite from stores, for the time being. For all intents and purposes, Fortnite is temporarily quarantined from the App Store.
There is much to be said about what the future holds for Epic Games and, by extension, Fortnite. Although at first this may seem like a minor case--one popular game banned due to the developers refusing to follow Apple’s guidelines--the implications can be far reaching. The fact that Epic Games is advocating that Apple’s practices constitute monopolistic powers should be an indication that this may potentially alter the electronic free market. This, in conjunction to the superb team assembled by Epic, the publicity stunts pulled to bring over consumers to their side, and the general practices by Apple, could mean that this case has some weight to it. However, deciding this case will likely take years, meaning that this state of limbo for Fortnite could also be its gravestone, at least on iOS devices. Indeed, Apple could potentially make the case that the preemptive nature of Epic Games openly violating contract is in itself illegal, making their case all for naught. Of course, this is just my speculation, though I do maintain hope that this case will serve to expand the free market and the rights of consumers. Regardless of the decision, the case is sure to bring about...ORANGE JUSTICE! What, not funny? Whatever, I’m going back to playing Fortnite with all the other ten year olds!
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THE ABCS OF BINGHAMTON!
The ABCs of Binghamton!
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By Our Staff We know that learning college lingo is hard for incoming freshmen, so every year our staff creates a useful “ABCs” list for everything Binghamton. With this guide you’ll be able to communicate like a seasoned BU veteran! Now the only obstacle is engaging in conversation without being reprimanded by the fun police for being too close to others, or for participating in a “gathering.” Enjoy!
Absolute Monarchy: Andrew Cuomo makes the rules and we’re all required to follow them.
Binghamton Review: The Last Refuge of Schol-
ars. Truth and Two Staples. Putting the Press Back in Oppression. The only publication at BU that is actually worth reading.
College in the Woods: Yes, that is weed you smell.
Greek Life: The only guaranteed way to make
friends! All you have to do is pay lots of money, suffer physical and verbal abuse, and accept that your grades will drop significantly! Don’t worry though, it’s all worth it to have your name attached to an organization that likely has numerous sexual assault and rape allegations against its members.
Hinman: No air conditioning, no dining hall, and now no social interaction either? It sucks to be a Hinmanite in 2020.
Dining Halls: The same shitty cafeterias, but now
Intelligence: You don’t really need it to get into
Engineering Building: Most likely designed by
Jews: They’re here in great numbers. Normally we
without the “dining” part!
Watson students because it’s perennially under repairs and in need of redesign.
Fun: Something you won’t have this semester, thanks to the dictatorial rules put in place by the powers that be. Alternatively, same description.
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Freedom, with the
Binghamton, but if you’ve got any you’ll be writing for Binghamton Review.
thank them for getting us days off in September, but unfortunately that is not the case this year. Not even a fear of being labelled antisemetic can interfere with COVID policies—just ask Bill de Blasio.
Karl Marx: History has not been kind to this rev-
olutionary, seeing as every attempt to implement his ideas has resulted in mass starvation and totalitarian regimes. Regardless, every professor on campus will still try to instill his ideas in your head. Vol. XXXIII, Issue I
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Library: Study rooms, computers, and a labyrinth
of a basement that you can get lost in as you cry quietly to yourself.
Masks: Required for everything, except going to frat parties.
Nature Preserve: You’ll visit this place once or
twice while you’re here. If you’re lucky you might even catch some townies dropping acid.
Old Rafuse: The location of the Binghamton Review office! You’re more than welcome to come on by if the SA decides to fuck off and let us hold in-person meetings.
Pipe Dream: A borderline-libelous collection of
left-wing students pretending to be journalists. Guaranteed to either mislead you with nonsense or put you to sleep with mind-numbingly boring content.
Quarantine: The previous few months of remote
learning and social distancing that we in no way, shape, or form will return to when the inevitable COVID-19 cases are detected on campus.
R
The at: Despite Binghamton Mayor Rich David’s attempts to cut down on underage drinking, we’re convinced that you’ll still be able to enter this infamous bar with your handwritten “I’m 21” index card. editor@binghamtonreview.com
THE ABCS OF BINGHAMTON!
Studying: An obsolete practice now that most classes (and exams) are online.
