By George Watts

George offers a semi-satirical homage to the Lib Dem's democratic nosedive

Photo credits: athousandflowers.net

By Euan Bowman

“As confusing as this statement is, people rightfully question the rationale of teaching a subject that has historically justified fascist rhetoric and violence.”

Photo credits: Levi Clancy / Metropolitan Museum of Art

By Hilary Chan

“School girls, hairs braided, sitting in each one and half listening to class, some knitting below their desks. Now imagine they were all dead.”

Photo credits: John Moore / Blue Room

By Julia Swerdlow

“When Tim Kendall, a former Facebook executive interviewed in the documentary, was asked what worried him the most about the future of social media, he said imminent civil war. As Billy Ray Cyrus once said, much to think about.”

Photo credits: Daniel Macleod

By Hilary Chan

“[A] shattering of her capitol on the 6th of January, 2021, should have curled ripples better quieted with words than stared at in confused anger. […] It seems only Polis to convert your fears into words, chain them into sentences, into a problem (an ~1000 word article) capable of collaboration […] It is the metaphors and descriptors, melodious or not, that enable a response in solidarity.”

Image credits: Celebrity Parents Magazine

By Sara Weissel

“January 6th was a horrible day, and while my upset and hysterics were real, they were the product of inevitability rather than shock.”

Image credits: Celebrity Parents Magazine

By Martin Caforio

“There is a direct connection between his shakedown phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that led to the President’s first Impeachment and his shakedown call of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he asks Election officials to “find” him the votes needed to overturn the State’s Presidential Election and steal its’ 16 Electoral Votes from the President-Elect, Joe Biden.”

Photo credits: Samuel Corum / Getty Images

By Charles Hill

“They would no longer have a personal, cultural, and spiritual history. After a few years we would not have a memory of why we live here, or where we belong.”

Photo credits: Eric Lafforgue-Corbis / Getty Images

By Teia Swan

“In the midst of a monumental election, it is more crucial than ever to reflect on the ways in which the Trump Administration has embraced undemocratic behavior and recognize precisely what is at stake, should he be reelected for a second term.”

Photo credits: Scott Lynch / Flickr

By Joseph C.M. Daly

“If you didn’t think the Electoral College was bizarre enough as it is, just know that there are several trillion ways that 58 people could decide the next President of the United States.”

Photo credits: Library of Congress

By Laura Bennie

Really, what America should have is a new candidate, someone who is not just a return to ‘normal’ after the horror show Trump Administration, but someone who actually brings something new to the table, meeting this moment in America. But Joe Biden is what they have, so what reasons are there to vote for him?

Photo credits: US News & World Report

Written by Hilary Chan, Angella Morzolla-Browne, Sara Weissel, Martin Carforio, James Samuel, Julia Swerdlow, Emily Baxter

For this festive occasion we have brought together seven of our writers to make you a Polisspooky read. We hope you enjoy, and have a very Polis(spooky) Halloween.

Photo credits: Pinterest

by Lia Da Giau

"As the clashes intensified and it became clear that it was more than just an attack, the two nations mobilized to respond to the situation. A war is not only about soldiers at the front: a whole population shares worries, fear and a sense of responsibility to contribute."

Photo credits: Lia Da Giau

By Lucia Guercio

“As ‘an old men country,’ Italy was not ready for your outgoing attitude, your fierce and natural charm. You swooshed away archaic prejudices and conservative stigmas.”

Photo credits: Flickr

By Grace Vollers

The danger in conspiracies is not necessarily what the theory claims, but how the user manipulates the truth through them.”

Photo credits: African Ripples Magazine

By Julia Swerdlow

“I want to shed light on why some new environmentalist ‘trends’ promoted through social media are in fact inaccessible to those with disabilities and to those with lower socio-economic statuses.”

Photo credits: Lily Padula / NBC News

Words by Hilary Chan, Interviews conducted by Julia Swerdlow

“What should our rector be like? That is a question I cannot answer for you, but we did get our potential rectors to answer the flip question, ‘What should the St Andrews student community be like?’ We are a generation of students in a climate of crisis: the climate crisis itself, the revelation of systemic injustice, the tipping edge of a politics half-driven by social media.”

Photo credits: Srdja Popovic Rector Campaign

By Ines Renee

"In the world of TikTok, a joke can be more than just a joke, it can be a veiled political tool.”

Photo credits: Talking Influence

By Harris Hutchison

"Sure, they [social media websites] might not cost any money to use, but it does cost you your personal information.”

Photo credits: welivesecurity.com

By Sara Weissel

"I can try, going forward, to view the American government not as an infallible system filled with a couple of bad guys, but as a living, breathing organism that can and must become self-reflective enough to make the changes it needs for improvement.”

Photo credits: Popsugar Media