Alyssa McDonald

2 weeks ago | medium.com | Alyssa McDonald

Alyssa McDonald·Subscribe5 min read·--Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash(For context, this was my term paper for my Spring 2022 course “Social & Political Philosophy” at Northeastern University.)Angela Davis argues that prisons should be abolished because they function to perpetuate racial subordination. In other words, as part of the broader criminal justice system, prisons promote black inferiority on a societal level through disproportionate incarceration rates.

2 weeks ago | medium.com | Alyssa McDonald

(For context, this was my term paper for my Spring 2022 course “Moral Philosophy” at Northeastern University.)What are we doing when we do moral theory? It is commonly assumed that a valid moral theory must incorporate both moral intuition and moral reason. Moral intuition is a complex cognitive and emotional process whereby people arrive at moral conclusions without appealing to reason.

2 weeks ago | medium.com | Alyssa McDonald

(For context, this was the essay that I submitted as part of my application to Trinity College’s MA program in American Studies.)I recently watched a Jubilee video in which progressive political commentator and host of the Majority Report Sam Seder debated a number of Trump voters about American politics. In one interaction, Seder debated far-right Canadian pundit Sarah Stock about what the fundamental identity of the United States is.

2 weeks ago | medium.com | Alyssa McDonald

(For context, this was the second term paper that I wrote for my Fall 2023 course “Holocaust and Comparative Genocide” at Northeastern University.)The causes of genocide are numerous. Every situation is different–no two are exactly alike. That so many different sociopolitical climates can enable it proves this true, but there are still some general attributes that genocide scholars and political scientists can identity that characterize them broadly speaking.

2 weeks ago | medium.com | Alyssa McDonald

(For context, this was my first of two term papers that I wrote for my Fall 2023 class “Holocaust and Comparative Genocide” at Northeastern University.)The photograph of the Auschwitz-Birkenau prison guards at Solahütte merrily singing to an accordionist is chilling. There is absolutely no expression of any kind of normal human emotions that one typically associates with the act of harming others: guilt, shame, or remorse. It is so jarring that, in a sense, it is disorienting to the senses.