Opinion

Editorial

Editorial: Let’s bring more elephants into the room

By The Editorial Board | February 20

Dissenting views at Tufts are often not taken well. From conversations about living uphill or downhill to if you should nap or work after Spring Fling to political positions, conversations that strike strong feelings are everywhere. However, without open, constructive, civil discourse, it is extremely difficult to discuss — or even point out — the elephant in the room when everyone in the room seems like they will instantly dismiss it if it was voiced out loud.

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Viewpoint

How the Trump administration’s immigration policy is based in fear-mongering

By Monica Reilly | February 20

It was a typical Tuesday night when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers raided a Bronx apartment complex. The event drew a lot of media coverage, especially when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a video on social media with the caption “Dirtbags like this will continue to be removed from our streets.” 39 people were arrested that night in raids across NYC and Long Island, inspiring fear both throughout the state and the country about who could be next.

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Column

Ukraine at War: Russia targets Chernobyl nuclear plant as potential peace talks approach

By Mariia Kudina | February 20

My dad turned 9 years old on the day of the Chernobyl disaster. Two years later, his father was sent to the city to clean up the contaminated area and manage the consequences of the catastrophe. He spent around five months maintaining the station, managing a team of people and ensuring that safety protocols were followed. Back then, everything was covered in radioactive dust, and even eating an apple from a tree or sitting on a park bench could be deadly. The radiation deteriorated not only the environment but also people’s physical and mental health. Some of his fellow liquidators lost their minds after getting lost in the Red Forest, a strip of greenery around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. My dad, a physician, explains that everyone reacted to the radiation differently.

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Column

The Conversation: Musk, the apprentice

By Evan Wang and Sadie Roraback-Meagher | February 19

Sadie Roraback-Meagher: Heya there Evan! Evan Wang: Hey Sadie! Sadie: I hope your week has been good so far. I don’t know about you, but for me, looking at the news this past week has been … what’s the word? Panic inducing? Nauseating? Just flat-out horrifying? But hey, at least that ...

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Guest

Reaffirming the Daily's journalistic practices

By Ethics and Inclusion Committee | February 19

In light of recent actions taken by the federal government to arrest undocumented immigrants, drumming up fear across the nation, The Tufts Daily’s Ethics & Inclusion Committee is issuing an open letter to Tufts and the local communities of Medford and Somerville to reaffirm and clarify our journalistic ethics and practices as it relates to documentation status.

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Viewpoint

47’s bully policy

By Alexander Degterev | February 18

As the administration of President Donald Trump has set off on its pursuit of an “America First” agenda, the majority of its moves so far have confused, and outright angered, many in the international community. Scarily, the majority of these aggravated parties are, or at least were, incredibly important U.S. allies.

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Viewpoint

The Oscars are once again awarding cultural exploitation

By Tatianna Alvarado | February 18

“Emilia Pérez” is a 2024 Spanish-language musical crime film written by non-Spanish speaking Frenchdirector Jacques Audiard. While the film was set in Mexico, it was filmed in France, as Audiard’s vision of Mexico didn’t match thereality of the country’s streets. This vision is of a stereotypical Mexico, centered around a cartel leader with the backdrop of street markets, deserts and that familiar sepia filter.

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Column

Coffee Table Socioeconomics: Invest more in our human capital

By Linda Huang | February 18

In the field of development economics, there is a prominent view that education and investment in human capital are key for improving social organization and economic mobility, bringing about effective economic development. For an already-developed country like the United States, this view on development may not always manifest in economic terms — it could also pertain to both social progress and innovation. Having been able to compare the relationship between education and development in a developing country like China and a developed country like the United States, I have seen firsthand how access to and quality of higher education play a crucial role in shaping a nation’s trajectory.

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Viewpoint

The US will soon lose its status as the ‘land of the free’

By Olivia Zambrano | February 14

The Trump administration has long since straddled the blurry line between hate speech and outright human rights violations. The recently inaugurated President Donald Trump and his administration have abused their positions of power to enact executive orders that accelerate the United States’ descent into a country led by compassionless government agencies and individuals.

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Viewpoint

DeepSeek isn’t a threat – it is a moment for AI advancement

By Daniel Lee | February 14

Within just a few weeks of its arrival, China’s latest reasoning model DeepSeek R1 sent the stock prices of American tech companies plummeting. Investor Marc Andreessen described it as “AI’s Sputnik moment,” considering the new AI model — developed by the new Chinese startup company — shocked Silicon Valley and Wall Street. This new model is said to be capable of performance equal to that technology of more prominent AI companies such as OpenAI and MetaAI at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. People interpreting Andreessen’s comment as a wake-up call for drastic change might be extrapolating from history — if Sputnik sparked national mobilization, why wouldn’t an “AI Sputnik” moment lead to something similar? One could view DeepSeek as a canary in the coal mine, as it signals a potential decline in U.S. technological supremacy in the face of China’s growing technological capabilities. I, however, view this issue differently. 

