It’s challenging to navigate because it’s easy to be a conservative activist, and it’s easy to be a liberal activist—but finding a nuanced middle ground is hard. I’m learning what it means to stay true to my values while having productive political conversations.
“If you’re questioning your beliefs, that’s not weakness. That’s growth. If your convictions are real, they should withstand your doubts and your questions.” – Caroline Stout
“The animal industrial complex is a very useful term because it captures the complexity of the exploitation humans have created for non-human animals. It points to a network rather than simply a collection of businesses—a network that is largely invisible yet multi-layered, encompassing economic, political, media, academic, and social dimensions. Together, these layers work to produce, promote, and perpetuate the systematic and institutionalized exploitation of non-human animals across all business sectors.”
Charlie Kirk may have been a polarizing figure, but he believed in the power of conversation across differences. In a time of political violence and hatred, his death reminds us that dialogue, empathy, and understanding are essential to preserving democracy and our shared humanity.
When the waters rose in Hunt, Texas this July, life-long resident Kylie Nidever stood at her window and stared at the neighborhood, only to see
The current state of affairs: the Trump-Led Republican Party Continues to Reject Latinos, But Expects Them to Vote Red. Makes sense, right? Within the last
These sort of pop culture advertisements don’t exist in a vacuum, immune to ongoing political phenomena and discourse. To say otherwise would be ignorant. Ads mean something, and they mean something especially in the context of a given moment. We can agree that jeans are American. So, what does it mean when you take the token white woman in Hollywood as the spokesperson for jeans talking about her eye color and hair color while flaunting her body? Is that what America is?
Once demanding truth about Jeffrey Epstein, Charlie Kirk now says he’s “done” talking. Republicans who once called for justice have gone quiet. As Epstein’s files gather dust, questions remain—and accountability vanishes. If Trump is implicated, don’t Americans deserve answers? Silence, now, speaks louder than any campaign slogan ever could.
In his early high school years, Aidan Chao found himself drawn to local Californian politics following a series of burglaries in his predominantly Asian neighborhood of Arcadia. With the community shaken up and neighbors concerned about rising crime across the region, Chao did what most barely-teenagers wouldn’t think of. He called the mayor, April Verlato. Thinking, like most, that a secretary would pick up or he would get the answering machine, Chao was incredibly surprised when Verlato answered the phone herself.