Alexi Barnstone on how claims of anti-Semitism can often stifle the discourse around human rights in Palestine.

The Time Out awards are indicative of the mentality of the hospitality industry. It’s a boy’s club. You get through the industry by objectifying female customers. In bars I’ve worked in, “Abrams” is used to alert your co-workers an attractive woman is in the venue. Abrams means ‘target acquired’ in Navy talk. That’s the culture that exists behind the stick. I know bartenders who I respect very much for their craft but then confess when drunk that they will never order a daiquiri from a female bartender because they believe they can’t shake it hard enough.

I strongly believe the lock-out laws need to end, pill testing needs to be introduced and the crackdown on festivals needs to be stopped. However, I also believe that the ecological disaster facing the Murray-Darling needs to be addressed, the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples in prisons, schools, and any other public system needs to be addressed, and that the selling off of our roads and hospitals needs to be addressed, as does the funding cuts facing public educational institutions. KSO is only going to address one of these issues at the expense of all others, and quite frankly that’s not where our priorities should be.

Alexi Barnstone explains why he believes the rise of right-wing populism and alt-right violence is no coincidence.

So, this International Women’s Day, I encourage everyone, but especially gay men, to reflect on their behaviour and attitudes and seriously consider what they can do to be better. I encourage people to stop playing their oppression as a ‘get-out-of-jail-free-card’ and start LISTENING to the people around us. I encourage everyone to call others out when they’re sexist and to think a little more broadly. Intersectionality? Let’s get to know her.

Alexi Barnstone explores how wealth begets power. A horrible lesson he learned from some horrible people.

The immediate results of FOSTA-SESTA means that sex workers have been forced off the internet and onto the streets. US sex worker organisations have reported that the removal of these safety systems have led to reports of sex workers disappearing. The most heavily impacted have been the most marginalised (e.g. people of colour, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities and low-income people), as the targets of FOSTA-SESTA so far have mostly been free and low-cost platforms.

A “progressive” political movement that does not centre Indigenous rights and activism in its own work can never truly call itself progressive.

“I want for you to talk about your illness and I want for you to feel validated when you do. I will not however continue to sit by as my experience and the experiences of countless other fat folk get pushed to the side by your need to explain why your illness makes your voice as important as ours in conversations about fatness despite your thin privilege.”

Alexi Barnstone gives his opinion on how the USA is a threat to our universal values, namely freedom and democracy, by analysing the current situation in Venezuela.

Adam Philpott reflects on the first couple of months of his exchange experience.

Terence Duggan wonders if our addiction to leadership spills comes from a decline in the importance of the political class.

Wilson Huang thinks there is more to Christianity than what traditional churches want to make you believe.

Nehir Hatipoglu wonders if it’s time to re-think journalism.

Wilson Huang thinks there is more to Christianity than what traditional churches want to make you believe.