Tully’s: We were going to make the same joke for
the fourth year in a row, but Tully’s Lady was MIA for most of last year. Where are you Tully’s Lady? We need you to aggressively ask us how we’re “doin.”
UPD: Yes, they are real cops. Yes, they can arrest you. Yes, you are being detained.
Vestal: BU’s actual location, with slightly more shopping centers and slightly less heroin than the real city of Binghamton.
Watson: Founder of IBM and namesake of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Progressives will call him a Nazi, but actual evidence is scarce.
Xanax: We have less of a prescription drug prob-
lem than other SUNY schools, but we’re still a state school; be sure to avoid this one at all costs.
YouTube: Did you know Binghamton Review has a YouTube channel? Well we do! Check it out!
Zoom: Welcome to your classroom for the New Normal™.
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TEN WAYS TO COPE WITH DEPRESSION
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Ten Ways to Cope With Depression By Madeline Perez
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When You Are Losing Your Ability to Function
ello, Bing Review readers! As I’m sure you’ve heard, recent times have been tough—and I totally agree! I myself for the last couple of years have been becoming intimately familiar with the exact pain-tolerance of my own psyche. The hopelessness has since overflowed and my brain supersaturated with it until I had no choice but to scream out “the horror, the horror,” and so on and so forth. I’ll spare the details. I’ve read many-a ”self-help” article in my day, and have found the vast majority to be overly impersonal and overtly useless. So I decided to write one of my own. Even for those who are not afflicted with modern melancholia, I’m sure incorporating this advice can still benefit you if you were not following it already. I am in no way attempting to make light of mental illness and my heart bleeds for those of you who are struggling. As I’m sure quite a few of you can relate to, at times it seems like the pain is completely unbearable, and that “there is no way that anyone could possibly understand what it feels like” because they all seem so functional and happy-go-lucky as you yourself swallow the metaphorical castor oil and don your neurotypical mask because we live in a society. Good news! This suffering is not exclusive to you no matter how much your brain tries to convince you it is. As a matter of fact, you’re in great luck. I will now impart on you a comprehensive list of tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years that could help you navigate this nightmare hellscape. 1. Keep up with responsibilities In times when consciousness is more overwhelming than you can handle, functionality tends to go out of the metaphorical window. For many, control over their own actions and emotions can slip through the fingers like a well-oiled snake. And understandably so. How do you manage to live a normal life when your own thoughts are trying to sabotage you at every turn? Honestly, you have to keep up with your responsibilities the best you can. It will be very hard but it will be better than just watching everything float by, either too numb to care or too petrified to do anything about it. Also, try not to do anything self-destructive. This may sound cheesy as h*ck but you have to work on not fucking over your future self.
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2. Eat honey Honestly, honey is pretty good. Just squeeze a bit on the tip of your finger and then lick it off. No one is watching. Go ahead. Speaking of eating, this is another thing that’s kind of important to “being able to live.” When your brain is kinda messed up eating may not seem very important at all, especially when you completely lose your appetite or throw up easily due to stress. Now in these cases, food might even make you feel sick and you might find yourself developing a very poor relationship with eating in general. It is important to feed yourself good quality food in appropriate amounts the best you can. This also applies to those who find themselves overeating as a reaction to emotional pain. You are a metaphorical car, and in this instance, food is the metaphorical gas. Godspeed.
“Instead of overwhelming yourself about all the things you have to do in the future or everything you did in the past, just focus on what you need to complete today.” 3. Try to figure out what’s real Now sometimes your own brain is going to try to trick you. It will kick and sputter until you become convinced that your paranoid ideas are real and that you can even justify them with real bonafide proof. Now before you go curling up fetal-like about how everyone you know secretly and not-so-secretly hates you with the intensity of a “hate written on every mile of wafer-thin layers in their complex” hatred, there are a few things to consider first. Really question the rationality of your thoughts, and try to conjure other possible reasons behind the behavior of others. Maybe even write down what you’re thinking to have a better grip on what exactly is upsetting you. Doing this over time can help you learn to think with more BBP (big brain power) and to stop shooting yourself in the foot every time you misstep. 4. Don’t listen to dummies Many people on this Earth are dumb. This is a fact of nature and cannot be changed. They will be inconsiderate and wrong and bad—sometimes without realizing, and often without apology. This may affect you in ways you are too embarrassed to admit to yourself, and the siege of the past may come out in you every now and again like an old knee injury. Just remind yourself that most of what other people do and say is not a reflection of you as a person, especially when it was intended to hurt you. Forget about what has happened, but remember how to avoid it in the future. You don’t have to be on everyone’s good side, especially not when they’re dumb.
