For the final journal you can write about any article that you would like. You have to connect it to critical thinking or monsters.
Make sure to include a link, summary, and analysis. Minimum 250 words. Comment below.
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Professor Ramos' Blog 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/28/scott-roeder-abortion-doctor-killer
This is an article about a fifty-one-year-old man named Scott Roeder who shot and killed an abortion doctor named George Tiller on May 31, 2009. He claims to have done this to save the lives of unborn babies. I chose this article because it fits in with early lessons of our class about being hypocritical. Scott Roeder is a born-again Christian who believed abortion is a sin. He is Christian and abortion is a sin, but when he murdered, it is a sin as well. So, murdering unborn babies is not ok to him, but murdering an adult is ok? Roeder also says he does not believe in abortions for incest or rape either because two wrongs do not make a right. That is exactly what he did. In his eyes abortion is wrong, but he took matters into his own hands and murdered the person performing those abortions. So, did those two wrongs make a right? For Doctor Tiller, his profession was based on terminating the life of unborn babies. It turns out when he was murdered he was acting as an usher for the Lutheran (type of Christian) church he attended. He was a Christian, but it was ok to perform abortions? Christians believe that murder is a sin. Both men are Christian, both men murdered. This story also fits into the monster theory as well. Thesis IV, The monster dwells at the gates of difference. Roeder saw Tiller as a monster for being an abortionist, so by murdering him he was being a hero. He was justifying the murder he committed by saying he saved the lives of many children.
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https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/santa-fe-texas-shooting
A school shooting has happened at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, 8 hours before this was written, resulting in the deaths of 9 students, one teacher, and 10 others injured. This crime was conducted by a 17 year old named Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who along with having killed and injured 20 people,with guns he had stole from his father, had bombs stashed away in his car and other parts of the school. This being Texas, he is under consideration for the death penalty. It appears he had planned this for some time as a classmate said he would often wear a trench coat and kept to himself. School shootings follow monster theory number one, the monster is a social creation, and it very much is. We have had at the very least one school shooting per week for the past year, and now it had become an almost entity like problem that has no restriction on when or where it happens. The mentality of the people that commit these crimes, before they happen, are fueled by the fear they inspire in the communities where they happen, and so the monster lives on and escapes. It escapes to the other man, woman or child that is mistreated, has mental issues that make them think this is the only way forward, or those who wish to harm others are inspired into putting their violent fantasies into action. This monster is a mentality affecting those listed before and with it being so common that looking up the words “school shooting” results in an article made minuets before, it is one that will not be slain any time soon.
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https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/18/us/texas-school-shooting/index.html
A school shooting has happened at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, 8 hours before this was written, resulting in the deaths of 9 students, one teacher, and 10 others injured. This crime was conducted by a 17-year-old named Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who along with having killed and injured 20 people, with guns he had stolen from his father, Dimitrios had bombs stashed away in his car and other parts of the school. In this event we can relate tis to monster theory in the fact that this relates to Cohen’s monster theory as thesis number one. The monster’s body is a cultural body. He is saying that monsters are disguised as something that society fears. When a school shooting happens in America though they have happened frequently this year we can see that society as a whole begins to create more panic and fear than that of what the monster or the monstrosity that was produced had created. In fact, we begin to see fear in all of America I am not saying that they are wrong what I am trying to impose is we need to look at what made this person do this monstrous event and what we can learn from it. What events took place in the creation of this event as this person had put a lot of time in creating this. I am most certain that there were events that led up to this shooting and most people either ignored it or just turned their backs because it doesn’t matter, or it does not really affect their life at that particular moment.
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Earlier this week, Donald Trump calleds of the people he was deporting out of the country, “animals.” Sparking outrage because many erroneously believed Donald Trump was referring to all people he was deporting as “animals” the White House clarified that the president was, in fact, referencing MS-13, a Mexican gang. This has fueled Trump’s base to rush to his defense, claiming that the liberal media simply wants Trump to look bad, and that MS-13 is so bad that calling them animals is appropriate. It made me think of Cohen’s thesis that humanity creates monsters in order to invalidate their very humanity. That we turn people into monsters in order to other them, make them easier to hate.
