Being Blue at PSU

By JT Thomas Yikes. Just yikes. Between the mass shootings, rising Covid cases, and a Supreme Court that’s gone completely cuckoo-for-Cocoa-Puffs, I think we can all agree that it’s been one hell of a month. While a lot of things are going to absolute shit at the moment, the thing that’s been getting the most attention is, of course, the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which toppled Roe v. Wade and ended nearly fifty years of the constitutional right to an abortion along with it. I saw a video recently of a certain Senator getting into an argument with Dr. Khiara Bridges over the use of more gender inclusive terminology in the reproductive rights movement. The crux of the argument was that this Senator believed using inclusive terminology like “birth-giver” to be ridiculous because only women can give birth, despite being told by Dr. Bridges repeatedly that this is not true.  For a sizable chunk of Western history, and the vast majority of specifically American histor...

  By JT Thomas, edited and contributed to by Avery Heverly Hello readers of the PSU College Democrats blog! Welcome to the first post of the 2022-23 season. I hope summer’s been treating you all well. Back by popular demand, I’m JT and I’m going to be serving as one of our two Communications Co-Chairs, at least until spring semester, at which point I’ll be dipping for Greece and living my best life during my semester abroad. As I’m sure you can tell, I’m very excited. Today I’m going to be doing something that I’ve been wanting to do for about a month and a half now: a review of Netflix’s series Heartstopper, written and created by Alice Oseman and directed by Euros Lyn.  I know, I know. This isn’t exactly a hot-button political topic, but a.) we’re trying to make the blog more fun this year and b.) it’s Pride, I’m queer, and I have custody of the blog this month. So there. Let’s dive in, shall we? Heartstopper is a TV series produced by Netflix and See-Saw Films and based on...

By Gabby Ciraolo People often question whether or not the death penalty is a justified means of punishment. The answer to this question depends entirely on what you believe the punishment should accomplish. Retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation are the four purposes of punishment. Retribution--otherwise known as revenge--and deterrence--built around the idea that punishment is more painful than a crime is pleasurable--are the two forms of punishment most often brought up when discussing the death penalty.   It is a widely held belief that the only adequate punishment for murder is capital punishment--many people believe that retribution is justice. A study conducted by Professor Beckett at the University of Washington found that jurors in Washington state are 3x more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than they would for a white defendant in a similar case. Additionally, a study in California discovered that people found guilty of killi...

By Deepa Kadidahl To End the Pandemic, We Must Champion Vaccine Equality With the lifting of the mask mandate at Penn State, it feels for us as though COVID is over. Unsurprisingly, this is far from true. Today, COVID is particularly plaguing low-income countries due to unequal distribution of vaccines. Peru, for example, had only vaccinated 30% of its population by September of last year. At one point, they also suffered from the highest COVID death rate in the world, with the virus having killed 200,000 of its 32 millions citizens (Al Jazeera). Countries in Africa are also victims of vaccine inequality. By the end of last year, only 8% of the continent’s entire population had been vaccinated (Amnesty International). Even when vaccines were shipped from the West to African countries, there were many instances of the vaccines being close to their expiration date (Amnesty International). These countries lacked the infrastructure to distribute the vaccines in time, leading to their dispo...

By Tim Klaum In colloquial terms, filter bubbles are the algorithms that run our social media accounts, deciding which news to push, which accounts we see more often, and which posts get left in the dust of our timelines. At first glance, I must admit, I thought filters were a great thing. I saw it as a way to get curated content, so you know you’re seeing what you like and ignoring what you don’t. Unfortunately, that isn’t the reality we live in today, and I don’t think we ever will. For a long time now, I’ve frequently seen news come across my feed that links back to the same few sources, even though I wasn’t following any of them. At first, I thought it must just be a coincidence. However, upon further investigation, Twitter was actually pushing me news from accounts that I had interacted with in the past, regardless of whether or not I actually followed the accounts. I was fine with it because I hadn’t realized what that meant for my news, but soon after that, I came to the conclus...

By Sydney Smichnick Planned Parenthood is an essential resource for some college students, but it and its resources have not been available to Penn State students since early 2012.  The nonprofit organization educates people and provides vital health care services, such as STD testing and treatment, birth control, well-woman exams, cancer screening and prevention, abortion, hormone therapy, infertility services and general health care. State College closed its sole Planned Parenthood due to lack of funding nine years ago. Now, the nearest Planned Parenthood to State College is in Harrisburg, which is over 85 miles away. Due to the closure of Planned Parenthood in State College, Penn State Students have felt the need to take charge for the lack of resources for students.  In 2015, students on Penn State’s campus created an organization called Planned Parenthood Generation Action, which partners with Planned Parenthood nationally and at a Pennsylvania level. Planned Parenthood G...

By Sam Ajah Watergate, we have a problem: Democrats are in serious trouble. With less than 7 months until the midterm elections, Democrats are fighting for their lives on Capitol Hill, as well as down on the local and state level, and they seem to have nothing to offer prospective voters in the midterms. This isn’t a new problem, but quite simply, a titanic quagmire which Democrats have created for themselves that has put the party into the ultimate nightmare scenario. With Dems retiring left and right, taking crushing losses on home territory, and increasing gridlock from Biden down to your local council person, Dems are walking into the Midterms empty handed and dangerously exposed.  You must be asking yourself, “Sam, how is this Democrats’ fault? It’s the GOP obstruction!” Well, I hate to break it to you, but we have been creating this problem for ourselves for decades, and unless we immediately do something about these problems, you might as well invite the insurrectionists bac...