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“For some people,their subconscious will sometimes hide from them what is making them upset. They might think ‘God what a baby I am!’ or seem to get upset at something small when really it’s all because of something big they can’t process well.” 5. Exercise Bro just get out there. Walk around. Do a sport or really anything that gets your heart rate up for a bit in a good way. Your body has to move around, so try your best in the time and abilities you have. I know it’s not always an option, but even a little bit can help release “The Good Chemicals” which I’m sure many of you reading this have been pining for. Plus, being healthy is sexy and good. Exercising may help your brain—or it may not, but there really is only one way to find out. 6. Seek professionals One common trend of depressives is believing no one cares about you or your burgeoning, heart-wrenching, vomit-inducing, blisteringly obvious pain that you go through such lengths to hide from others at all costs. Now, I don’t know your life, so I don’t have the authority to judge the extent that others do-or-do-not care for you. They probably do though, if that makes any difference (see tip 3). The thing is, you may not be lucky enough to have friends or family with the emotional-intelligence to help you carry your egregiously-heavy metaphorical cross. And that’s ok. You can’t always rely on others to routinely do your emotional labor—without pay, that is. Enter: therapy. Gonna keep it real with you, as someone who gets vaguely uncomfortable following the directions of any authority figure, it hasn’t always been my cup of tea. But, the implications of the alternative are horrifying. It’s better to have someone to talk to who will give you professional advice and help you manage and so on and so forth. 7. Try to find little joys In this life, where entertainment can be absorbed every hour of every day and still have an almost infinite amount of media left over, it’s not very difficult to become desensitized to this distraction. (Trust me, I read Infinite Jest.*) This, coupled with a complete loss of motivation to engage in any hobbies whatsoever, will most likely lead to a paralyzing anhedonia. Now, it’s in this instance professionals and amateurs alike will say “hey, just try to engage in your hobbies! And if those are boring, just find new hobbies!” You might then respond “what? I just told you I have no motivation for anything within my own self-interest” and it might just be a confusing interaction allaround. Honestly, if you tried everything you could already and little hobbies stop bringing you joy, you don’t need to do them. But if they do give you any smidge of satisfaction or productivity, please keep it in your life. Focus on healthy activities—or anything really—that gives you any semblance of happiness and run with it. Don’t mean to be a buzz kill but it’s in your best interest to stay away from drugs and alcohol. Just saying. *it was ok. 8. Take it one day at a time I know what you’re thinking. “Take life one day at a time? How else was I supposed to do it, biweekly?” and that’s perfectly valid of you, but that’s not what it means. It’s about
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TEN WAYS TO COPE WITH DEPRESSION managing daily stress and reshaping how you think about progress. Instead of overwhelming yourself about all the things you have to do in the future or everything you did in the past, just focus on what you need to complete today. It’s no sense for me to freak out about how, assuming I make it to at least 80, I will have to brush my teeth over 45,000 times. I will begin to doubt myself. Am I even capable of that much brushing? Nor should I measure my progress by counting how many consecutive days I have successfully brushed my teeth twice. The best thing to do is brush my teeth twice daily—have it be part of my daily routine—so it’s ingrained in my habits. If I miss a day (purely hypothetical), it’s no use worrying about my Consecutive Days Brushed count, I just need to move past it and remember to brush the next day. This clever analogy goes the same for things like exercise, schoolwork, eating, and other not-necessarily tooth-related hygiene. Even though it’s not always enjoyable, it’s a necessary evil that you must conquer day in and day out until you get better and it’s not as difficult anymore. 