Month: February 2019

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dem-silence-during-state-of-the-union-speech-shows-all-they-care-about-is-opposing-trump

 

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/state-of-the-union-2019/index.html

 

The articles that i chose were about Donald Trump’s state of the union address. I chose this topic because of the different perspectives on the validity of it. Liberal sources are all checking the the facts that he used. They were being more critical of the words he was saying. CNN stated, “”It will take days to fact-check all the misrepresentations that the President made tonight,” the California Democrat’s statement said.”  The conservative article was more focused on the positive aspects of his speech. Both articles focused on his portion of the speech that involved the border wall. They both focused on this part of the speech so much because of the controversy behind the government shutdown. He said that the economy was booming and the Fox article was finding facts to prove it while the CNN articles was trying to find facts to disprove his claims. There was a point during his speech where he acknowledged women in congress and even got a standing ovation from all the women opposing him that were wearing white. This line was the line that had both sides surprised and pleased with his speech. What’s funny about the FOX article is that the title is “Dem silence during State of the Union speech shows all they care about is opposing Trump.” These articles were proof of our continually polarizing government that was moving farther apart on the political spectrum. The fox article stated, “By sitting stone-faced through even the most bipartisan elements of the president’s unifying State of the Union address, the Democrats once again demonstrated that they care more about obstructing Trump than they do about looking out for the interests of the American people.”  Our bipartisan system is not allowing correspondence and productivity within our government. The rise in government shutdowns is an example of this. News outlets are using bias to appeal to one crowd of people and political groups are implementing strategies to slow down or terminate a political opinion that opposes its own group. “We’ve cut more regulations than any other administration in its entire tenure,” President Trump said, receiving applause only from the Republican side of the House chamber. Politicians are now using identity politics to attract certain groups of people. What’s most frightening about this is our national identity if different groups are being targeted in politics. Will this split in our government become greater or will we see unity in our government soon. With the increase in violent political acts, such as the bombs sent to hillary clinton and president Obama, continue to go on and become more of a threat or will we see peace sooner or later. We might be witnessing the beginning of the end of America and we are just feeding on it. This State of the Union Address was meant to bring our government together and establish a sense of patriotism and stability for our government. Was that goal accomplished? The news outlets have different opinions about that.

 

I think that it was very interesting to read about my generation and to view how older generations view us even though i hear it from my parents all the time. I like that the time article included 2 different opinions about millenials. I agree with the Time article that our narcissism rates are higher than other generations and i can personally associate with these since i believe i am able to accomplish hard tasks with little effort.  My parents would agree with Joel Stein’s opinions about our standards and entitlement because they always tell me that i feel too entitled. But i also agree with them that it is the parents fault by boosting our self esteem at a young age. Ever since i was a little boy my parents would tell me that, “ You will make it very far in life.” This made me feel that i am able to accomplish whatever i want. I can see how this affects our ability to obtain a job but not keep it for a long period of time. Our social relations are definitely different since we have phones. Stein said, “Now that cell phones allow kids to socialize at every hour–they send and receive an average of 88 texts a day, according to Pew–they’re living under the constant influence of their friends. ‘Peer pressure is anti-intellectual. It is anti-historical. It is anti-eloquence.’ ”  I recently read another article stating that our attention spans and critical thinking abilities are inferior to the generations before us with the implementation of internet and technology. This affects our ability to learn and our ability to read and process information. As for the Buzzfeed article, How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation, i agree that we have become more reliant on technology and our parents to do small tasks for us. We spend too much time trying to perfect ourselves (probably because of our desire to always appear lavish on social media) that we are unable to do the small things that are required. I disagree with Anne Helen Petersen when she said that we are worse at managing our money than previous generations. I feel like we have more debt because of the pressure to go to college now and increasing inflation but i think that money management is just as good in our generation as any other. Yes sometimes we can buy items that we don’t always need but that is because of the materialistic society that we live in now. We have people on instagram popularizing such items and constant ads in our face to buy them so we spend our money on these things. But at the end of the day, we spend money on these items because we have the money to afford them. I agree with Peterson when she said, “The photos and videos that induce the most jealousy are those that suggest a perfect equilibrium (work hard, play hard!) has been reached. But of course, for most of us, it hasn’t. Posting on social media, after all, is a means of narrativizing our own lives: What we’re telling ourselves our lives are like. And when we don’t feel the satisfaction that we’ve been told we should receive from a good job that’s “fulfilling,” balanced with a personal life that’s equally so, the best way to convince yourself you’re feeling it is to illustrate it for others.” We tend to use social media to make ourselves happier by boosting our dopamine levels by receiving likes. So if that requires faking our happiness to get that temporary boost of confidence, then we will do it. But there are positives to our generation. We are very selective and approach situation with great amount of thought. We like to take risks but always analyze them well enough to increase our chances of coming out victorious. Since we have a vast amount of information for us to access, it is a lot easier for us to be successful in a task that we attempt to do (as long as we devote ourselves to that task.) The New York times article highlights some of the positives of millennials and i agree with Stein. I consider myself to be a millenial. I was raised in the age of phones and constant information and can relate to a lot of the things that were said in these articles. I believe that we can effect the future in greater ways than the generations before us and we have the power to make great changes. We are obsessed with having fun and being happy and a lot of generations criticize us for that but at the end of the day, we will have the best mark in history.

 

Hello, my name is Jonathan Kovbasyuk and I am a freshman at Baruch. I am currently majoring in finances but am open to the idea of switching majors if something else interests me more. I like finances however because that is where all the money is at. I recently started trading currencies and I have a goal to make twenty thousand dollars this year. Besides that, I love to watch and play sports, I love to party, I love to listen to music and I love cooking up a mean breakfast.   I think the part where  spoke about finances explains why I chose this picture but Leonardo DiCaprio is one of my favorite actors. Who wouldn’t want to live life like him in this classic movie.