“Maya Srinivasan [’10] is an amazing person and always willing to help out a friend. She is also brilliant and a great musician.”
So read the message submitted by Margaret Byron ’10 projected on a giant screen on Frist North ...(back to the article)
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this campaign is a great idea!!!
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So, if I sign my name to the most egregious of publicly-announced reputation-destroying rumors, it is ok? "Own what you think" is a nice slogan, but I wonder if the problem is really ownership... or the content of the rude things we routinely think, say, and repeat.
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What do you all hope to accomplish? Gossip is ubiquitous, not just in our own culture but every culture on the face of the Earth for all of human existence. Do you really think this campaign could change that? Princeton students need to have a reality check here... even if all gossip at Princeton stops completely, there will certainly be gossip, undercutting and backstabbing in the work world. We might as well learn how to deal with it, how to accept that bad things will be said about us to our faces and behind our backs, in college. If not, Pton grads will have a rude awakening in NYC their first year out.
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1) I love how the statement on ownwhatyouthink.com doesn't list its author. Was it written anonymously? 2) Connor, have you never ever spread gossip? How about the 943 people who signed the petition? Puhleeze. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
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I cant emphasize enough that we totally understand/agree that some anonymous speech is completely necessary and effective. What we are talking about is the abuse of anonymity and this epidemic culture of gossip in our society as a whole.
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yeah i agree- but just like rachel said, the campaign is not against all anonymous speech/expression. read the website, it specifically states that some anonymous speech has its place.
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Yeah, in generally I agree with what they're doing: speaking out against anonymous speech that's malicious and hurtful. But to condemn the entire concept of anonymous speech is very dangerous. By insisting that nobody ever be anonymous and that you always "own what you think" presupposes that everyone always knows exactly what they themselves think and have strong reasons for it. If we insist on this, we are naively shutting off many opportunities for exploring new ideas and considering opinions and positions that may not make sense completely (and that one may not be sure enough about to put their name behind) but are worth considering nonetheless. To condemn anonymity unequivocally is propagandistic, academically naive, and ultimately dangerous to intellectual curiosity.
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The petition might have made a mention of the fact that anonymity can be used as a great tool in speech, but the shirts that are around campus say only that “anonymity = cowardice”. I think that's a bad idea to endorse.
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It would be nice to know how much money the University has spent on this campaign.
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the petition specifically noted that there is a place and time for anonymous speech, and mentioned political speech (such as the Federalist Papers) as an example of a legitimate time for anonymous speech.
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"Students on their way to the Street stopped to marvel at this and many other messages on the “Love Wall,” which displayed positive affirmations written by students about themselves and others."........First of all, this is an inaccurate characterization of this event's reception by students. No one "stopped and marveled" -- I mean, a couple people stopped and were confused, but it was certainly wasn't the arresting spectacle the article makes it out to be. Second, who knows how much money the University wasted on this? I think that's telling in itself. When Princeton spends money on contrived performances like this, we look good, but when students are left to their own devices, they produce the trash on juicycampus in abundance.
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I'm eagerly awaiting Connor's condemnation of Madison, Hamilton, and Jay for their cowardice in anonymously penning the Federalist Papers.
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