Saturday 10 June 2017

Fighting A Losing Battle?

At least 10 students lost their chance to attend Harvard College after posting “obscene memes” to a private Facebook chat, the main Harvard student newspaper reported.
The memes included jokes about pedophilia, child abuse, sexual assault, and the Holocaust. One message referred to a Mexican youth being hanged as “piñata time”.
The memes were shared as part of a private Facebook chat where admitted students in the class of 2021 shared edgy jokes as part of a “just-because-we-got-into-Harvard-doesn’t-mean-we-can’t-have-fun kind of thing”, an admitted student told the Harvard Crimson.
To which the university replied: "Only fun that passes our strict definition, chums!"
The paper quoted a number of students from the incoming class, who had a range of responses, including two who said it was the right approach to withdraw the offers.
“I do not know how those offensive images could be defended,” one student said.
I despair. Once, you'd have gone to Harvard to discover exactly how you could defend it, and - more importantly - why you should defend it...
At least two Harvard professors, however, questioned the decision to withdraw the offers. Alan Dershowitz, an emeritus professor at Harvard Law School, told the Guardian that losing admission to Harvard was a “draconian punishment” for “very bad taste jokes that students were sending to each other”.
“It sounds like Harvard is intruding too deeply into the private lives of students,” said Dershowitz, who has represented a series of high-profile clients, including OJ Simpson. “It may affect them for life,” Dershowitz said.
Harvey C Mansfield, one of Harvard’s most outspoken conservative professors and the author of a book called Manliness, also told the Guardian he questioned the decision.
“The bounds of what is offensive have been extended and distorted, and I no longer trust the bent judgment of politically correct enforcers.”
Who does? Well, quite a lot of future students, I suspect. It seems we are sleepwalking into a future that even Orwell would have regarded as too far-fetched...

6 comments:

Lord T said...

It isn't just educational establishments that do this. That is why SJWs report people to their employers because a) they don't get any response. b) what is said isn't illegal. So they go to their employers who will censor their employees free speech because they can say it brings them into disrepute. I know of a case where they just read the comment, cherry picked the words, took them out of context and didn't even read the original post which the comment was answering.

It shouldn't be legal imo.

Andy said...

Dear Lord That, this is a free country which means they can rule us just as they like.

Andy said...

Damned predictive text! Apologies, Lord T.

Anonymous said...

My favourite example of the wickedness of predictive text is when Grandad and Grandma comes out as Grandad and Grandmaster Flash.

Stonyground

Anonymous said...

They should be grateful they were just kicked out. If their jokes had mentioned Islam there wouldn't be enough cranes to hang them and their families from.
Penseivat

JuliaM said...

"It isn't just educational establishments that do this. That is why SJWs report people to their employers..."

Good point. Personally, I'd tell them to sod off if it were my business.

"My favourite example of the wickedness of predictive text is when Grandad and Grandma comes out as Grandad and Grandmaster Flash."

LOL!

"They should be grateful they were just kicked out."

You have to wonder what the value of a degree from this university will be worth in a few years time...