9. Identify what is making you upset Everyone has things that make them sad or worried. This is probably a fact. For some people,their subconscious will sometimes hide from them what is making them upset. They might think “God what a baby I am!” or seem to get upset at something small when really it’s all because of something big they can’t process well. Sometimes it’s actually not that, and your brain has taken it upon itself to not work as well and mess around with your hormones and good chemicals so that you think “I can’t believe I’m so upset over nothing!” But this is not nothing. This is a serious disorder that can prevent you from feeling happy and strain your interpersonal relationships and make your life less enjoyable to live. No matter the case, you need to figure out exactly what’s bothering you, past, future, or present. Find patterns in what comes before a depressive episode, because when it happens chances are you could spiral so fast that the reason you fell in becomes dizzying. Like that saying goes, you need to accept the things you have no control over and change the things you can’t accept. 10. You can trust Big Pharma maybe a little bit I know in articles past I have consistently ended with some tidbit about Big Pharma’s overarching plot to brainwash humanity into mindless, harmless consumers. For the most part, I stand by what I said. But all conspiracy aside, if you’ve given it the old college try and nothing seems to be helping, chances are you got screwed by the biological-environmental two-pronged lottery and should really consider medication. It’s not your fault and is completely a valid decision—it’s just as you would treat any other ailment with the corresponding medication. When you find one that works, it will not change who you are as a person! I won’t lie to you, finding a good psychiatrist and the right medication will very likely be a horrifying manymonth-long crucible. It might take a lot of effort and make you go through varying degrees of physical and mental pain, but when you do find what works you’re gonna have to realize it was all necessary. You are entitled to a good quality of life and the pursuit of utmost health and happiness. Fight against consumerism by loving yourself so they can no longer pander to your insecurities! How are you going to fight against Big Pharma if you do not have your health?
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MEOWMEOWBEENZ, NOSEDIVE, AND SOCIAL CREDIT
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Meowmeowbeenz, Nosedive, and Social Credit By Patrick McAuliffe
B
y now, the Chinese government’s persecution and mass surveillance of its minority Uighur (Muslim) population should be old news to you. BBC estimates as late as August 4th of this year that, over the past few years, over one million Uighurs and other Muslim groups in China have been subject to relocation and forced internment in re-education camps, primarily in the western region of Xinjiang. China’s official stance is that these enrollments are voluntary; scarce evidence from inside the camps and stories from survivors tell of anything but. The human rights abuses committed by the Chinese government against the Uighurs, done these days nearly with impunity, show that with every passing year, the Chinese Communist Party’s stranglehold over its citizens grows stronger. In October 2019, The Independent reported that there are 170 million CCTV surveillance cameras across China, which equals one camera for every 12 citizens. To make matters worse for its citizens, in 2014, the CCP unveiled its plans for a “social credit system,” which may sound like something straight from a dystopian novel. Using two such works of fiction from television - one lighthearted on the surface, one deathly grim - the details of such a system may better come to light. The potentially funny and absurd side of a social credit system may be a good starter to cleanse the palate. I finally got around to watching Community on Netflix during quarantine, which I would categorize as one of the Big Four NBC Powerhouse Comedies (alongside Parks and Rec, The Office, and 30 Rock). In season five, our cast of characters - minus Troy and Pierce - is given the task of beta-testing a new app called Meowmeowbeenz on Greendale Community College’s campus. It is pitched by its developers as a great idea, allowing anyone and everyone to rate each other with the aforementioned “meowmeowbeenz”
