Post a controversial opinion

People haven't really decided what Facebook is 'for' yet, and also people haven't come to a consensus on what is or is not offensive, or whether decent people can laugh at offensive jokes, or if it's okay to be offensive if it's bracketed as a joke, or whether memes on facebook are the same thing as jokes anyway. So when a university makes a decision that effectively takes a position on each of these points it's going to seem wrong to a lot of people

DJP, I meant Bridget Kerrigan and for all I know maybe you get in trouble for that now, but not then.

fun fact: my wife roomed with Jacinda Townsend after this whole thing happened. It did not go well.

destroy all social media

i think we know what Facebook is for.

I was under the impression that the private Facebook was just between a few students, not between a huge number of people they didn't know. Seems spectacularly dumb.

I dunno, I see a lot of facebook arguments between people who think it's for incisive discussions about serious business and people who think it's not

As I understand it:

- There was a Facebook group for the whole class.
- A subset of the class started a Facebook group to share memes.
- The dummies decided they wanted a private message group to share really gross memes and told people who wanted to join in that they needed to post something shocking and horrible to the general meme group in order to get an invitation.
- At least one person on the meme group went "wtf" and notified the school
- The school said "lol u dummies, no Harvard for u"
- 99% of the alumni I interact with who have passed this story around have commented on it with some variation of "good" and/or "lol"

Ahh I think I'm coming round to 'good' on this in that case. If there was encouragement from some to throw the offensive stuff around in a group that was meant to be for everyone that's pretty clear cut

fuck these dumb brats

Yeah, that sounds like it wasn't private by any stretch.

also people haven't come to a consensus on what is or is not offensive, or whether decent people can laugh at offensive jokes

Oh I do hope you'll let us know as soon as you have this consensus!

consensus? right-o! there are only a billion people on facebook. we should be done by Wednesday next, Friday tops.

I am one of the people who is often disturbed by the censorious bent of campus activism but in this case I want to go on record and say I am glad these shitbags were kicked out of Harvard

The point of that kind of "transgressive" shock humor is to upset people. It's a form of bullying. Racist bullying.

Would it be unseemly to point out at this time where Facebook was founded?

We should continue to speak openly and constructively about 'regime change', first and foremost since oppressive and dictatorial regimes have a tendency to collapse and change on their own...

You are so right 龜, = oh how I long for the days of internet anonymity, even fi its was trollish

the identity theft of the current model is stealing someone's anonymity

@darragh that's my point

your loss Harvard, one of these brats was prob gonna create the newest, dumbest app & be your next zuckerberg

Fuckerberg brought shame to the Red Shield of truth

people who take and share too many selfies are suspect

You need to qualify that a bit more to make it controversial

people ugly men who take and share too many selfies are suspect

Suicide is, and ought to be, a human right (with some quibbles/caveats).

You know my motto when it comes to suicide: There are more where that came from.

strong male role models are overrated. and not essential.

Best thing for north korea and the world is for more not less people to visit that country

Off with ya

Anyone who says something like "Why are spending so much money on space exploration when we have problems here on Earth" should never be allowed to look at the sky again

Bit harsh about Gil Scott-Heron

"Dude" and "bro" shouldn't be slurs, they denote fraternal affection not toxic masculinity.

Dude, context

Bro

i kinda hate when people i don't know call me dude. actually i don't really like it when people i know do it either. i don't know why.

a five-year-old kept calling me dude the other day, it was super cute

Democratic Socialists are a bunch of right-wing sellouts. That might be more local than controversial, though.

I should be allowed to drive vehicles over people with whom I have minor disagreements

You've got my vote. People with whom I have minor disagreements are the absolute worst.

you know, i almost agree with that, but...

*revs engine*

I'm in the suburbs again, and it's strange out here. People who lock themselves up in their houses like fortresses. Never speaking to their neighbors. Hiding from the world. They do what they're told, think what they're told, live their lives inside of a tiny frame of experience and believe it's the history of the universe.

I envy their lives like I envy the lives of dogs.

See, I see an opinion like that and immediately wonder how you got such ironclad certainty about what these people are thinking, how they live, or what they believe. It's extremely easy for you to judge them wholesale based on where they live or what their house looks like or how they appear to live (observed by a sneering person from elsewhere). Maybe they don't speak to their neighbors within your earshot, but you don't know about their connections among themselves, to their close and far-flung friends, to their families, or to a life of the mind that they share only with themselves.

It's as reliable as someone seeing a city dweller in a black turtleneck (or whatever) and deciding you know everything about them and what they value based on that. I mean, they probably only eat organic arugula and like only Abstract Expressionism and free jazz, while looking down their noses at the simple country folk, etc.

A person in a suburban "fortress" could be shy, terrified, or just plain happy with their own company. They could be consumed with their own thoughts and private struggles. They could be working on needlepoint, a novel, a solo album, or nothing at all. They could be deeply engaged with their own navel lint. They could be facing any number of diminishing heartbreaks or expansive flights of fancy. They could be - and probably are - chatting online with persons from Nairobi to Newfoundland.

Just as an urban or rural person might be.

booming post ye

i like abstract expressionism and free jazz and i lock myself in my house and don't speak to neighbors. i live this way regardless of whether i'm in the suburbs or the city.

solitary posts etc

I can't wait until carpet_kaiser has the realization that the peaceful veneer of the suburbs is hiding a world of dark secrets and repressed desires.

tbf the people with repressed desires can be identified by their black turtlenecks

i came from the suburbs but i hate going back, especially given my parents are too busy chatting to ppl from nairobi about their solo albums to give me the time of day

Nairobi suburbs
https://www.jamiiforums.com/mobile-gallery/a204d3af773187b306c0659102ba134e.jpg

these are much kinder responses to what i originally typed and deleted last night

Shake it Off is Taylor Swift's only good song.