網紅 NG 圖粉碎哈佛夢

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網紅 NG 圖粉碎哈佛夢

Obscene Memes End Teen Dreams

In 2003, a Harvard sophomore came before the university’s Administrative Board after being accused of creating a “sketchy” website that, among other transgressions, violated individual privacy. Last month, that student, Mark Zuckerberg, returned to Harvard to give the 2017 commencement address. In his speech, Zuckerberg admitted that “everyone thought I was going to get kicked out.” Fortunately for him, he wasn’t expelled.

Less fortunate were the ten or more incoming members of Harvard’s Class of 2021 whose acceptances were recently rescinded by the university after they posted offensive memes on—Facebook. The students’ often racist and misogynistic posts included jokes about bestiality, pedophilia, rape, the Holocaust, suicide, and death of children. The Facebook group that hosted the posts—“Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens,” later appropriately renamed “General Fuckups”—was “private,” but of course there is no such thing as privacy on the Internet.

It’s not clear why students smart enough to get into Harvard were not smart enough to know that on the Internet everything is permanent and nothing is anonymous. It’s possible that if you spend a lot of time exchanging sick jokes with people, you start to see sick jokes as normal. Maybe it was just because they were young. In any event, it’s hard to muster much sympathy for people laughing about beating dead Mexican kids with baseball bats. At one point in his Harvard speech, Zuckerberg tells the graduates that “you should be nice to people.” Even Zuckerberg, whose sketchy website facilitates the exchange of mountains of mimetic muck, learned at least that much. The students who posted those memes weren’t being nice. And though they won’t have the opportunity to attend their dream school, they can at least say that Harvard taught them a lesson.

Translation

猥褻網紅圖終止青年人哈佛夢想

2003 年時有一名哈佛大二生被送交校委會評處，因其被指控創建了一個 “有問題” 的網站，該網站違法行為之一就是侵犯了個人隱私。上個月，該名大學生馬克˙祖克伯返回哈佛，在 2017 年的畢業典禮上進行演說。在他的演講中，祖克伯坦言：「當時每個人都認為我應該被踢出學校。」幸運地是他並未被學校開除。

對於那 10 名或更多即將進入哈佛的 2021 級新生們而言，他們就沒那麼幸運了，因為他們的入學許可最近遭到取消，理由是他們在臉書上張貼冒犯他人的網紅圖文。這些學生具種族歧視與仇視女性的貼文包含了有關人獸交、戀童狂、性侵、納粹大屠殺、自殺及兒童死亡的笑話。該貼文的臉書群組－『為鹹濕中產階級青少年而設的哈佛網紅貼文』（Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens），之後適切地改名為『搞砸的泛泛一群』（General Fuckups）－是私人不公開的，但是在網路世界裡當然沒有所謂的隱私這種東西。

不知道為什麼夠聰明而能進入哈佛就讀的學生卻不夠聰明而不知道在網路上所有事物都是永久的而且沒有任何事物能夠隱姓埋名。有可能是，如果你花了很多時間與人交換病態的玩笑，你就會開始把這些病態的玩笑當成是正常的。也可能是，因為他們太年輕了。不管怎麼說，我們很難同情那些認為用球棒來打已經死掉的墨西哥小孩而很好笑的人※。

祖克伯在哈佛的演講當中曾告訴畢業生們：「你們應該要對人友善。」就連曾設立問題網站並促使了網紅垃圾的大量交換的祖克伯至少都學到這一點。張貼那些網紅圖文的學生並非善類。而雖然他們將不會有機會進入他們的夢想學校，他們至少可以說哈佛給他們上了一課。

※ 原文中聊天室一名成員貼文嘲諷墨西哥孩子上吊自殺是「皮納塔時刻」（piñata time），「皮納塔」是墨西哥節慶會出現的紙糊容器，內部裝滿玩具與糖果，懸掛起來讓人用棍棒打擊，打破之後，玩具與糖果會掉下來。

Word Bank

1. sketchy [ˈskɛtʃɪ] 【形】簡略的；粗略的；有問題的

2. transgression [trænsˈɡrɛʃǝn] 【名】違反；違法

3. commencement [kǝˈmɛnsmǝnt] 【名】【美】學位授予典禮；畢業典禮

4. expel [ɪkˈspɛl] 【動】驅逐；排除；開除

5. rescind [rɪˈsɪnd] 【動】廢止；取消；撤回

6. offensive [ǝˈfɛnsɪv] 【形】冒犯的；唐突的

7. meme [mim] 【名】爆紅網路話題，指會令人想要模仿並且惡搞一番的 idea、圖片、一句話、影片、舞蹈等

8. mimetic [mɪˈmɛtɪk]【形】本文中指 meme 之形容詞

9. racist [ˈrеsɪst] 【形】本文中指種族主義的；【名】種族主義者

10. misogynistic [maɪˈsɑdʒɪnɪstɪk] 【形】仇視女性的

11. bestiality [ˌbɛstʃɪˈælǝtɪ] 【名】人獸交