If we’re lucky in the Opinion section, we work through our beliefs completely and support them with great arguments. But sometimes, we don’t need a deeper reason to hold our convictions. Rapid Fire is for those tweet-length takes that can be explained in just a sentence or two — no more justification needed.
In this Rapid Fire, writers gave their opinions on the question: Now that we’ve officially entered “spooky season,” what’s your hottest take on Halloween?
Nell Srinath, Opinion Editor: Group costumes nowadays are determined based on what is popular and appealing to social media instead of what really represents your friendship, and this totally commodifies relationships. Group costumes should be about finding creative ways to represent your friend dynamic, not pigeonholing each other into boring, overdone characters for the sake of clout — i.e. social capital.
(Alternatively: If you wear a cop costume in the year of our Lord 2023, you’re not allowed to complain about being called racist).
Dan Stark, Associate Opinion Editor: I absolutely hate people who declare on Sept. 1 that “IT’S SPOOKY SEASON!!!” I refuse to think about Halloween or any of this spooky season mumbo jumbo until Oct. 1.
Naiiya Patel, Business Manager: I’m sick of the pranks. Why can’t we keep Halloween wholesome? Everyone uses the excuse of “trick or treat” to be an absolute asshole. The amount of damage and disgusting behavior I see with freshmen annoys me. Halloween is not the time to be your worst self, just a time to have fun. That being said, please don’t egg my dorm.
Athena Brown, Contributor: Jack O’Lanterns are the most wasteful, disgusting and frankly distributing ritual halloween has to offer. Wasted money, wasted land, bad for the environment and all it leads to are rotting pumpkins sadly melting away on someone’s porch in November. I say free the pumpkins!
Stratton Stave, Sports Editor: I absolutely hate all the slander that candy corn gets. Not only is it the best Halloween candy, it’s a top three candy, period. I think it should get shelf space year-round, but I’ll have to settle for spooky season.