Perhaps these people are not worthy of the protections of the title of human, but it still did not sit comfortably with me, it seemed as though this could be the beginning a slippery slope. When Hitler began his descent into genocide with Jew, he began with people who could easily be seen as distasteful. His first target was the Roma, or Gypsies, because he knew that they were a people without ties to a land. They had no one to defend them. My fear is that if we allow people to be stripped of their humanity for disgusting acts they’ve committed then we may be beginning to see taking away of humanity as an acceptable punishment. And if that is to be the case, it’s worrisome of whom he will make into animals next.
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/05/18/us/texas-school-shooting/index.html
The article above talks about a 17 year old by the name of Dimitrious Pagourtzis who earlier today entered Santa Fe high school with a shotgun and a revolver to kill 10 people and wounded 10 others at this Texas high school. admitted he didn’t shoot people he liked and meant to kill the ones he did target. 9 students and 1 teacher were the victims of his actions. Authorities later found explosive devices, including pipe bombs and pressure cookers in and near the school. This is the 22nd US school shooting since the beginning of the year, and the third instance in eight days in which a gunman was on a school campus. This is a problem that has been going on in America for quite some time now and it seems the problem is getting worse and time progresses. There are multiple point of views for what is the problem. Problems such as who really is to blame when these types of things occur, as well as mental health, or even America itself. An example as to what i refer too is if you’re to watch “This is America” by Childish Gambino it has a lot of symbolism if you pay close attention. Such as there are some relating to how America views guns and issues. The opening scene shows Gambino dancing to the man in the chair and shoots him shortly after. The gun is carried off in a red napkin held carefully while the man shot who is dead is dragged across the floor. Another scene is where the church choir is singing and is related to the 2015 shooting of the Charleston shooting. They are singing and then suddenly they are gunned down with what seems to be a AK-47 followed by Gambino saying “This is America” and the gun is carried off in a red napkin carefully held while the bodies are left alone. This is saying that the real monster to why this is happening is how we as a society or a culture highly praise guns but not human lives.
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(To preface, I am focusing primarily on the interview clip rather than the commentary of YouTube user Secular Talk. However, I would encourage you to watch all of it, because he makes very valid points and does so in a humorous way.)
I found the clip of an interview that is in this YouTube video whilst scrolling Tumblr. Yeah, the squishy yet neurotic corner of the internet. In this clip, an inexperienced reporter from Info Wars, an American media platform that was founded by Alex Jones. Alex Jones has been reported as a notorious conspiracy theorist who has claimed that Sandy Hook never happened, among countless other fallacies by multiple sources: both CBS News and CNN News as well as other news platforms, scholarly sources, as well as Wikipedia, (Which states: “The site is connected to Alex Jones, a radio host and conspiracy theorist who has alleged the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.” and although this blatant description may have been edited, it is definitely worthy of discussion.) Alex Jones has also been an NRA spokesperson through media platforms such as Right Wing Watch. This is far from coincidental. An NRA spokesperson who has also been revealed as the spokesperson for a false news platform who has claimed Sandy Hook did not in fact happen? Come on. He is profiting off of giving false information that also endangers the safety of this country. However, in regards to the clip of the Info Wars Interview, my initial focus was on the response of the Bernie Sanders supporter in the video. The spontaneity of this interview perhaps caught this young Sanders supporter off guard. All I can say is, trolling is not productive. As exhausting as it may be, it is important to be respectful and refrain from petty insults whilst attempting to participate in political discussions. I believe it is important to be patient and instead think critically and engage with someone of an oppositional stance. Simply have a conversation, if possible. Back up your points and be sure to deliver information and opinion humbly and respectfully. You’ll catch more bees with honey than with vinegar, a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, all that stuff. We never know what can happen tomorrow, so why not take this seriously, and try to be productive, even with the most seemingly insignificant interactions. This is important. That’s my only complaint on her end, but I understand that as a normal bystander, you aren’t exactly going to have your patience prepared for an impromptu interview with a wildly misinformed reporter from an untrustworthy news platform. It happens, dude. No big deal, everyone’s exhausted. Let’s go eat some rich people.
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This is a video that I found on YouTube of a musical comedian named Bo Burnham. The song that he is performing during this particular set is titled, From God’s Perspective. Although his song is hilarious, it does offer several decent points which challenge the perspective of an average Christian towards their relationship with God. The video ties into critical thinking because it requires you to reinterpret what God’s logical perspective might be towards you as a Christian. The first topic that he mentions asks you to consider the possibility of there being aliens somewhere within the Universe and that maybe God would find the aliens a bit cooler than humans to spend his holy time with. The next topic that Bo Burnham suggests is that if you are good enough to be accepted into an even better eternal world which exists beyond all that we know, then you should have a good enough moral compass to not rely on him to tell you when not to do something horrible. The following topic discusses how God would probably find masturbation rather weird, but if he is all knowing, then he should already know that masturbation is natural and in fact, healthy for you.