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Viewpoint

Say goodbye, good riddance to uniform art movements

By Max Lerner | February 14

Last semester, I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum — now my favorite art museum — for the first time. Built by Gardner and her husband to display their vast art collection in a dignified and evocative manner, the museum is a masterclass in artistic harmony. Walking through the Gothic Room, I was struck by how seamlessly the different forms and aesthetics connected, creating a strong sense of continuity. Stepping out of the museum and back into the modern world, I couldn’t help but wonder if there were any such uniform art movements in the modern era.

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Viewpoint

Changing the world one pint at a time

By Talia Wilcox | February 13

If you’ve ever been on a Mini Mart ice cream run, you may have noticed Ben & Jerry’s pints are more expensive than other brands. You may ask yourself, “is my splurge worth the cost as a student on a limited budget?” Yet it’s important to note that your money may go toward more than just ice cream. The creators behind your favorite logos and flavors hold values and make choices to invest profits in a way that impacts the world in which we live. Those few extra dollars might go into supporting a cause that you truly care about. Despite Ben & Jerry’s slightly higher price tag, their model for investment beyond the product itself should be the gold standard for companies. Not all companies have missions that support social causes, but the realization that consumers like to purchase from brands that support causes they care about has driven some companies to use progressive politics as a marketing tactic.

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Viewpoint

Don’t blame the referee, blame the league

By Dylan Tanouye | February 12

As an avid sports fan, I understand the emotional intensity that comes with watching a game, no matter how low the stakes. Whether I’m cheering on my younger brother as he plays a match of youth soccer or watching my favorite professional sports teams, I often feel as emotionally invested as I would be if I were a player on the field. Games that don’t end with a victory for my team often produce an emotional reaction that compels me to find any excuse for the loss. Oftentimes, a significant amount of blame falls on the game officials, whether they are referred to as referees, umpires or judges.

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Guest

Letter to the Editor

By Nick Giurleo | February 12

In the Daily’s Thursday article, “Medford passes Welcoming City Ordinance,” Medford City Councilor Justin Tseng praises the city’s euphemistically-named Welcoming City Ordinance. In the councilor’s own words, “This is essentially sanctuary city legislation.” His ...

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Viewpoint

What Elton John and Drake can learn from Frank Ocean

By Gretta Goorno | February 11

Frank Ocean may have some of the most cultish, fervent supporters in the entire music industry. Born as Christopher Edwin Breaux, the 37-year-old singer’s fan-base — and influence — far exceed the quantity of his music. Though he hasn’t released an official studio album since 2016, every year there seems to be rumors that Frank has a new life-altering masterpiece on the way. His fans read into every bit of his life, analyzing his Instagram feed, his mom’s birthdaymessage and even recently, a masked figure on Tyler the Creator’s music video, for a desperate sign of new music. I, for one, have a bootleg vinyl of his unreleased songs — and I’m not even a mega fan. This kind of obsessive behavior is normalized throughout Ocean’s fanbase. Safe to say, fans would give up an arm and a leg to hear another second of Ocean’s sweet melodies.

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Viewpoint

The return of fascism: Musk proudly invokes Nazism in infamous salute at presidential event

By Michaela Loughran | February 11

As the head of these organizations, Musk has often been at the head of public controversies. One of the most recent pieces of problematic news to come out about Musk was that the openly appeared to give a Nazi salute at an event held for President Donald Trump’s inauguration. This news was naturally deeply alarming and frightening to many. How could a gesture most commonly associated with the fascist, antisemitic regime of Adolf Hitler be reappearing at a nationally televised event in the U.S. nearly a century after WWII?

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Viewpoint

The fallacy of equally valuable perspectives

By Linda Huang | February 7

I think it is both possible and necessary for people to disagree with each other constructively on important matters. All perspectives deserve to be patiently heard, regardless of how egregious they may initially seem; an argument is not invalid simply because it does not affirm the moral superiority of your own position.

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Opinion

Op-ed: Perverting protest into profit

By Ryan Rizvi | February 7

Imagine you, a Tufts student, are sitting in front of Ballou Hall, along with several others, protesting for Tufts to divest from a nation you feel is an apartheid state. Officers are physically trying to move you and threatening you with felony charges. Soon after, Tufts places you on disciplinary ...

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Viewpoint

Gen Z’s reactions to TikTok ban suggest growing need for simulated community

By Max Lerner | February 6

In August 2020, President Donald Trump ordered ByteDance — the parent company of TikTok — to sell their American assets. That order would prove to be a death knell for TikTok: Four and a half years later, in January, the Supreme Court upheld a law to ban it. On the app, and among the generation that uses it most, panic ensued.

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Viewpoint

The death of the hobby: Creativity is perishing at the hands of hustle culture

By Olivia Zambrano | February 6

Hobbies — any activity engaged in for pleasure ranging from crafting to gardening — are a scarce delicacy for college students, whose day-to-day lives don’t often allow for leisure time. The mental, emotional and physical health benefits of hobbies are frequently overlooked and treated as luxuries in a schedule packed full of academic and personal endeavors.

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