I mean, just look at this handshake.
.@realDonaldTrump and French President Emmanuel Macron joined hands in a firm grip as they posed for pictures at the U.S. embassy, Brussels. pic.twitter.com/QV5tkUbLoS
— Stephen Crowley (@Stcrow) May 25, 2017
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#ImNotWithHer: Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Speak For All Women
Much ado has been given to Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President after her giant June 7 primary win in California.
Much of the surrounding publicity is due to her gender and the historic nature of her victory.
But for some women, Clinton’s victory is more a nightmare than a victory.
While Clinton considers herself a candidate for women, by putting out items such as “Women Cards” designed to attract female voters and contribute to the supposed historical aspects of the presidential race, and while the media and the outside world make it seem like Clinton is ranking high amongst women and other voters, actual polls show us that the silent majority of females on both sides of political ideologies are not in favor of her possible presidency.
The disdain is of course heavy across swaths of conservative women, who view Hillary Clinton as an unqualified presidential candidate based on personal views on topics ranging from abortion to the tragedy in Benghazi.
Her numbers among conservative women are dramatically low for a candidate that prides herself for being a candidate for the women, with 90 percent of Republican women having an unfavorable view of her, compared to only 9 percent that view her in a favorable light, according to a recent poll.
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While the disdain among females who are Republicans and conservatives is to be expected, the flaky favorability also finds itself on the liberal and independent side, with 68 percent of liberal women supporting her, compared to 30 percent who are not.
Among Independent voting women, only 24 percent find her favorable; while 65 percent view her as unfavorable.
Even after her big win in California, the support among females in the United States was not at a high level, with the #GirlIGuessImWithHer hashtag beginning to trend among disheartened female voters including but not limited to Bernie Sanders fans, which adds even more female disdain towards Clinton and her nomination.
What could be the problem behind Clinton and her campaign that is making women seemingly run away in droves?
Could it be the Benghazi attacks, in which she seemingly gave no care to the way in which those four men died under her vigilance with her famous quote “What difference does it make?”
Could it have to do with the FBI e-mail scandal that just never seems to end? Could it have to do with her callous attitude during her time as a lawyer where she allegedly defended a child rapist that was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl, even though Clinton knew he was guilty of the crime?
For many women who do not support Clinton, it seems to be a combination of different sets of ideals and different ideas as to why they do not support her.
For me, the biggest things would bleed into her different opinions and ideas on important topics to me, such as the subject of abortion and her seemingly far-left political views.
But more than that is although she was the secretary of state for some time, and although she is the wife of the infamous former president Bill Clinton, she has not made enough of a positive impact and shown that she would be capable of running an entire country.
It is an inspirational goal to look up to, and a female presidency is something that is and should be welcomed in the 21st century.
However, we should not make the mistake of voting for somebody just because of a certain feature; i.e. race, gender, or even religion.
Just because a woman is a woman does not make her certified to run an entire country, especially with the giant mistrust that many American women and men have with Hillary Clinton.
If Americans cannot trust Clinton to tell the truth about her e-mail scandal, nor tell the truth about what happened in Benghazi, how can we have faith that just because she is the first woman president, she will guide America down the right path?
How can we be sure that Americans will be kept as safe as humanly possible, if Clinton is known for such evasive secrecy?
As a young woman voting in the 2016 election, I had hoped that we would see a woman that among other things showed prowess and ability to run this country smoothly.
Unfortunately I, and millions of other American women and men, do not see that ability in Hillary Clinton, and are looking for more than just a symbolic victory.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Quinn Dombrowski/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Does The Center Of No Man’s Sky Actually Hold The Secret To Life After Death?
One could easily argue that No Man’s Sky was both the most hyped and most disappointing game of 2016, if not ever.
A nearly infinite universe was revealed to be nothing more than a series of expansive but lifeless copy and paste jobs of pre-made assets.
What many found to be the game’s largest let down was what players found at the center of the universe.
Originally rumored to hold a secret to life, understanding, or just a bunch of in-game currency, what players found was essentially a reset button.
But what if the ending to No Man’s Sky showed us what happens when we die?