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(small cat icons with the same schtick as a star system). Jeff, the leader of the study group, is a cool, aloof loner on the outside and doesn’t like how, in Abed’s words, the app “takes everything subjective and unspoken about human interaction and reduces it to explicit, objective numbers.” The irony, in this case, is that plenty goes unspoken as people judge others through Meowmeowbeenz. Shirley, a housewife attending Greendale that often misses out on events that the other main characters plan, gains five meowmeowbeenz quickly due to her ability to charm and manipulate others into liking and supporting her. Jeff joins the app purely to dethrone Shirley; he eventually joins her and the few other Fives at the top as a caste system develops between the different numbers. The airheaded social activist Britta (now a Two because of her incessant proselytizing about the evils of Meowmeowbeenz) leads a mustard-faced revolution of the lower numbers as Jeff and Shirley argue about their battle for control and fall to One-ness together. Britta and the other Ones, Twos, and Threes downvote all higher classes to join them at the bottom. After everyone becomes a One, Jeff convinces the students and faculty to delete Meowmeowbeenz from their phones, claiming that the now-five-star app “judged them but exempt[ed] itself from judgment.” Realizing that it was now Saturday, everybody goes home and leaves Britta desperately wiping mustard on her face to get them to stay. A much more far-reaching and sinister use of social credit is shown in
the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive”. Lacie Pound spends every day desperately trying to increase her social rating, practicing her graces and giggles in front of her mirror and five-starring everyone she encounters. In this society, ocular implants allow one to view a person’s social media feed in real time, enabling one to bring up information in conversation to keep relations cordial and simulate personability. Her old friend Naomi (a 4.8) invites her to be the maid of honor at her upcoming wedding, which Lacie sees as the perfect opportunity for her to gain the upvotes of powerful people. 4.5 rated people and above live in the lap of luxury, and Lacie grinded hard for her 4.2, despite her not truly enjoying doing anything to get there. A few missteps on her way to the wedding cause her score to go on a downward spiral after she loses her cool at the airport (a nosedive, if you will), preventing her from getting a plane ticket or renting a decent car or even being well-rated enough to be picked up as a hitchhiker. After she falls to 2.8 and gets picked up by a truck driver (a 1.4), Lacie learns that the social scoring system denied the truck driver’s dying husband a hospital bed by a margin of 0.1. She learns that playing the rating game as it exists only fosters resentment and false kindness to one’s fellow humans; earlier, Lacie wouldn’t even boost a coworker’s score to let him into their building after he had fallen to 2.4 following a nasty breakup. Swigging whiskey and driving an ATV through the woods, Lacie crashes Naomi’s wedding (as she, a 2.8, was no longer invited and would no longer play well for Naomi’s audience). With all of the guests’ eyes on her, Lacie’s score plummets as she throws all of her feelings about the world into the open, talking about how Naomi simultaneously helped her with her eating disorder and had sex with her boyfriend back in high school. In prison, now near zero, her ocular implants are removed, and she
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BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM gleefully trades unfiltered insults with a strange man in a cell across from hers. The harmonious “fuck you”s ring out as the screen fades to black, a small rebellion against a world that punishes a person’s honesty by robbing them of their lives. Are there already parallels to such social credit systems as these two in the West? Some could argue that, for example, Uber drivers who drop below a certain rating will be punished similarly to those low-numbered people in these two works of fiction, or that the entire purpose of sites like Yelp is to identify and weed out undesirable restaurant choices objectively through the market. Even credit scores are based on a person’s borrowing history and are used to predict how reliable that person will be in paying back a loan. However, Western countries’ methods of reducing aspects of a person to “explicit, objective numbers”, as Abed mentions, are far from as all-encompassing as the proposed Chinese system. In Western countries, the lowering of one’s particular score only limits one’s choices. The likelihood of a poorly-rated Uber driver getting regular riders is greatly reduced, but not impossible. A poorly-rated restaurant may still have the occasional customer or two that hasn’t done Internet research beforehand. People with low credit scores are unlikely to get generous credit terms, but a myriad of factors could play in their favor. Should any of these methods fail to result in equal treatment to higher-rated people or businesses, assuming that they have the means to do so, low-scoring people and businesses can always choose another course of action. This isn’t so in the Chinese system.
