Bullying: Stop the complaining.

[Nazulu]

Well, it's great when they can stand up for themselves, but not everyone has that mentality built into them.

I make a perfect example of this since I went through most of the basics. I have autism, luckily high functioning, but almost everyone could tell I was different in how I think and react, and back then I could hardly understand body language so I was left out of the loop often. I usually avoided people in the end because I was treated like a freak, and it's difficult to defend yourself against jerks twice your size or in groups of 5 or more. Not only that, but I couldn't come up with any clever insults to throw back because half of what they did or said I couldn't understand.

After putting up with this for awhile I became depressed, not a little depressed either, the real thing when you feel like there is nothing for you in this world and your family would be better of without you. Luckily, my family noticed this eventually and became really aggresive towards all the parents and teachers, they really swore up a storm because the kids found out if they bullyed me again then they could end up suspended or even expelled, it stopped them completely. That's it! I could actually try to socialise after that, and now I'm on forums explaining and complaining like normal behaviour.

Bullying can destroy people mentally and make them want a way out or even turn them into monsters, it's always been the case in history. I have an unhealthy hatred towards those who attacked for no good reason. One of them was crippled in a car accident, and now he spends the rest of his life being spoon fed. Till this day I'm still happy he suffers, I know it isn't right and I'm sorry but it took him out of my mind now that he got his.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

...we settled things with fists. One of us usually got the point after that.

Wouldn't a more apt solution to the bullying problem be to teach kids to stand up for themselves and others?

Yeah lets teach kids to solve their problems with punching! What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Dire Sloth]

I am so thankful that my high school years were bully free.

 

[Simon Pettersson]

TOPIC:

Is the issue of bullying in the states a serious matter as presented in the media? Should kids learn to stand up for themselves? What are your personal experiences of bullying and how you handled them? What do you think of bulling overall?


(bullies, bully's, having a hard time with the English language.)

Thank you.

Bullying is a problem in the whole world not only in the states. But I think it's much worse then what you see in the media.

Yes kids should learn how to stand up for themselves, but that doesn't always help when you are alone against a whole school.
What are you gonna do about it? Beat them all? Shoot them?
You feel all alone even if that's not true, so the first thing is to find someone you can trust and share your story with. I was bullied by maybe one or two classmates, but I tried to ignore them. Didn't help much though.

 

[darklilac]

What the...? I was bullied my entire childhood. When I was in elementary school, kids would throw pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, and cups at me. I told the people watching us(this was an after school program to babysit kids until their parents picked them up), and they didn't give a shit. They told me to deal. There was a boy much younger than me, but that didn't stop him from torturing me. When I'd be walking around he'd come up behind me and kick me, kick the back of my knees as I walked to make me fall, and called me ugly and fat daily. I can't even remember how many times I told him to stop. He never did.
When I finally had enough I either bit or kicked him, can't remember. Anyways, his MUCH older brother, ran over and attacked me. Calling me a ***** and telling me I deserved to be beaten. He kicked me and slapped and punched me. When I managed to get away, I ran away crying to the girls room. He tried to follow me, but the teacher stopped him. He didn't get in trouble. But I did. Apparently I'm not allowed to stick up for myself.
Yes, fighting back wasn't the best idea, but I was... hmmm in 3rd or 4th grade. The teachers wouldn't help, none of the other students would help, I was alone.

Once I started middle school it started right back up again. Guys throwing basketballs and baseballs at my face, calling me ugly and fat every day. I've been severely depressed since I was around 11-12. Once I got to highschool, kids were stepping on me on purpose when I sat in the hallway during lunch(I was against the wall mind you!), throw their food and drinks at me, push me into doors.... It goes on and on.
Girls aren't taught to stand up for ourselves. That would be unlady-like. The thing is no one wants to get involved, teachers don't care as they have enough shit to deal with, and parents usually just respond with "tell the teachers/principals!". Also it was pretty much always boys doing this. I don't even want to hear the "they only do it cause they have a crush on you!". That is bull.
My female friend got attacked in middle school by 3-4 other girls. She got expelled for trying to fight back, but only one of the girls that attacked her got in trouble.

After elementary school I ignored all the abuse I took, thinking that if I didn't acknowledge them or give them what they wanted they'd stop bullying me. I had become so tired of trying to stick up for myself I just gave up. It didn't work.

I pretty much have a fear of men at this point if you also add in all the abuse my ex put me through when I was young, including threatening to kill me multiple times... Well it's really not all that far-fetched. At 20, I'm still suffering and going to therapy.

I'd say bullying is never okay. It's not okay to just tell someone to "deal with it". Why are we protecting the bullies? We shouldn't be supporting the idea that being cruel and violent towards each other is okay. Especially not while kids. Shouldn't we be supporting children working together and accepting each other? No, it is NOT a perfect world. But at the very least not letting bullying go unpunished should be the bare minimum. The victims are usually silent as they feel they deserve it or are silenced by either their bullies, peers or even their teachers/parents. It's not as simple as just saying parents should teach kids how to stand up for themselves. I don't know about all cases, but every time I tried to, I was punished for it. At this point, all the hatred is etched into me.

