Quotes are in italics
Our commentary is in bold
Casi-NO
Editorial in Pipe Dream
“Today, in addition to mayoral elections, New Yorkers are voting on Proposition 1. It’s a proposed amendment to the New York Constitution that would allow for up to seven casinos to be built in the state…While casinos will yield a profit for the state, they won’t have the same effect for the economically depressed areas where they will be erected. We have a pretty strong idea of what would happen: These casinos would take money out of the hands of working-class New Yorkers and give it to already rich foreign investors. Casinos don’t make money for the poor.”
I wonder, have any of the people on Pipe Dream’s editorial board actually been to a casino? It’s not “rich foreign investors” who deal hands at Black Jack, offer casino patrons drinks, work the cashiers’ booth, and clean the floors. The jobs created here aren’t just the jobs involved in physically building the casino. Not only that, but most of the people who patronize casinos don’t live in the immediate area. Just how many people do you think live right next to Atlantic City?
“We’re not as worried about New York City, where a casino would resemble something like Caesars Palace. We’re more worried about places like Albany, where a casino might be something less glamorous, instead crumbling into an addiction-feeding den of sin.”
An addiction feeding den of sin? Jesus Christ. Pipe Dream, is liberalism not working for you? Sorry, but you can’t become the campus conservative paper. That niche is already taken by yours truly. In all seriousness, though, not to make this sound too ideological, but what right does the government have to decide what qualifies as “sin?” If sexual promiscuity is to be legal (and it should be!), why shouldn’t gambling? Can’t people be allowed to make their own decisions, even if they make mistakes sometimes?
“We’re not talking about one casino or even two, we’re talking about seven. Seven casinos. This would fundamentally change New York state. We want people associating upstate with things like leaves and apple cider, not slot machines and blackjack.”
New York State has over 19.5 million residents. That would make one casino for every 2.8 million people. Oh how frightening! What a fundamental change! The problem is, that people don’t associate Upstate with things like leaves and apple cider. Instead, many associate it with endemic unemployment and freezing cold. This casino plan could at least alleviate one of those things. Luckily, the voters of New York State approved Prop 1, with 57% of the vote. This may be a blue state, but our voters don’t ALWAYS vote the wrong way. Just the vast majority of the time.
Ideas about sex will always elicit opposition
By Jake Lewis in Pipe Dream
“What needs to be addressed here is that for every individual opinion on something in the very broad field of sex and relationships, there is a vast amount of opposition in our society. If there is incredible opposition for a single opinion, take all of your views on sex together, and it might seem like you face insurmountable odds.”
I don’t mean to beg for pity, but Dear Reader, you must try to understand how hard it is to respond to nonsense like this. Why the hell would you face insurmountable odds? What does it mean to say that there’s opposition in our society? Is someone physically stopping you from having whatever kind of sex you want?
“Societal change is always needed; we certainly see that when it comes to issues like body image and sexuality. Still, we’ve also seen with these issues that society doesn’t respond to change with any form of immediacy. While we work on creating this change in society, we also have to take a minute to reconcile our sex within ourselves. In this reconciliation, we have to try to remove ourselves from society.”
Society doesn’t respond with immediacy? What is society? How can society respond? It’s just a metaphor! Individual people can respond. And what does it even mean to reconcile our sex within ourselves? Binghamton University, you are failing at teaching your students how to write. The purpose of writing is, at its core, to communicate ideas. What exactly is the blabber trying to communicate? It’s anyone’s guess!
“The opinions of society will always be there.”
No, they won’t. In fact, they’re not even there now! Society doesn’t have opinions. People have opinions. It’s important for me to get this across. Society can’t be racist; people can’t be racist. Society can’t pay for your college education; taxpayers can pay for your education. You don’t have an obligation to society at large; you can only have obligations to people. Sorry to get serious there for a moment, but it is important to deconstruct this fallacy, since it pops up everywhere.