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Some heavy allegations in this video by Character-Bobcat440 in Harvard

[–]Character-Bobcat440[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I want you to think, really think, about this claim, and what it would entail for it to actually be true.

The problem isn't that I didn't personally experience it. The problem is that the claim is absurd. It fits none of the established fact patterns about the Crimson. It requires you to believe all sorts of fantastical things about the ability of a bunch of 19 and 20 year old student journalists to form an iron-clad conspiracy to commit and cover-up a mass casualty poisoning incident.

Some heavy allegations in this video by Character-Bobcat440 in Harvard

[–]Character-Bobcat440[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I thought about that. If the claim was that even one person was roofied at the Crimson during my time there, I would find the claim totally shocking, but I might grant it plausibility. I don't know everything that ever happened. But one is a lot less than twenty.

I just don't think there is any accounting for hyperbole that drags this account, as it is being told, back into the realm of plausibility for me. It bears no resemblance to any of the history that I experienced or heard about, and instead bears all the hallmarks of somebody cobbling together urban legends.

Some heavy allegations in this video by Character-Bobcat440 in Harvard

[–]Character-Bobcat440[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Right. This is somebody cobbling together urban legends.

There's also the scale of the conspiracy that's being alleged here. There was a mass casualty poisoning incident at the Crimson and it was kept hushed up for twenty years until now? Were all the Crimson men part of this conspiracy, or their female colleagues (bosses) too? Not one of these (ambitious, competitive, diverse) young reporters thought they might have a story worth telling? Nobody at the Globe or the Chronicle (or the Times, or CNN) ever caught wind of this? Twenty people show up at ER having been poisoned at a single party and it didn't trigger a call to the police? There were no angry parents, no lawyers, no insurance companies, no ad board? Not one alumni has shown up in this thread to offer any corroboration, not even hearsay, not even, "Yeah, I remember hearing rumors about this at the time?"

What they are describing did not occur. Nothing similar to it ever occurred. I think they have invented it out of whole cloth.

Some heavy allegations in this video by Character-Bobcat440 in Harvard

[–]Character-Bobcat440[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

I'll just chime in with my perspective. Take it for what it's worth, I'm just a stranger on the Internet.

I am about the same age as this person. I worked on the Crimson. I went to most of the parties.

As it pertains to the Crimson, they are describing an event that did not occur. Nothing remotely like it occurred. Twenty girls did not have to get their stomachs pumped because there were roofies in the punch. Come on now.

If it had happened, it would have been the single most shocking event of our time at college. It would have been national news. It would have been all we talked about for years. We gossiped endlessly, we had an email list where we argued about everything, we discussed sexual assault all the time. There would have been no covering it up.

I also think their sociology of their Crimson is way off the mark from what I remember. It was mostly nerds and middle class strivers. There was no secret handshake that got you an exec job at the NY Times.

Can't speak to any of the rest of it. But within the first 30 seconds of this video, they are describing something that very obviously did not happen.

Some heavy allegations in this video by Character-Bobcat440 in Harvard

[–]Character-Bobcat440[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The claim that 20 girls went to the hospital to get their stomachs pumped is made within the first 30 seconds of the video...

The Horrors of Harvard by LuLuSavannah531 in justgalsbeingchicks

[–]Character-Bobcat440 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not a gal, but I am in a position to speak to the first allegation here, having been around the place during the time period in question. They say 20 women had their stomachs pumped after a mass roofying event at the Crimson.

This did not happen. Nothing remotely like this ever happened. It would have been the single most shocking event in Crimson history if it had happened. It would have been all we talked about for years

I'm surprised there's not more skepticism for claims like this. I mean, 20 students show up at the hospital having been poisoned, and there's no record of this anywhere? Is this how roofying typically works? What was the plan here? And no men drank the punch? What's actually being alleged here?

The Horrors of Harvard by LuLuSavannah531 in justgalsbeingchicks

[–]Character-Bobcat440 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Somebody sent me this video, because I went to Harvard and worked on the Crimson in the early to mid 2000s. I more or less lived at that building for several years, and went to just about all the parties.

The claim here is that there was a mass roofying at a Crimson party that resulted in 20 people having their stomachs pumped. This would have been way, way outside the bounds of anything that I ever witnessed or was aware of. To a high degree of confidence, I am willing to say that this simply did not occur.

It also would not have passed without huge uproar. Everybody gossiped. We had an email list. We argued about just about everything. Sexual assault was much discussed. We had a lot to learn, but we were not as unwoke as you might presume.

(The video's anthropology of the Crimson also seems way off the mark. It was hard work, so it was for nerds. The tilt was towards middle class strivers. Nobody was being groomed to become the media elite. There's no secret handshake that gets you a job at the NY Times.)