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Saturday, April 01, 2023

Opinion | Editorials

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Should police track your phone without a warrant?

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will answer that question in an upcoming term, ultimately deciding whether law enforcement authorities should be required to get a warrant before they can track your location through your cellphone records.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Don’t use social media to let terrorists win

The goal of terrorism is clear. Just as their name suggests, terrorists want us — those living in the free world — to live in a state of constant terror. They want us to question whether it’s safe to do things like travel, go to work or go to a concert. The simple liberties we take for granted each day are what they are after.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Will impeaching Trump change anything?

It’s been a wild week for President Donald Trump’s administration. For the first time since Election Day, many of us received a news notification that didn’t make us feel sick to our stomachs or look into the process of becoming a Canadian citizen. The word “impeachment” flooded headlines early last week, and it filled some of our hearts with hope.


OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

The Alligator to adjust circulation starting in August

To our readers, who never go unappreciated: As I’m sure you’re all aware, in life, change is inevitable. Every second of every day, our world is changing. The U.S., the state of Florida, the city of Gainesville and UF: all changing. For more than 100 years, we at the Independent Florida Alligator have prided ourselves in the strong connection we’ve made with the community by printing stories that you can pluck out of an orange box and hold in your hands on any given weekday in the Fall and Spring. Whether it’s delivering breaking news or colorful feature stories, we have always been there for you. That is something that will not change and never will. However, the way that community members, UF students and faculty receive and read the news is changing, and we recognize this. The pace of our world continues to quicken, and the speed at which our community consumes news is increasing as well. To better accommodate your needs, dear reader, we must make some relatively dramatic changes. And so, although the Alligator will always deliver news to our readers when they need it most, we will only print our physical paper three times a week during the Fall and Spring semesters: Monday, Wednesday and Friday.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Dear Mr. President, we deserve better

We wouldn’t exactly call it a surprise that President Donald Trump is a less than trustworthy commander in chief. His entire campaign leading up to his victory was filled with verbal falsehoods that spewed out of his mouth like pellets out of a revolver. Within a few months of his campaign, lying appeared to be second nature to the giant Cheeto vying for control of our country.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

We need to make room for tolerance in politics

Here are several topics we are constantly warned to steer clear of when meeting new people. As a general rule of thumb, it is never a smart idea to bring up the subjects of religion, money and — of course — politics. History has shown us time and time again that these are some of the most controversial matters in the world. This past year especially, politics became the crux of major issues on a national scale as well as a personal one.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

We have the right to speak and the duty to listen

As the limbo of Summer semester comes round, I’m going to follow my predecessor in removing the opinions editor mask and speaking directly as myself. The opinions and experiences expressed here will be my own, and not those of the Alligator editorial board. I want to take the chance, as the end of the semester approaches and friends graduate, travel abroad, tackle internships and sit on their couches all summer, to reflect on the past semester.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Foreign relations aren’t black and white

On Saturday, North Korea launched a missile. The attempt failed, exploding moments after launch, but nevertheless the missile firing shows that North Korea’s military technology is advancing, whether we like it or not. Even if they do not yet have the technical prowess, they are pouring an incredible amount of resources and funding into this program.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Why are we afraid of being kind?

Though we may not openly acknowledge it, society has engrained in us that it’s “cool” to be mean. We all want to believe we are good people; we rationalize our actions to ourselves, saying that we are kind to our friends, our families and those close with us. We share sympathetic videos on social media. We spend time attending Dance Marathon and Relay for Life. We don’t go out of our way to ruin people’s lives. That — the bare minimum, it seems — is enough to justify the fact that we are good people.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Sean Spicer needs a history lesson

On the second day of Passover, the most practiced Jewish holiday in the U.S., White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer compared the Syrian government’s use of a chemical weapon to attack its own people to the Holocaust, arguing that Adolf Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons” on his people.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Don’t regret the things you didn’t do in college

As the school year rounds off, it can become easy to fall into the slump of “could have beens” and “didn’t do’s.” This, perhaps, hits graduating students the hardest, but no one is immune from the curse. It is the end of things that causes us to look back, after all,


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

It’s pointless to boycott Pepsi

Quick recap: Last week, Pepsi came out with a really out-of-touch commercial starring Kendall Jenner, who leaves a photoshoot and brings peace to a vague protest by handing an officer a can of Pepsi. People were, understandably, upset. The commercial was in


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

What PBS Kids’ ‘Arthur’ can still teach us

If you don’t remember the PBS Kids show “Arthur” from your late ’90s-early ’00s childhood, you might be more familiar with its surge into internet culture around fall 2016, in which the most ubiquitous image was Arthur’s curled fist. To the average person in their 20s, the mention of “Arthur” nowadays offers a chuckle and a flash of nostalgia. But if we take a look back and really think about the adventures of our favorite aardvark and his friends, we find that “Arthur” has a lot more to offer.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Memes and Dada: Making sense out of nonsense

The Dada art movement, which began during World War I, was characterized by a rejection of all previous notions of art. Dada artists did not want to create something pretty or pay tribute to rich patrons, religious icons and classic myths. Dada’s goal was to portray nonsense and irrationality, as a commentary on capitalist society, the brewing war and rampant nationalism. One of the most famous works of Dada art is Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain,” which is a urinal with the name “R.Mutt” signed on the side. Dada was about rejecting past artistic conventions and challenging society, and one of the ways they did that was by purposefully elevating everyday objects into nonsensical art forms.


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