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London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

the-libertarian.co.uk

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Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#71

Post by rickjames28 »

bolder88 wrote: post #49
rickjames28 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"internet hate mobs" are the people that oppose this pretty douchey teacher?

Did you read the blog in question? Are you in possession of the full facts of the case? Do you know those involved? Or have you formed your opinions based on some gossippy trash reporting. There is almost always far more to stories like this than the reporting has us to believe. That's because the reporting is pushing an agenda. Which internet hate mobs etc absolutely love.

So you dispute the story and the reporting is "pushing an agenda"? Why do I have the feeling that you don't think that the "teacher" was wrong in what he did?

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#72

Post by carbocation »

AimHere wrote: post #70
mezmor wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK has pretty strict libel laws. I wouldn't be surprised if approaching Glasgow U falls under that category.

Defaming a third party by telephone would more likely be slander than libel, but it's certainly not clear that what went on here would be defamation at all. A defamatory statement must be a false factual allegation. As long as what the headmaster claimed was true, he should be safe from libel or slander lawsuits - saying "I don't like this guy's politics and you shouldn't take him on as a student." is a fair expressi…

Truth is an absolute defense to the claim of libel or slander in the US, but not in all worldwide jurisdictions.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#73

Post by hga »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #52
hga wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, no. Show up knowing what you're about, vs. someone with theories "no one else understands" (from watching this once, I wouldn't be surprised if MIT professors get a bit of training in how to handle the crazies), you've got a hypothesis that's interesting and you need to do specific tests, and, oh, yeah, you'll be happy to let them share credit. You might be surprised at how far you can get. Do some networking. If…

Yeah, worrying about being thought of as a crazy person is precisely what's prevented me from trying to contact any professors, because I'd imagine they have to deal with that sort of thing pretty often: outsiders bothering them with unscientific pet theories. That's why it's frustrating not having credentials. Attending seminars is a good idea. Thank you. I wonder if I should call up universities and ask for info re…

One trick is to not lead with your stuff.

Become a de facto part of the community. Spend a little time on campus to find out how people dress, then just show up unannounced at appropriate events like seminars. Initially be invisible except for the usual pleasantries like smiling, if asked who you are and why you're there say you're a programmer and the topic sounded interesting, absorb the atmosphere and the way things are done. You'll learn all sorts of useful stuff, maybe find something you can help with (hey, you can program...), eventually you can edge into your stuff.

Eventually you will have to reveal who you are(n't), but credentials have no magic (there are a lot of worthless, time wasting but well credentialed people out there), and the higher the level of the place, the less they tend to care about formalities. As one of the country's top schools ... well, the U of Chicago isn't anything big in computers, so that department might no be so easy going, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#74

Post by alan_cx »

alextingle wrote: post #21

Prime Minister by 30?

In the UK? Yeah, that would be the teacher who reported him then. I'm sure the current Home Sec would very much approve of a student being outed for saying something the establishment disagrees with. If the teach u-turns some how, then yes, PM.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#75

Post by alan_cx »

Ensorceled wrote: post #54
Sagat wrote: post #37

I'm disgusted by the head teacher's nosy behavior. I also think the student is an insufferable person according to his blog posts [1]. He's one of those people who try to use loaded words like "anarchism" and "individualism" to justify annoying or selfish behavior. Kind of like Galt-wannabe libertarians who hide being the word "liberty" to give credence to social darwinism. [1] http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/20…

Yes, lots of high school students are insufferably pompous and selfish. They are just growing from children into young adults. A high school head teacher should be able to handle this. Also, as an adult, you should also be able to handle this without becoming annoyed and judgemental.

" lots of high school students are insufferably pompous and selfish"

So are a lot of teachers and heads.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#76

Post by petercooper »

honzzz wrote: post #60
petercooper wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not so much laws but there's certainly a lot more stigma to holding unpopular opinions (or even freely expressing 'distasteful' but popular opinions, cf. responses to many UKIP supporters) in the UK compared to the USA - nowhere on the scale as in Russia or Eastern Europe though.

Eastern Europe? Could you please elaborate or provide some example to illustrate what exactly you mean? I am from Eastern Europe (Czech Rep.) and I used to live in UK. Generally I would say that current Eastern Europe is way more open/tolerant/apathetic to 'unpopular opinions' than UK.

I don't have an interest in filling a post with links to articles about the freedom of speech issues or homophobia in Belarus, the Ukraine, Lithuania, Romania, or what not, but they are easily found. For starters, though, Belarus, the Ukraine, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania aren't even in the top 80 countries for press freedom: http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html

However, I had to hit Wikipedia as I'd never considered the Czech Republic to culturally be "Eastern Europe" but it turns out it often is. I consider the Czech Republic as progressive as any Western European nation and the statistics seem to support that (for example, Czechs are more in support of gay marriage than even the Brits). I've been to the Czech Republic before and was pleasantly surprised at how awesome it was.

So, to clarify, I did not have mean "Eastern Europe" formally but countries on the geographically eastern fringes of Europe.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#77

Post by guard-of-terra »

petercooper wrote: post #23
DickingAround wrote: post #10

What did the police say? Did the teacher believe that the UK has thought-crime laws about uncommon political beliefs? Do they?

Not so much laws but there's certainly a lot more stigma to holding unpopular opinions (or even freely expressing 'distasteful' but popular opinions, cf. responses to many UKIP supporters) in the UK compared to the USA - nowhere on the scale as in Russia or Eastern Europe though.

You can say a lot of things in modern Russia and not get any stigma but support.

Everybody holds on to radical opinions of all sorts, popular ones and unpopular ones alike.

Of course, there does exist the thought-crime статья 282 in the criminal code, but you can't mute popular opinions with it effectively.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#78

Post by ddinh »

dogweather wrote: post #64
SiVal wrote: post #34

This sort of thing is alive and well in US schools, too. The official policy of the Seattle Public School system is to stamp out racism in all its forms, and notice how many forms there are. (Note in particular the Cultural Racism section that includes, "emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology" as a form of racism that, by official policy, is to be stamped out by the government education sy…

Where, specifically, is the quoted text?

It's in the section defining cultural racism:

Those aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to white people and Whiteness, and devalue, stereotype, and label people of color as “other”, different, less than, or render them invisible. Examples of these norms include defining white skin tones as nude or flesh colored, having a future time orientation, emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology, defining one form of English as standard, and identifying only Whites as great writers or composers.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#80

Post by auctiontheory »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #52
hga wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, no. Show up knowing what you're about, vs. someone with theories "no one else understands" (from watching this once, I wouldn't be surprised if MIT professors get a bit of training in how to handle the crazies), you've got a hypothesis that's interesting and you need to do specific tests, and, oh, yeah, you'll be happy to let them share credit. You might be surprised at how far you can get. Do some networking. If…

Yeah, worrying about being thought of as a crazy person is precisely what's prevented me from trying to contact any professors, because I'd imagine they have to deal with that sort of thing pretty often: outsiders bothering them with unscientific pet theories. That's why it's frustrating not having credentials. Attending seminars is a good idea. Thank you. I wonder if I should call up universities and ask for info re…

I have no contacts because I was mercilessly harassed throughout highschool ... So I have no idea how to network.

School/college does not teach you how to network, at least not any more than life outside school does.

Small recommendation: read Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. It is educational, inspiring, and describes many people in your position.

Read it with an open mind, not with cynicism, and you'll learn so much.

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