This does not feel one bit like ‘progress.’ My advice to Kyle before all of this blew up publicly was to tell the truth & to apologize deeply and sincerely (there is no excuse for using that word—even if the context was teenage boys’ private shock Olympics). He did both things... https://twitter.com/KyleKashuv/status/1140605133346283521

The use of a disgusting word, in private, by a 16-year-old, should not be an unforgivable event. And the idea of teenage idiocy being weaponized in a retaliatory fashion like oppo research — and ‘succeeding’ — is frightening. Harvard’s role in this is reactionary and craven...

Some will perversely revel in this ‘victory’ for social ‘justice.’ But this is a very ugly confluence of events — starting with a child’s gross mistake, mined and deployed by people with an agenda, then compounded by adults...no one looks good here.

A world in which high school sophomores’ egregious *comments,* made in a private setting, can be vengefully and strategically wielded in this fashion is a dark place. Intuiting this and worrying about its implications is not “defending” that word.

Harvard should at least meet w/ Kyle to discuss their potentially life-altering decision. And Kyle should not be treated as irretrievably radioactive by elite institutions whose academic standards he has undeniably met as a student, especially in light of his candor & contrition.