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MEOWMEOWBEENZ, NOSEDIVE, AND SOCIAL CREDIT The following foundational facts of China’s social credit system will be drawing upon a Wired UK article from June 7th, 2019. The most important distinction about China’s system, originally with a deadline for full implementation in 2020, is that it isn’t one centrally-controlled system that allows the CCP to give every citizen a general score. There are both private and public systems; the former includes data on shopping habits and relationships between people and the latter focuses on each citizen’s fulfillment of government-mandated duties and compliance with government rule. For example, the privately-collected data (which its collectors swear is gathered by opting-in) covers everything from the amount of time and money spent on video games to parenting habits, and countless other credit transactions. This data collection is permitted by the Chinese government, but it is generally assumed by these companies that it can be seized by the government at any time to be implemented into a state program at a later date. This would be difficult to execute, however, since many different regions of China score their citizens based on different criteria. Eventually, in order to transform each regional social credit system into a national system, the CCP would have to declare top-down standards and adapt each citizen’s local rating into conformity with its national criteria. The end goal, as stated in the article, is that each citizen has a given ID number and searching any ID number would produce a record of that citizen’s credit transactions, both social and monetary. This system is vastly different from a government blacklist, one aspect of the public social credit system. Liu Hu, a Chinese journalist focused on censorship and corruption, has been denied certain rights because of his work, such as buying a plane ticket, taking out a loan, or owning property. Public social credit scores afford certain rights or restrictions to citizens when dealing with the government; higher scores could make for smoother bureaucratic transactions, while lower scores can spark a “nosedive” in people’s livelihoods if they are saddled
with extra paperwork or fees. Citizens desperate to get ahead in these avenues may become entirely focused on improving their scores, much like Lacie or Jeff. In a classless, communist society, like what China was meant to be at the time of its revolution, scores doling out certain rights and privileges to some and not others betray the foundation of the entire institutional ideology. One cannot simply compare China’s social credit system to the system in Black Mirror or “Meowmeowbeenz”. Each system operates on a different enforcement mechanism. In the two works of fiction, users of the credit system took it upon themselves to divide each other based on number. “Nosedive” takes the Meowmeowbeenz culture of Greendale and expands it to all of society; one notable part about this episode of Black Mirror is that no government agents are playing a hand in its enforcement. However, it shares several key traits with China’s system in that, in order to participate in certain aspects of the market, one’s score must reach a certain threshold. It is never made clear whether this is a state mandate on businesses or a decision reached by the businesses privately. Still, since much of China’s market is nationalized or at least partly under government control, the denial of different rights to Lacie in “Nosedive” is a fair portrayal of the type of treatment citizens can expect when governments force them to play the numbers game. Western countries with comparatively freer markets can take solace in the fact that its citizens and businesses can grind to raise their own social ratings, but a bad score isn’t the end of their fair treatment under the law.
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ANTISOCIAL MEDIA
Antisocial Media
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By Joe Badalamenti
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s the most innovative breakthrough in 21st century communication, social media has revolutionized the world of communication. Users have the power to share any thought, picture or video that comes to mind and display it for the world to see. Moreover, users can come together and form online communities, whether for something serious such as an awareness campaign or a lighthearted group chat. Despite these positives, frequent usage of these sites has led to the development of some significant issues. Forums and communities have become hyper-politicized and polarized; many of these have no business being political. There are many causes for these changes, but the primary two categories which I will discuss are the spread of misinformation and direct and indirect censorship. After years of compounding, these issues can cause significant problems within society. Polarization and politicization share several causes. Both are caused by the spread of misinformation, mainly by media and political institutions. Because social media is an ideal medium to spread information, journalists, political organizers, and activists frequently use these sites to spread ideas or news stories. The main issue with this is that journalists will publish articles with clickbait headlines while politically motivated actors will often resort to ad hominem attacks towards their opponents. These tactics are used to create and maintain a specific narrative or worldview explained by political values. The spread of this misinformation can be attributed to two different causes. Firstly, there is the primary demographic of social media: adolescents and young adults.
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Both groups are more susceptible to misinformation, considering they have little to no experience with how the world works, and are more likely to think in binaries. As these individuals are exposed to misinformation or one-sided narratives, they become polarized. Eventually, as polarization infects more individuals, echo chambers form. These echo chambers reinforce the binary, and prevent their inhabitants from being exposed to different viewpoints. Even when debate can occur, polarization can make it difficult to engage with opposing views as it can be quite difficult if you encounter someone who only seeks to confirm their own biases. Secondly, misinformation also spreads as a result of the nature of human psychology. Social media sites have been engineered to be highly addictive. This is achieved through rewarding users for popular and/or frequent posts. Moreover, typical users are apt to share posts which provoke strong emotions. As a result, social media posts which evoke emotions such as anger or shock are easily spread throughout these sites. This means that tactics such as clickbait or strong emotional appeal will be incentivized by the algorithms which control these sites. While these stories may look appealing, they frequent-
