I am setting up this blog to address a number of technical and legal issues that, over the long run, can affect the freedom of media newbies like me to speak freely on the Internet and other low-cost media that have developed in the past ten years.
Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!
Harvard really shouldn't let social justice mobs drive its decisions
Robby Soave on Reason discusses Harvard’s rescinding of
its admission to “conservative” Parkland survivor Kyle Kashuv.
Two years previously, at age 16, Kyle had apparently
indulged in some silly behavior with racial slurs on on Google Docs.It appears that he thought that this chat was
“private”. It also appears that social justice warriors dug it out, on both the
far Left and far Right.
Of course, as a private institution Harvard can do
this lawfully, but I think that it is a serious mistake for universities to pay
attention to information sent to it deliberately by “mobs”.We are seeing Patreon all over again.
It is also disturbing that Harvard invited Kyle to
write an explanation and apology letter, and still rescinded admission.
I remember saying some pretty horrible things myself particularly
in ninth grade (age 14) which got me a rare call into the office.Had that happened today it would have meant expulsion
and being set to an alternative school. Dr. Phil, in some programs back around
2007 centered on Myspace, would talk about “Internet mistakes” and warn that
the teen brain is not mature enough to see around corners. True, some teens are
mature enough now to invent anti-cancer tests or fusion reactors.The best teens are more mature today than
they were when I was growing up.
This is a very regrettable incident. Reason reportsthat right-wing mobs have tried to get David Hogg disinvited, and it’s hard to
ignore the likelihood that Kyle’s association with conservative views contributed
to the disinvitation. David Brooks weighs in with a paradox on how we develop morality as we grow up. At this point, it's important to realize that this incident happened on a Google Docs study group document that was not supposed to be published in public mode; it was intended to remain private. We all know Dr. Phil's warnings, again, about the corners. Maybe this is a disciplinary action for the school -- or would have been had it been caught at the time. Private messages really should not become fodder of SJW's in the future.
Zack Beauchamp of Vox gives a detailed explanation of how conservatives and liberals view this incident. In general, the problem is that racism (and maybe sexism and homo/transphobia) is seen as such a structural problem that enhanced awareness of behavioral codes is demanded of everyone, even with private communications.
Forbes Richard Vedder regards Harvard as an "embarrassment". Monica Hesse writes a piece in the Style section of the Washington Post (the "Kyle's" of the world) that might sound vengeful. What does happen now to Kyle?
We need to pay attention to how, especially the far
Left right now, acts like it finds that combativeness works, rationalized by
the need to protect its own tribe from random violence from “enemies”.
If you want to look at a great channel by a Harvard
undergrad, look at John Fish (from Canada).99% non-political (he seems to follow Jordan Peterson’s idea of
individualism), but he has talked about the “attention economy” and the dangers
of social media recently.
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