 

[Strazdas]

Most responses to bullies seem to be running away from the problem or shirking off the responsibility of the problem to a third party, RATHER then dealing with the issue yourself.

Maybe I'm old school, but in life, you can't wait for someone else to rescue you from your problems.

thats because its not my responsibility to be bullied. if there is a bully he must be punished for it. by a third party. standing up to bullies lead you hanging on a cross - literary.
in real life, we call people who take care of bullies police.

 

[MagunBFP]

A lesson I learnt very early on in high school is even if a bully is a coward, standing up to him/them might not work... it might just lead to further escalation. Within the first week of high school I was bullied by a guy, I stood up for myself and he went home with a bloodied nose, as a result 2 things happened first was we were given detention for fighting (the bully blamed that on me)... the second was he and his friends bullied me instead, one on one I gave as good as I got but in groups well it turns out right doesn't always make enough might. Even if I could beat them all, violent cowards will always blame their target and I have no doubt knives or other weapons would have been involved soon enough.

I was able to stand up for myself, and in general thats my advice, but I know it doesn't always work and only an idiot would imagine that there is one foolproof way of dealing with bullies... and if you are that idiot well how would you like to know a surefire way to get a woman to sleep with you 100% success rate, what do you mean that's impossible?

OP you're blaming the victim of bulling for inflicting the knowledge of the crime on someone else, or making the victim responsible for punishing the criminal. Society doesn't work that way, if you're bullied at work you make a complaint and it gets dealt with by the company, so why should children be expected to handle it themselves and telling a teacher or principal be the wrong thing?

Reminds me of a news story recently where a child was given plastic surgury to make her prettier so the bulling would stop, when I heard that I was disgusted no one deserves to be bullied for any reason fixing what you're being bullied about just proves to the bully that the were right and that bulling has made the victim a better person.

 

[Luna]

The OP is right. lol at the strawman arguments in response to OP, 'no one deserves to be bullied'. Nice try.

Care to elaborate on how the OP is right? Is it the victim blaming? Or the inferred cowardice of putting pressure on the victim rather then confronting the bully? I mentioned this earlier already, but if your strong enough to stand up for yourself, what's stopping you from standing up for others?

lmao. the first thing I do in my initial post is criticize the strawmen arguments in response to OP. and then the person that challenges me uses a strawman argument. 'hur dur, he thinks it must be the victim's fault because he thinks standing up to bullies can sometimes be the right thing to do'

Apart from having no backbone of course.

what's stopping me from standing up from others is that sometimes they're in... oh i don't know... a different location to myself.

The irony of the OPs position is that his "logic" equates to bullying anyway. He assumes that the act of bullying stems from a fault in the victim and is merely exploited by the bully. That the victim has an inherent flaw and it's their responsibility to sort out. He forgets that bullying can in fact induce this flaw. A bully can whittle down a persons will until they become incapable of standing up for themselves, which in turn, emboldens the bullies actions.

The irony of your position is that you criticize OP for bullying and challenge him, making you the bully.


^I seriously think calling you a bully is ridiculous, but is equally ridiculous as your assertion that he is a bully. Anyway...

What's more he forgets that bullies are RARELY individual threats, but instead a group of peers who derive pleasure from tormenting an individual. These are bullies that initiate and incessantly pursue aggressive/oppressive actions towards the victim. But we also have another sort, the ones who sit on the sides and let it happen, feeling some smug satisfaction or sense of superiority over the victim.

You, and the OP, are the latter.

Boy, you don't know a thing about me. So don't pretend you do. I've probably done things that you wouldn't have the courage to.

This logic makes him (quite blatantly) unsympathetic to victims of bullying and ultimately belittles the struggles of said victims. Given the right situation, I wouldn't be surprised if he would harass someone or physically intimidate them himself, whether that person is deserving of it or not. You see, he has already convinced himself that the bully is not the problem, but the person with no courage to rebel against the bully is. So he would think all he's doing is giving the poor sod a taste of real life, rather then being completely objective about it and seeing that he's just being a fucking dick.

don't call the OP a fucking dick, please. I don't appreciate this bullying behavior.

What you said is basically a strawman argument anyway so I'll quickly say that you're a manipulative over assuming individual who believes what he wants to believe.

As I said earlier. If you actively promote opposing bullies, then why the fuck don't you act as you preach? Are bullies only a bully if they are bullying you? No. Then why not stand up to bullies on principle?

Oh yeah, the aforementioned absence of a backbone might be why.

who says I don't? You might as well go stand in a field and scare off crows because this man of straw is overwhelming.

 

[Luna]

The OP is right. lol at the strawman arguments in response to OP, 'no one deserves to be bullied'. Nice try.

Gee what a persuasive argument! I am swayed and now think the OP is right!

...Actually, no, I don't. Wanna put some actual THOUGHT into it?

