14 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 46.9 ms ] thread
High school was such an awful time. The only thing worse was middle school.

All the behaviors in this article aren't new. They're just a new lens for the same thing that's always been going on - pick an out-group, punish the out-group, everybody else feels better about themselves. This is classic high school stuff. Look at how the words are used: "Abusers" and "victims". Might as well be "jocks" and "nerds". And who do the kids ultimately hate most? "Admin." Yeah. Who has ever liked their high school admin?

The only thing different, I suppose, is that at least the people who are ostracized now are the ones who allegedly did actually bad things, rather than the ones who listen to weird music or are fat or don't have wealthy parents or whatever else. And not being in school for a couple years has meant some social growth that usually happens hasn't, or has happened unevenly.

Guess that's progress?

This was a tough read. The cancel culture lies on a bed of unforgiveness and there is no recourse for correction if falsely accused. Court of public opinion where your peers judge but are not prepared to judge. Mob mentality.
This feels like a pretty good summary of the "Ethics of AI" crowd.
That's perhaps the single most idiotic conclusion one could possibly make from this story.
Okay? You wanna explain or just be a dickhead?
Kids don't generally get to pick where they go to school. At best, their parents may have some ability to either enroll them in a private school or move. Alternately, their parents may have no money to move or put them in a private school, or worse, they might not care.
> At best, their parents may have some ability to either enroll them in a private school or move.

Situations like this have happened before and there are ways that kids can be bused/driven to different public schools. If the parents don't care or want to see their kid suffer then they're horrible people

> If the parents don't care or want to see their kid suffer then they're horrible people

I agree, but I still don't see how that's a reason to blame the kid. There were dozens of adults in a position to do something, but the kid is the one person who had absolutely no ability to change the situation.

As harsh as it sounds then I somewhat agree. Feeling sorry for him will just create new abuser / victim. I used to teach maths in high school and this is typical stuff that can easily be solved, but it requires a more old school style
This article is one Big Lie. Cancel culture is a right-wing myth. It spreads fascism.
Is this post sarcasm? It's hard to tell online.
Does that make it any better? I’d probably make jokes like this to a very small circle of friends face to face… but here with all the ambiguity of a text based medium all this does is feel like trolling.
What a mess. I can see why the principal/s quit.

I think this is a really good article to help those not in HS to understand the lives that the current teens are going through. The kids are not alright, it seems.

One point that was made in the comments of the article seems to be a good one: isn't this just regular bullying?

If so, it seems a bit more 'permanent' than previous incarnations of bullying. But, only time will really tell. Diego tries, somewhat successfully, to escape his school and reputation. How long that holds is still hard to determine.

If this is just what bullying look like now (I suspect it does), then what is to be done? Per the article, Diego was very repentant and sorry for what wrong he committed. Fiona even forgives him and accepts repentance. But there doesn't seem to be a social mechanism to gain forgiveness from the group when it comes to sexual offenses/crimes especially. Not in schools and not in the larger society of the US.

Some social mechanism is needed outside of the criminal justice system for offenders to be reintegrated.

As we see in the article, Diego becomes very isolated and lonely as a result of his offense. I fear that this version of bullying/cancelling has a bad reaction with other ingredients like incel-like online forums and wide open gun laws.