Camus and Kirk: Combating the Right With Political Absurdism

Illustration by The Daily Beast. How does one navigate a world where “alternative facts” abound, evidence and logic can be scorned, and people with immovable opinions live in political echo chambers divorced from reality? In this world, efforts to construct robust and factually supported arguments are mocked and people are far too receptive to bullshit—attempts […]

Can Democrats Win Mississippi?

Note: The original version of this piece, as well as the one featured in our Spring 2021 magazine, stated that the MSDP’s voter suppression hotline received hundreds of thousands of calls. The hotline actually received hundreds of calls.

The GOP Abandoning Trump Is Not Praiseworthy. It’s Self-Preservation.

In the months since President Trump lost re-election, a number of Republican leaders have moved to detach themselves from Trump and Trumpism. More may follow in the coming months. But that does not mean they should be praised. Lawmakers have only started to distance themselves from Trump’s sect of the party as his danger—or at […]

Abandon Ship: How SAIL Threatens Intrinsic Curiosity

Illustration by Ishita Khanna Curiosity is the lifeblood of academia. It drives us to the classroom to learn and to the laboratory to discover.  At Northeastern, curiosity propels us beyond the boundaries of the lecture halls to develop skills in the real world. Rather than be content with academic knowledge alone, Northeastern students use six-month […]

Debunking Originalism: How Objectivity Promotes Judicial Bias

Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings revived the debate between originalism and living constitutionalism. The former espouses that judges ought to interpret the literal text of the Constitution according to what the words meant when they were promulgated. The latter suggests that the Framers intentionally used loose language to allow for future interpretation, and that […]

In Response to “On Guns and Liberty”

Last January, Max Willner-Giwerc, a student whom I feel lucky to count as a friend, published “On Guns and Liberty.”  Willner-Giwerc’s broad argument against legal firearm ownership was well-founded, well-reasoned, and cited reputable sources. He argues that guns create a public sense of fear and deny victims of gun violence the freedom to live, while […]

Asia After Trump: Competitive Coexistence in the Biden Era

The new Biden administration will have to address myriad challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic to affordable health care to climate change. While his immediate focus is on domestic issues, Biden will eventually need to turn his attention to the Asia-Pacific, a region of geostrategic importance to Washington. The security environment has changed significantly since Biden […]

The Progression of Journalism: Transparency When Objectivity Fails

Photo by Joe Piette Objectivity doesn’t mean what most people think it does. Its original definition, popularized by Walter Lippmann, explained how neutrality applies to journalism the same way the scientific method does to science: a collection of evidence that leads to a deductive conclusion.  Today, objectivity is synonymous with “fairness” and “balance.” It’s unattainable […]

The Case for Community-Owned Baseball

Photo by Rick Burtzel The national pastime needs national control. Major League Baseball operates as a monopoly, enables stubborn and avaricious owners, and allows teams to take advantage of their host cities. While the NBA and NHL implemented a centralized “bubble” as a COVID-19 safety measure in 2020, MLB allowed teams to play within their […]