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Monday, July 07, 2025

Opinion

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: Accent needs to do its job

According to its website, Accent Speakers Bureau, the Student Government group that brings speakers to campus, “strives to bring controversial and influential speakers to the university, with the intent of further educating the student body, outside of the classroom, on current hot topics and controversies.” If this is the group’s mission statement, Accent is clearly not doing its job.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: Media still treats Sanders terribly

The liberal media made up its mind a long time ago: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. While former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s candidacy was laughable from the beginning, support for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has increased steadily. His legitimacy has increased with time. While he will never have the kind of name recognition Clinton has, Sanders’ support has grown from five-person crowds to sold-out auditoriums. Yet, this means nothing to the liberal establishment.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Guest column: Cop and Shaq shoot it out in Florida

This is going to be an amazing year for the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, and we want to thank everyone for making that possible. One of the greatest things I have learned from the CSPOA is the proper role of law enforcement. As a young child, I grew up with two Florida Highway Patrol officers as parents and a longtime friend who was a Marion County deputy sheriff. Though I never worked the beat, I did hear stories and saw how they carried themselves.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: The major problem with populism

Until this election cycle, populism, the strategy to appeal to the general population, was a term mostly directed to the dusty bookshelves of American history or parties only present in European politics, like Podemos. 


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Editorial: A hero webs a comeback

With Florida’s presidential primaries and Gainesville city elections finally over, we can take a sigh and briefly shift focus toward a non-political issue worthy of discussion: Spider-Man. For those actually invested in the real world who may not have heard the breaking news from last week, Marvel Studios released a new trailer for “Captain America: Civil War,” which featured the return of everyone’s friendly, neighborhood web-slinger. This is now the third movie installment of Spidey, which automatically raises a number of concerns for all of us, particularly for an anxious opinions edito — uh, many staffers at the Alligator.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: The legitimacy of political science

If asked about their latest views on quantitative easing in the Federal Reserve, most people wouldn’t have an opinion. The same thing can be said about the latest breakthroughs in particle physics, medical technology or any area of science for that matter. On the other hand, if politics comes up, people will adamantly share their opinion — informed or not — on what they believe to be right.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: Take a chance, give audiobooks a try

When I was in elementary school, I spent a lot of time in the car. Whether it was driving my siblings and myself to the various interests that occupied our time, such as dance class or soccer practice, driving us all to school and back every day like an absolute saint, or driving the family off across the country on vacation, my lovely, self-sacrificing parents did a lot of driving three young, talkative, easily riled-up kids around. Not to sound like someone who despises technology — because I don’t — but they managed to do this day in and day out without the helpful distraction of an iPad for small, sticky fingers to latch onto. I applaud their self-control, and I must remember to call home more often.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: Why are we fascinated by anti-heroes?

Whether you like it or not, we live in a cultural climate dominated by the anti-hero. Not to be confused with a full-blown villain, an anti-hero by definition lacks the upright moral character and endearing qualities of the traditional heroes we’ve come to know so well in mainstream culture. This quite often takes the form of questionable means to an end, an unpredictable narrative trajectory and unsavory moral flaws.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Guest Column: The importance of women's history in building the feminist movement

History teaches us lessons about how people organized to change the world — lessons in victories and lessons in failures. The women’s liberation movement made innumerable gains for women, from being able to wear pants on campus and having credit in our own names to having access to birth control in marriage. But the point isn’t just to learn about history; it’s to use that knowledge to change — and make — history. We can learn from the victories of previous movements, adopt their techniques and improve them if necessary. We can study our predecessors’ failures, analyze them and make sure not to repeat them.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: Why UF Law is still worth it

Two weeks ago, the UF Levin College of Law hosted its first Double Gator Reception, an event in which professors, administrators, alumni and potential law students could meet and mingle.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: The differences between Sanders and Clinton on incarceration

The U.S. has the second-highest prison population rate, according to the Institute for Criminal Policy Research and the World Prison Brief. While the U.S. touts itself as the “home of the free,” this seems contradictory to American values. Mass incarceration is a lose-lose problem: Those who are needlessly incarcerated lose the ability to integrate easily into society and the taxpayers are footing the bill for something that ultimately does not make us any safer. According to the University of Chicago Crime Lab, the costs for housing an inmate can be around $30,000 a year, but this does not take into account the social costs of high rates of incarceration. 


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  DARTS LAURELS

Darts & Laurels: 03/11/2016

Getting back into the swing of things after a week off is usually extremely difficult. It’s hard to wake up for those 7:25 a.m. classes, pull all-nighters and eat Top Ramen after a week of sleeping in until noon, lounging by the pool or beach and eating home-cooked meals — that is, if you went home. 


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: Internalized misogyny: common comments and why they’re bad

We’re all guilty of it. Even a diehard feminist like myself has the occasional “ugh, get a load of her” moment when confronted with a scantily clad girl at a party. Internalized misogyny is the act of women elevating the status of men through demeaning the value of other women. At its most overt, internalized misogyny manifests as women openly tearing down other women. However, a far more subtle manifestation exists in the remarks women make day to day. It’s so subtle we may not even realize what we’re doing. In this column, I’m going to identify three very common internally misogynistic remarks I’ve heard — and made! — and explain the damage they do to feminism.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: Exit stage right, exit stage left

Recent polls indicate the U.K. is leaning closer toward exiting the European Union, and June 23, Britons may decide to do just that via national referendum. The odds seem to be against this. Britons overall have a long history of being supportive toward remaining part of the Union, but with the most recent Telegraph poll, indicating about 49 percent of Britons favor leaving, the U.K.’s status in Europe — and by extension, the world — appears tenuous. 


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