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Harvard rescinds admission for at least 10 would-be freshmen for being assholes
By adamg on Sun, 06/04/2017 - 9:29pm
The Crimson reports the no-longer-Harvard-students had formed an online group to trade droll little memes:
In the group, students sent each other memes and other images mocking sexual assault, the Holocaust, and the deaths of children, according to screenshots of the chat obtained by The Crimson. Some of the messages joked that abusing children was sexually arousing, while others had punchlines directed at specific ethnic or racial groups. One called the hypothetical hanging of a Mexican child “piñata time.”
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Comments
Good for Harvard
It is necessary to get rid of these people early so they don't work their way through Harvard and earn a degree.
https://thinkprogress.org/the-inside-story-of-the-harvard-dissertation-t...
How do you know what "these people" are like?
You sure it's not just high school seniors saying dumb things, like kids do? Think about all the dumb things college students think and say. Then they start to learn to be more thoughtful in college.
There's a lot of obnoxiousness around the top schools, but high school seniors saying dumb jokes in exceedingly poor taste is not the place to start.
How did this story go public? Did someone complain outside of student circles about it, or threaten to, and Harvard had to manage the PR, rather than consider it a teaching moment?
Dumb stuff? Like abusing
Dumb stuff? Like abusing animals, this is a telltale sign that someone is going to be a fucking sociopath. It's not "dumb things" to get a chuckle about children being hanged.
I'd bet this is the type of stuff that esteemed Harvard grad Patrick Bateman would have gotten off on.
Abusing animals? I thought
Abusing animals? I thought they just posted memes. That escalated quickly.
I never said they abused
I never said they abused animals (though blatant racism is in the same ballpark), just pointing out that these things are signs of much worse, and occasionally they're only youthful stupidity. They'll certainly have time to learn from their stupid choices either way.
Parents: don't let your kids on 4chan, or some regions of reddit
if you want them to be able to go to college.
Awfully tasteless 'humor', where the whole point is that it's tasteless, is more mainstream among kids than you think. As are some other things kids do now that the Internet and changing culture affects.
I disapprove of this 'humor', and a lot of other things I see going on with kids in general, but calling kids dangerous sociopaths over this is out of touch.
It's harder to teach someone when they know you're out of touch.
And what kind of precedent do you want to set? We might not care what happens to kids who make awful jokes, but look around at the reactionary and ill-informed pitchfork wielding. If you don't stand up for these kids now, when your daughter's Harvard admission is rescinded because she posted very explicit photos (again, not unusual) and someone doxxed her association with Harvard, then don't be surprised if no one defends her, either.
Yes, every 9-year old from
Yes, every 9-year old from 1985 who owned one of these cards and traded with their friends is a fucking sociopath.
original, for context
You know what they did?
They formed a "dark meme" chat ON HARVARD'S NETWORK to post disgusting and disturbing things.
At the very least, such behavior signals a fundamental immaturity incompatible with moving to pretty much any university environment. They lack the judgement and boundaries needed to move on to college life. Put simply: this is middle school behavior of the sort that gets caught and corrected if people are paying attention to their kids.
Where does the article say this was on Harvard's network?
Wasn't it just on Facebook, which Harvard does not own?
From the Crimson article
So, Facebook may not be owned by Harvard, but the Facebook group was officially sanctioned by Harvard.
That is tenuous
A found B on Harvard's official Facebook group G1, then A invited B to join non-Harvard Facebook group G2. The allegedly offensive memes were posted to G2. That doesn't constitute use of any Harvard resource.
Not at all
They tied Harvard's name to it when they identified it with the Class of 2021. They dragged Harvard into the mud with their poor judgement.
As reported elsewhere,
As reported elsewhere, posting an offensive meme to G1 was a required condition of membership in G2. No-one got invited to non-Harvard G2 without first spewing something hateful to Official Harvard G1.
And it really doesn't matter, anyway. Lots of private schools have honor codes. An evangelical college could expel you for holding hands with someone of the opposite sex, even if it happened off-campus, because they can expel you for any reason they want. Same deal.
Harvard chooses not to be represented by these individuals and rescinds its invitation for them to attend. You aren't required to agree with their reasons.
Comments about how we as a
Comments about how we as a society should let things slide because "this is how teenagers are" terrifies me. But not because that's how teenagers are - but because of what it says about the commenter.
