Once meant to empower us, AI culture now glamorizes shortcuts and academic dishonesty — turning human creativity into an afterthought. AI startup companies like Cluely have unfortunately transformed AI from a tool of innovation into an inescapable condition of our ever-demanding world whose marketing normalizes and even necessitates cheating on anything and everything. We must work to revalue individualistic traits in our work, for the sake of it being meaningful and formative.
Opinions
OPINION: What Democrats can learn from Mexico’s governing party
Mexico’s leading party, the Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (Morena), has shown itself to be the real deal: It has captured a decisive majority of the working class vote in a country known for its role as the factory of the Americas. But unlike the Republican’s successful yet unfounded popularity among workers, Morena is leftist, and pragmatist, as the day is long. The party’s focus on predistributive policies has leapfrogged the ideology of American liberals, stuck on tax reforms that ultimately uphold the neoliberal system that stabs workers in the back, and changed the lives of millions of workers. So why don’t we follow suit?
OPINION: Aesthetic feminism is super anti-feminist
TikTok has developed a culture of promoting trends that seemingly uplift women’s voices. It is hard to find a woman’s post without “#girl____” in the description. Ansley Kang SC ‘29 sees something in common with all these feminine hashtags: Reductiveness. Feminist trends in attempting to make modern womanhood accessible, do more harm than good, flattening women’s experiences and in doing so excluding those voices that true feminism should promote.
OPINION: Trump’s authoritarianism doesn’t listen to your No Kings Day cardboard signs
Trump’s administration has sanctioned a campaign of extrajudicial kidnappings, careless deportation, and general terror. It has forced those it targets to ask the permanent question of will I still be here tomorrow, every day. So why do we only show our dissent if we get a little free time, and nothing good is on TV? In the No Kings protests, Jason Murillo PO ‘28 sees performance, not praxis. Cheerfully bobbing oh-so-clever signs on streetcorners does nothing to practically oppose a regime that has no respect for the Constitution, much less polite dissent.
OPINION: Chosen family is not enough, we must be blood brothers
Gen Z is increasingly isolated, and traditional cures aren’t working. As this unhappiness runs rampant, we of course should keep trying to show up for one another. But our generation, Alex Benach PO ‘28 argues, needs a shot in the arm, one full of blood. Blood oaths, along with any other spiritual or occult community practice, could weld the spirits of the freak generation together against all odds.
OPINION: Why San Quentin’s reform model doesn’t do the trick
San Quentin Rehabilitation Center’s rebrand as a “Scandinavian style” prison, promises transformation through career training programs and improv classes, but after Leili Kamali PO ‘29 visited, she saw a different story.
OPINION: Under media oligarchy, TikTok isn’t the problem
TikTok is far from popular, and as Trump cozies up with the app’s CEO, it’s easy to accept its ban. However, Nicole Teh SC ’27 argues that its unique position to enact social change proves TikTok’s defensibility, and its removal might only exacerbate the perceived ills. The only way to fix its faults is with education.
OPINION: Trump’s bigotry drove Latino conservatism
White Democrats are continually baffled by Latinos voting for Trump, a figure who seems to promote the minority as a special target of poisonous hatred. “Are conservative Latinos crazy?” rings the admonishing cry. Rafael Hernandez Guerrero PZ ’29 argues that Latinos for Trump have a logic that, however perverse, is deeply rooted in histories of American imperialism, racism and colonialism.
OPINION: LA can’t keep neglecting downtown; Convention Center expansion isn’t the answer
Why is Downtown Los Angeles putting billions of dollars into making Olympics 2028 appearances, while the infrastructural malignancies that have existed for years continue to eat away at its culture and prosperity for its residents? Steinman believes that the local Los Angeles legislature needs to reprioritize the quality of living for its residents before making blingy investments in an attempt to show off when the Olympics roll around.
OPINION: Use a condom before it’s too late
Gen Z, depending on who you ask, is a generation of prudes or perverts. However, Alex Benach PO ’28 argues that our primary sexual dysfunction is not prudeness but imprudence. Birth control is great and all, but wanting condomless sex puts you at more risk than you realize.