Author: Sophie Langa

Trump is one of the first presidents that has openly shown his thoughts on social media for the world to see. This did help him in the elections because it was free advertising, yet I found that if you look back at so many of his posts that can be summarized as sexist, racist, and endorsing a rape culture in America. We as a country have normalized this behavior from the person that is supposed to be leading us and representing us across the world. We chose someone who does not know how to save face and pick up and clean up after themselves. He continually say outrageous things and has been continually accused of rape, sexual assault, and racist comments. As a society in America we have shown that this is okay solely by having him become President of our country. I find it very interesting that everyone has slowly become okay with him as his approval ratings have actually increased since he was put in office. He might have great economic policies and has helped the country economically, but his overall demeanor is showing young adults that if you act like he does then you can get anything you want, and do we really want more people like Trump directing our country.  

The film Dark Days followed around the lives of people living underground in the subway system of NYC. These people are considered homeless and many do not have jobs. I find it interesting how this group of people have created their own societal structure outside of the societal structure in the city above them. They completely disregard that they are no longer a part of the society above ground and many do not want to go outside of the tunnels. There are still a few that want to get out of this new system, and they are trying to dig themselves out. Yet, some of them are fully content with the life they are living and say they have no desire to live above ground because they do not want to conform to the society pressures that the societies above ground push onto you. 

This chapter is centered around the hate during the Nov. 8^thelection between Trump and Clinton. I found it interesting how many people who were huge political figures in America were openly swearing about how much they hate Trump. The Obama family was quoted saying that if women had not voted for Clinton then they were voting against their own voice in the world. The section also talks about California’s attempt to succeed from the united states. The state had hated Trump with so much velocity that a vote was held to see if the people of the state wanted to leave the United States. The vote ended in a 1/3ths vote to leave, so nothing was done. Yet, if the vote had gone towards those that wanted to leave there would have been a huge military and political issue. The state has many federal parks and programs run by the federal government, if they left the nation than those lands and programs would have been brutally fought over because you can’t just physically cut the parks out of the landscape and drop them on another part of US soil. Many celebrities took out personal ads on many platforms against Trump, with words of hate and provocative language to try and get the message across of how horrible they thought he was. 

There were and still are many groups who are outwardly trying to go against the current president. These groups are called Never Trump, the Resistance, and Meeting of the Concerned. These groups had a goal of getting rid of Trump. Their members or advocates included citizens, high up government workers, and social icons life actors and singer. There are endless quotes in this chapter of hatred towards the president, where they are threatening his life. Many people said that he should be assassinated or removed from this life by force. There were little repercussions for those threatening the president’s life. It was brushed off and very few were put on a no-fly list, but that was it. One congresswoman, Maxine Waters told her told her followers to use physical and verbal force towards any of Trump’s administration if they were seen in public. 

This chapter enlightened me to the outward hate towards Trump before and during his presidency/election. Many of these quotes and scenarios that were given by the author were not publicly spread over social media platforms in the time of the election. They seem to have been hidden from the general public and for so many reasons. It is interesting how in the last couple of months Trump has in fact still been hated by the public and now he is going through the impeachment process for multiple allegations.

The US has always been known as a melting pot since the day it was founded. We have welcomed in immigrants with open arms to allow diversity and inclusion for all. Yet when Trump came into the political picture, he started a platform of exclusion. He wants to build a physical wall between Mexico and the US. I think this is interesting because the current issue in Mexico was driven by the US. We went into a politically unstable country and took out a leader so we could put a leader that we wanted in power. When this leader fell that we wanted gangs and the cartel took over parts of the country and divided power. These current political powers have made it unsafe for many citizens of Mexico to survive in their own country. Now years after we inter-feared people are still trying to escape their country to a place that is safer for them, but Trump wants to build a wall to keep them out. He has completely gone back on the majority of Americans beliefs of a melting pot in the grand view of the world. Yes, he was voted into the presidency of the US, but his beliefs are turning the US into a new country that is very different from our former beliefs. 

After reading this book and analyzing Regnerus cheap sex culture I have looked back at how this relates to our current situation on a college campus. He says that many people in our society are just looking for a quick interaction that doesn’t last more than a few moments. He has concluded that in today’s world people do not want long lasting relationship, mostly men, after the sexual liberation. I tend to disagree with this. The way we look at relationships in a personal experience and not a societal one. Depending on who you ask you will find a very different answer. There are so many people who are looking for long term relationships on Bucknell’s campus alone, where you would think only hookups are wanted. A college campus is seen as a very sexually adventurous place, but I think that as someone living in and amongst one that is false. Everyone seems to be looking for a partner that will be with them after college. Relationships are sought after, but a lot of people set unrealistic expectations of what they want in a partner, which leads to smaller numbers of relationships, so we see less relationships in the community.