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/sex-and-relationships/masturbation
This is one of many articles I came across which proclaim that “Masturbation can actually be good for your health”. Though, maybe masturbation was nothing more than a miscalculated malfunction within our mortal creation by God. The next philosophical proposal that Bo Burnham presents within his song is that maybe homosexuality was actually intended by God in order to prevent over population. Although, the bible is against homosexuality, so this could be a flaw in Bo Burham’s argument. The final, most important philosophical proposal presented within Bo Burham’s song is that, whether it’s from God, or someone that may be close to you, love isn’t something that is handed to you because you feel that you deserve it. Love should be mutually expressed within a relationship between two individuals. So if God’s never made an effort to prove his existence to you, then maybe he doesn’t love you.
-Jack Adams
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https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiUz9fav5fbAhUrjK0KHbDRCGcQtwIILDAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fnews%2Fis-social-networking-bad-for-you%2F&usg=AOvVaw014ciNTCzlqTFgfqkHZ3Bm
This video reflects on social media and how it has created mindless, phone crazy and dumbed down societies who can’t even engage on real face time. We post the most irrelevant things and have not yet realized that such platforms can be used to bring change. Maybe I have become a bit of a Grinch without a smartphone, maybe I don’t see the importance of reporting my every move to the world and posting filtered pictures or being a self-obsessed person who carries a selfie stick around just in case a picture perfect moment comes up.
Social media run the streets, the classrooms, the dinner tables (if there is someone there) the office and your perception it has the power to disassemble your personality as people close to you know and completely build a new character people have become so drenched in a false sense of “friendship’ or ideals that their perspective of the real world is so shallow
we are living in the moment and enjoying life’s experiences do we have the time to actually interact or is the genuineness of life being consumed by posing for the perfect picture and posting it. Is our focus more on what we are doing or what the online world will think of it? Perhaps we should learn to develop a more experiential outlook of the world and learn to appreciate and participate in those experiences.
I don’t have all the answers but the next time you take a selfie, record a voice note or snap chat just think about the realness of that moment.
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https://www.bustle.com/articles/63387-5-things-the-fifty-shades-of-grey-books-get-wrong-about-bdsm
This article is about the five things Fifty Shades of Grey got wrong about BDSM. It starts off with explaining what the books were about then gets right into the five parts. The first is on the contract and how it was not negotiated like it’s supposed to be and could in fact cause harm between the two parties when only one is looking at it without the other’s say in it. The article then talks about the reality of the contract and what really is supposed to happen in the BDSM community. The second is on safety and there is no practice of safety which is one of the key words in the mantra of BDSM, “safe, sane and consensual”. When doing a scene, one must always be aware of their partner and prepared for anything to happen and take that safety measures necessary. The author then goes into the reality of it and how the partners have precautions for anything to happen and are ready for anything in case it does in fact happen. The third is how the Dom, the dominant partner, does not provide aftercare. Aftercare is when at the end of a scene, during the wrapping up of said scene, the Dom takes care of their sub. Whether that is through cleaning up or cuddling it depends but in the series, there is no instance of aftercare. This is an important factor that cannot be skipped because it can lead to harmful after effects. The reality is that aftercare is extremely important and should be provided for the sub. The fourth is one of the biggest no-nos of the community: ignoring the safeword. The reason this is such a big deal is because the safeword is the keyword that when said or performed can end the scene immediately. In the book series, Christian Grey ignores when the safeword is said and done not stop. This is when it goes into the territory of rape. The reality is that safe words should never, under any circumstances, be ignored. The last part is depicting BDSM as a problem. This, overall paints the community in a bad light that is not necessary. It romanticizes abuse and manipulation and that is not what the community is meant for. The reality is that the author of Fifty Shades of Grey portrays the BDSM community as monstrous.
That line is the reason I decided to write about this article. I was using this article for an essay earlier and saw the world monstrous and saw how the author compared the BDSM community to monsters is a great example of the monster theses 4, the monster dwells at the gate of difference. It was an interesting article and perfectly portrays the difference between Fifty Shades of Grey and the BDSM community.
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