On the 9th of November, 2016, in the wee hours of the morning, the news networks proclaimed Donald J. Trump the president-elect of the United States. From my vantage point, I watched hundreds of Berkeley students on Sproul Plaza collectively react in unmitigated horror as the man whom they reviled so personally claimed the highest […]
Tag: Clinton
The Power in a Political Narrative
It may be a cliche, but the phrase “Trump means it seriously, but not literally” may be quite telling about the power of rhetoric that supports a particular worldview. Narratives, or larger stories about the way the world is, are essential to political candidates. When one thinks of former president Ronald Reagan, we not only […]
Fake News is Real: The Rise of Computational Propaganda and Its Political Ramifications
“Fake News” — two words that have become synonymous with Donald Trump and his 2016 bid for the presidency. Some wholeheartedly believed it, some cast it aside as irrelevant, and others avidly denied it. Yet, President Trump was right. Fake news is real, but not necessarily in the way that most imagine. In the 2016 election, […]
If He’s Messed Up, You’re to Blame
In the parlance of Donald J. Trump, ‘many people are saying’ how the candidacy he has waged is unprecedented, incomprehensible, and astounding. The narrative goes that never in the history of the Republic has a candidate come about with such an unintelligible policy platform or knack for the offensive and absurd. The Access Hollywood tape depicting Trump’s already well-documented misogynistic folksiness […]
Libya & Leaving The Fortress
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2013 print edition, which can be found here. On September 11th and 12th 2012, US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were slain at a diplomatic villa and a nearby security compound in Benghazi, Libya. The murder of Ambassador Stevens was the first successful assassination of […]