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from the anything-you-say-will-be-used-against-you dept.
The Facebook messaging group was at one point titled "Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens."
It began when about 100 members of Harvard College's incoming freshman class contacted each other through the university's official Class of 2021 Facebook group. They created a messaging group where students could share memes about popular culture — a growing trend on the Internet among students at elite colleges.
But then, the exchanges took a dark turn, according to an article published in the Harvard Crimson on Sunday. Some of the group's members decided to form an offshoot group in which students could share obscene, "R-rated" memes, a student told the Crimson. The founders of the messaging group demanded that students post provocative memes in the main group chat to gain admittance to the smaller group.
The students in the spinoff group exchanged memes and images "mocking sexual assault, the Holocaust and the deaths of children," sometimes directing jokes at specific ethnic or racial groups, the Crimson reported. One message "called the hypothetical hanging of a Mexican child 'piñata time'" while other messages quipped that "abusing children was sexually arousing," according to images of the chat described by the Crimson.
Then, university officials caught on. And in mid-April, after administrators discovered the offensive, racially charged meme exchanges, at least 10 incoming students who participated in the chat received letters informing them that their offers of admission had been revoked.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @04:26PM (3 children)
some young people engage in lewd and obscene behavior in public places, so they can photograph it and post it to social media
First 1984, now Brave new World got real. I wonder if they were works of fiction or instruction manuals hidden in plain sight.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @04:54PM (2 children)
It isn't 1984 or Brave New World until the government steps in. We're getting close though, the whole "no dancing" bit at our monuments was a big clue. I think we're losing sight of what freedoms really mean. It isn't a right to do anything and everything, and it is actually a good thing for us to explore and discover the boundaries.
Respect private property and follow the rules laid down there as long as they don't violate actual laws. Push against any bullshit restrictions, take it to court and get a precedent set. I'm thinking of a somewhat recent video (sorry can't find it) where a guy flew his drone around a police station and has a cop hassle him demanding identification, etc. The cop's superior ends up coming outside and telling the cop to leave the guy alone, no he can't demand identification, no he can't demand the guy stop, totally legal. We need more of that.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday June 07 2017, @07:43PM
I'm not so sure about that. I think important boundaries should be bright-line clear. You don't cross over them. Nothing to be discovered or explored. I'm not talking about putting your elbows on the table kind of boundaries. The no dancing at monuments is probably a stupid rule. (It doesn't affect me.)
Similarly for the police harassing the drone guy -- the police should also not have to "explore" or "discover" their boundaries. That cop's superior should not have had to come out to tell the stupid cop to stay within his proper boundaries.
Now about the speech, the 1984 and Brave New World thing. It is already a thing that you don't say certain things. No bomb jokes in airports. No making threats against the president. Joking about sexual assault or the holocaust or other talk about hurting people is something that no other people, nor a university should have to tolerate. It's not like this was speech about an political opinion, or religious viewpoint, or some other controversial subject people can disagree about.
I can't tolerate intolerant people. :-)
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 10 2017, @02:37AM
"It isn't 1984 or Brave New World until the government steps in."
Are you sure about that? Corporations have a lot of power today, especially insurance companies. There are a number of laws today, which were pushed through by insurance companies. If government and voters don't see a need for a law, but the insurance companies see a need to increase profits - there will be a law. Seat belt laws are the foremost example of that.
Add in the fact that the richest of the rich keep getting richer, and the poor just keep getting poorer. So, a very small elite owns everything, and they decide to make the rules they like.
I think you can arrive at 1984 and BNW without government stepping in. If not, the small elite can use government as a tool to achieve their goals.