According to Biocentrism, a theory created by scientist Robert Lanza, Life and Biology create the universe and not the other way around.
The theory argues that our consciousness creates the world around us, meaning space and time aren’t actually things, but are tools of our “animal understanding”.
Along with this is the belief in multiple worlds, where our choices have split one universe into different outcomes.
Read More: Can This Video Game Change Your Ideology?
Basically, your choice to read this article occurred in one universe while an alternate universe exists where you chose to scroll past.
The final part of Biocentrism suggests that our souls are essentially immortal.
Your soul can exist outside and beyond your physical body much like a hermit crab can exist outside of its current shell.
The controversial orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR) theory connects to Biocentrism and supports many of the near-death and out of body experiences humans have reported having throughout history.
Some scientists argue that there are simpler explanations for these visions and experiences.
According to inquisitr.com, “Skeptics have long attributed near death experiences to physical phenomena such as the brain being deprive of oxygen, not the human soul or any interaction with God or the afterlife.”
But former skeptics like Dr. Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who was stuck in a coma for 7 days says his near-death experience revealed a consciousness after death.
In an article for Newsweek, Alexander said his profound experience during the coma gave him “a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.”
“It exists, and what I saw and learned there has placed me quite literally in a new world: a world where we are much more than our brains and bodies, and where death is not the end of consciousness but rather a chapter in a vast, and incalculably positive, journey.”
The “Orch OR” theory could prove scientific evidence of our consciousness being “mere computations conducted within the neural networks in the human brain” while concurrently proving the long held belief of a separate mind, body and spirit in many religions.
So what does this mean for the ending of the game everyone loves to hate?
If your consciousness can’t die, but migrate as the Biocentrism suggests, the transfer and reset of your game once you reach the center of the universe in No Man’s Sky might be a realistic explanation of what happens when we die.
That blinding light and relocation to another universe with a clean slatemay truly be a glimpse into life after death.
That, or it could have just been a cheap way to insert replayability into the game.
Maybe in another universe, I also happened to put the $60 I spent on No Man’s Sky toward something I’d get more enjoyment from.
If you’re interested in learning more about the theory of Biocentrism, you can check out the book Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe by Robert Lanza with Bob Berman on Amazon. You’ll also find No Man’s sky regularly discounted if you ever feel like seeing what all the fuss is about.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Photo Credits: Blake Patterson/ Flickr
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Could Sexism Be Behind The Success Of John Green’s Books?
For the reader, whether partial to the Young Adult genre or not, John Green’s name is a familiar one.
Recognizable film titles like The Fault In Our Stars and more recently, Paper Towns are easy sentimental watches for many, based on Green’s meandering narratives of young people juggling life-threatening diseases, big swelling crushes on the girl next door, and generally attempting to survive life with all the emotions of your common teenager.
Green’s success as a writer is one which has enabled him to have two of his books translated to film already, and with another prospectively in the works, many now place him as the face of Young Adult literature.
Whether it’s the realism that is seen as relatable in his writing, or the fact that his fame partly derives from Green’s Internet presence, creating educational videos with his brother under the name Vlogbrothers, there’s no getting around the fact that John Green’s name is one which is either greeted with contempt, or adoration.
Teenagers have no qualms listing Green alongside J.K Rowling, Suzanne Collins, and Stephenie Meyer. While his books are not so widely renowned as the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Games, or The Twilight Saga- some see this as indicative of substance.
Green’s books feature stand-out lines readers of his find relatable and inspiring at the same time. To search his name on any social media source is to come face to face with this outpour. But exactly what is it about this man’s writing which has propelled him to book-to-film fame? To be hailed as a permanent, important member of the Young Adult genre?
Sarah Dessen. Tamora Pierce. Judy Blume. Meg Rosoff. Lois Lowry. Laurie Halse Anderson.
Before and alongside Green’s writing, chock-full of painful love, identity crises and existential doubts that plague his intelligent-pretentious-boy-protagonists, there existed, and exists, a treasure trove of Young Adult books and writers who delve into those exact same feelings.
Dessen was given one shot at the silver screen when two of her novels were combined to produce the 2003 rom-com How To Deal.