I said a lot of dumb shit as a teenager, but even then I thought making jokes about beating corpses like a pinana and that dead bombed children are 'fap material' would have been disgusting and wrong. Same for the vast majority of my cohort. Same for, probably, the vast majority of these guys' cohort, or else they wouldn't have been hiding this shit in a private chat on the internet where they felt like they were among people who agreed.
Plenty of teens get through their high school years managing to limit "teen stupidity" to bad opinions about tv, driving too fast, and overinvesting in prom relationships.
Link isn't working
n/t
Here's the correct one...
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/6/5/2021-offers-rescinded-memes/
Thanks
Swapped in.
And how many current and
And how many current and Harvard alumnae did/are doing the same and never got caught?
The Ivy League is a playground full of dynastic sociopaths.
As opposed to?
Name me one profession or group which doesn't have it's share of sociopaths. 1 in 20 humans is nuts.
Bill O'Rielly
Bill O'Rielly
Who will consider their First Amendment right to go to Harvard?
"people doing stupid stuff" :-/
Now, Luca didn't join that particular group because she isn't as dumb as these kids. But her indifferent bleating about free speech rights means she's part of the problem. Any university in the country has an affirmative duty to throw overt bigots out the door - especially an institution like Harvard, which is still struggling to move past its legacy of racism and sexism.
God forbid that maybe administrators think racist punks might not be Harvard material. That fact that Harvard admits students who are so dense and ignorant is a strong argument against elevating Ivy League degrees.
You can't hear me...
...but I'm clapping.
Seriously, what is this mindset that "rights" are involved here? Anyone who's applied to/attended college since, like, 2002 knows that social media is a liability. Back in the day, we were told to exercise taste and judgment about what we posted lest those coveted admissions be yanked. Now, apparently, they're told that their rights are being violated.
On the plus side, an entire class full of Luke Gattis will be entertaining for the rest of us. Tell us all about your rights--don't worry, we're getting it all on camera.
Aahh, for the halcyon days
Aahh, for the halcyon days when simply uploading a photo of yourself holding a red Solo cup was enough to spark a scandal.
I'm getting really tired of this 4Chan-ning of the entire internet. It's not enough for people to be creeps and sickos in anonymous little backwaters anymore. They're just not the ultimate edgelord until they've plastered their LinkedIn profile with Pepe memes. And then wail about FREEZE PEACH when their boss finds this behavior objectionable.
Only 10 assholes?
Seems like they're not looking hard enough, but I suppose if they really excluded all of the assholes, Harvard would go out of business.
Distinguished
Too much of a dick to go to Harvard. Congrats, boys!
nasty business that bigotry
"Farm animals"
Next year Harvard better ask everybody for their Facemash and Reddit passwords, just to make sure they like them apples.
No
They just need to monitor their own servers for this sort of activity and boot the brats who don't bother to read the terms of use statement.
...only after turning them
...only after turning them into HumancentiPads first.
Extreme vetting of Harvard students.
It's the only way to be sure.
Well Harvard Yard does have a
Well Harvard Yard does have a big beautiful wall around it.
Based on their violent and
Based on their violent and perverted views on children, I would think a police investigation is in order. If they have any illegal material regarding children then they should to be off the streets and in jail. Disgusting.
We oughta build a wall
We oughta build a wall between ourselves and a violent and perverted country that portrays children this way.
Disgusting!
Not too clever, are ya,
Not too clever, are ya, Trumpster. Your lynching photo is sickening.
Sickening you say? It's a
Sickening you say? It's a popular tourist destination in Mexico. Visit the link to learn more.
One of those tourist photos (showing dolls hanging from trees) is probably what Harvard reported as the "hypothetical hanging of a Mexican child".
One thing this highlights is
One thing this highlights is that many people nowadays expect their online activities not to affect other parts of their life. Too few pause to contemplate whether they'd say/do the things if they were face to face with another person or acting them out on a stage for others to see.
Because Harvard only accepts
Because Harvard only accepts nice people.
Scary times.
Scary times.
Remember, no matter how private you think a chat message or email is, the minute you send it to someone else you lose all control over who might see it. Assume it will be publicly Googlable under your name, archived forever, and on the cover of the New York Times.
Was it ever different?
This was equally true of letters written on paper, no?
Yes. But it takes much less
Yes. But it takes much less effort to send a thoughtless email. And it takes much less effort for the recipient to forward it.
First Amendment rights
Does Kathy Griffin or whatever her name is have First Amendment rights?
Yes, and?
Your bi-weekly XKCD First Amendment reminder.
So does
Ted "Obama can suck on my gun barrel" and "Obama needs to be assassinated" Nugent.