ly leave out or hide vital information needed to comprehend a situation. Censorship is another primary cause of the polarization and politicization of social media. Censorship is mainly done through moderation of these sites. While moderation is not inherently a bad thing, the issue is that moderation is asymmetrically enforced. Moderation is often sought by frequent users of social media who will likely be polarized. Once they obtain moderation powers, the new moderators will use it to blacklist or even ban individuals who spread ideas contrary to their narrative. This is even starting to affect mainstream media institutions such as the New York Times, who recently withdrew an op-ed by Republican senator Tom Cotton. In his writing, he advocated for the use of the National Guard in response to recent civil unrest and riots. Moderation powers are limited, however, as banning a large enough number of individuals would cause outrage. Additionally, these individuals will have an audience dedicated enough to follow them to different platforms. For these individuals, cancel culture is used to suppress their voice. Canceling usually results from two different cases. Either the individual says or does something which the mob does not approve of, or the person associated with a person or group merely holds opposing views from the mob. Either way, it’s a mechanism used to enforce conformity within these groups. There is no nuance or fair trial with cancel culture, leading to many innocent people losing their jobs or positive public image. The only way to prevent cancelation is to fully endorse the ideas of the mob, no matter how absurd they are. Thus, fringe ideas get promoted, while moderate ideas which dissent against the main narrative are either blacklisted or removed completely. Cancel culture has also been used to force businesses or organizations to take or remove certain political stances. This changes the competition mechanism from quality
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or price to how closely this business shares a given mob’s political views. While boycotts can be useful to discourage unethical practices, canceling businesses could have negative effects on the economy. The results of these issues are not hard to see. One can look no further than the popular social media site Twitter. Twitter is by far the worst example of this problem. If you go to any political section, such as the current president’s feed, you’ll be greeted to a wave of childish bickering; it makes you question how these people are even adults. If you go to any ‘trending’ hashtag, you’ll find madness more often than not. Speaking of the trending tab, you will probably encounter some insane message somewhere on the tab, whether it’s a far right account trying to convince the public of QAnon, or a leftist trying to abolish the police. This is a result of the 280-character limit placed on each post. Because of this, threads which convey nuanced thoughts are swept aside for short and witty responses. Of course, there are impacts that can be measured. According to a 2020 CATO institute poll, 60% of respondents polled feel they have political views that they are afraid to share. This occurs because opinions which were thought to be normal five years ago—supporting law enforcement, for example—have been labeled “racist” or “problematic,” while stronger opinions could get you fired or expelled. As such, many have become silent, though they have not changed their opinions. This means that the mob will continue to spread their views while they believe they are in the
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ANTISOCIAL MEDIA majority as there is no one to challenge them. At the same time, these radicals continue to push further away from the center, demanding more and more. There’s also the fact that people are reading less. A study from ACM Transactions on the Web found that most people don’t read much of an average webpage. In fact, the typical person reads less than a third of all the text on a web page which contains up to 1250 words. This is the key to why misinformation is spread. Even if an article contains no narrative, if someone sees a clickbait title and reads only a fraction of the article they will likely be unaware of the entirety of the situation. This is an issue because, in order to fully understand the complexity of subjects such as current events, you must be able to pay attention to all of the details involved and make judgments about the validity of arguments. One of the most frightening impacts from these developments is the reliance on emotion or feelings., resulting in the emergence of the so-called “social media outrage machine.” The outrage machine is cyclic in nature. First, media companies rush to cover an emotional news story. Because this story is covered so early, many key details relevant to understanding the situation are still unknown. With everyone’s blood boiling, many will go on social media and give a response. This response could take the form of a radical policy proposal, an insult, or even some call to action. These posts become amplified, turning the incident into a national news story. Eventually, more details will come out, revealing the nuance of the situation. By the time they are revealed, however, they will be overshadowed by previous coverage and reaction. Because
of the outrage machine, many people now see political opponents as literal dangers to their well-being. If the outrage machine isn’t controlled, the divisions already occurring will only get worse. In order to control the outrage, we must be patient and control our responses. It may seem difficult to learn to control your feelings, but understand that reality is rarely as shocking as it is portrayed by social media. Additionally, institutions, primarily schools and news organizations, should have a role in controlling this outrage. Since they have an obligation to educate their members, these institutions should be speaking out against this kind of behavior. However, many do not seem interested in speaking out, and some are even encouraging it. If this cycle is not controlled, harm and polarization will continue to multiply. It’s clear that a constant use of social media can cause problems within individuals and the functioning of society. Individuals become less proficient at controlling their emotions and attention while society becomes more polarized as conflict arises. While I am not advocating for a ban of social media, it is important to understand the dangers of overreliance.
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