Rosoff’s How I Live Now, a staple of formative reading experiences as a recurrent feature in classroom book collections and libraries, took 9 years to reach the big screen.
“It is no surprise that the Young Adult genre is dominated by women writers. To place Green on a pedestal then, is to reinforce the notion that the creative white male voice is the most important.”
This isn’t to say that the measure of a book’s success, the integration of it as a frontrunner of the Young Adult genre, relies on whether it has been converted into a film or not. It is merely significant to note exactly the size of Green’s cultural impact and how the cinematic treatment of his books bookends this. The truth is, Green’s writing being centralised as the most prominent of the Young Adult genre in the minds of teenagers and teachers feels unfair, and a little sexist.
After the release of The Fault In Our Stars in 2014, The Wall Street Journal was happy to congratulate Green in “ushering in a new golden era for contemporary, realistic, literary teen fiction following more than a decade of dominance by books about young wizards, sparkly vampires and dystopia.“
Now that Paper Towns is out and talks on Looking For Alaska’s screen-time are rumoured, that ‘new golden era’ looks to be continuing. But actually, there is nothing new about this golden era. Where book editors are looking for ‘contemporary realism’, relatable characters after what some call ‘the John Green effect’, writers of important teenage discourse, Anderson’s Speak, Dessen’s Dreamland, Blume’s entire track record, are shoved to the background, ignored despite their effort to communicate important experiences like body issues, mental illness, sexual and physical abuse, alongside relatable characters. Contemporary realism at its ignored best.
It is unfair to also argue that the genre, as diverse as it is, is only valuable if it is solely realistic. Books about young wizards, sparkly vampires and dystopia do not feature somehow superficial sentiments if the character in goofy infatuation also happens to wield a wand or if the girl struggling to save the life she knows is living in a dystopia which, actually, may not be so dystopian depending on which part of the world one lives in. To take this view of the Young Adult genre is to erase the significant triumphs of many books and their effects on the consciousness of young people.
Hank Green (L) and John Green (R) speaking at VidCon 2012 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore
After all, as Slate’s Ruth Graham said in her controversial article Against YA:
“crucially, YA books present the teenage perspective in a fundamentally uncritical way.”
It is this perspective which is truly indicative of the Young Adult genre and which deserves to be lauded, whether it is by Green or by his contemporaries.
Alongside those I have mentioned previously, Meg Cabot, Malorie Blackman, Lois Lowry, and many more equally deserve to be congratulated for well-written analyses of the teenage experience, of teenage emotion, whether they have the Internet, book agents, and Hollywood idolizing them or not.
It is no surprise that the Young Adult genre is dominated by women writers. To place Green on a pedestal then, is to reinforce the notion that the creative white male voice is the most important.
It is to, as literary tradition makes the mistake of doing and despite both their valued contributions to literature, cast aside Austen’s voice for Salinger’s. To portray the male narrative as a bildungsroman with all the integrity we afford men speaking and to cast off the female narrative as YA self-satisfying trash, just one part of a much bigger pile.
Green himself seems to be aware of the issues surrounding discourse on the genre. He said the following on his Youtube show, as quoted by The Atlantic:
“From a pop culture perspective, or a general media perspective, there can only be one thing…. There can only be paranormal romance, there can only be dystopia, or now, there can only be The Fault in Our Stars. But it’s not the truth, that isn’t the way the actual world of YA books looks or has ever looked.
“To me, the real story of young adult literature is not actually about whatever the big cultural book of the moment is. The real story of young adult literature is that more than a thousand books are read by at least ten thousand teenagers a year, that we have incredible breadth, that we have great dystopia and great fantasy, great sci-fi, great mystery, great romances, and all of that stuff can live together and be in conversation because they all – we all – share the same shelf.”
So it is important to recognize that the general media perspective is not the one we should consistently place value in. When it comes to something as immersive, as personal, as the reading experience, it may be beneficial to pay attention to the reading trends, but it is a significant move to take stock of the whole shelf.
It is the shelf which is the most important feature of a teenager’s love of literature, and if that literature is mostly of the YA genre, it may feature John Green’s writing- and may also feature the writing of many, many others.
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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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