I mean, me and a few other bared our souls here, and make freakin' essays, detailing our personal experiences and how "manning up" was either impossible or would have gone against our very natures.

lol at you for trying to deny that there are bullies in the world, and/or that standing up to them can be the right thing to do sometimes.


At least in a workplace perspective, telling on them is the best thing to do, sure. But on a non professional level, you can't tell on somebody for being mean to you, (unless they harass you to the point where you can get an actual restraining order).

 

[Sight Unseen]

Is your name by any chance a reference to this song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXZpqORcuFM

Why yes it is I think you're the first person whose ever noticed that.

When I used to play a certain MMO, they came up with a system at one point that let you change your username, and since I had grown out of my current username I tried to find a better one. I was looking for one that sounded cool and kind of witty, and was also a reference to something I liked, and I came upon that song, and it was perfect. Even though the song itself is kind of meh, the title is awesome and I use it for everything now

 

[RedDeadFred]

Sorry but I think making a big issue of it is actually the right thing. Kids need to be aware of just how devastating their bullying can be on some people. We had really big anti bullying systems in my high school and as a result, most people got along pretty well. There were a few people who had less friends but there weren't any fights going on.

Just dealing with it is not the right answer. If you break the rules in school, you need to be held accountable by the school itself, not just having the kid try his/her best to stand up to you. It's the same thing when you are an adult. If you assault someone, that's breaking the law. You should be arrested. Your victim shouldn't have to stand up to you. That's often just asking for more trouble.

 

[goodman528]

... ...

It's more complicated than that, not every bullying problem can be solved by standing up to them. Sometimes, it will just make you seem violent and stand out from the crowd even more, and that may be the problem you are trying to solve in the first place.

I'm sure this has been said before in the 7 pages before me, but really, every situation is different and require a different solution. But violence is not the solution, unless you can totally dominate the other party, but even then it may not be the end, this is how gang wars get started.

 

[lunavixen]

I was bullied for 10 out of 13 school years, it affects you more than you think, the bullies that went after me were utterly vindictive and nearly impossible to get away from, over those 10 years, the bullying was both physical (i got punched, kicked, spat on, had things thrown at me, i was even pushed down a flight of concrete stairs) and verbal (you name it, they probably said it) and i had done nothing to them to start it. it got to the point i had to spend all of my lunchtimes in the library because it was about the only safe haven for me, the library was the only place i could get away from it. the bullying has left my self esteem in tatters, even now, after it has stopped

captcha - souffle girl... i hate souffles captcha...

 

[Mr F.]

Bullying has been HUGE in the states of recent years. "HUGE" in the sense that it's been in the media more, not that it hasn't been around.

Growing up, I experienced my fair share of bullying. Ranged from insults, to actual fights. But, I was taught to always stand up to bullies and stick up for others who were being bullied. Disagreements or bullies that took things to far usually ended up in the park, where we settled things with fists. One of us usually got the point after that.

The issue is this. WHY is bullying being presented in such a way today that it seems to make people want to jump off tall building?

Yea, it sucks, I get that. But in life, bullies will always be around. In fact, you can still find them in the grown up world. They just usually come from the back with a knife instead of a punch in the face.

Wouldn't a more apt solution to the bullying problem be to teach kids to stand up for themselves and others? The most common solutions that are being presented today are some of the most asinine things.

1. Telling a teacher
2. Ignoring it
3. ETC.

Most responses to bullies seem to be running away from the problem or shirking off the responsibility of the problem to a third party, RATHER then dealing with the issue yourself.

Maybe I'm old school, but in life, you can't wait for someone else to rescue you from your problems.

TOPIC:

Is the issue of bullying in the states a serious matter as presented in the media? Should kids learn to stand up for themselves? What are your personal experiences of bullying and how you handled them? What do you think of bulling overall?


(bullies, bully's, having a hard time with the English language.)

Thank you.

Normally I would write you a fucking essay explaining why your entire viewpoint is just a bunch of masochistic macho bullshit and how you are projecting yourself onto others and expecting them to have the same capability to deal with bullshit as yourself. But since my girlfriend is here and demanding that I make this brief, however amusing she may find it, I will have to summarise my essential viewpoint thus:

- Not all bullying can be solved with violence. Not all bullying can be solved fullstop. Not everyone can simply ignore things, not everyone can win that fight, not everyone has somewhere to turn and run.

- Bullying comes in grades. Seriously. Someone being called a shithead for their shithead views could be classed as bullying. Someone being viciously followed, stalked, having vicious rumours spread about them, being forced out of their lessons, being forced out of school, being systematically torn to pieces on a daily basis in both emotional and phsyical ways, that is ALSO bullying.

- Violence solves nothing.

Ok, Puppy dog eyes. I have to stop. Seriously.

Fuck anyone who blames the victim.

Interesting.
This is part of the reason why I never participate in bullying arguments and conversations.

I was bullied for as long as I can remember, more often than not it was physical... For my ethnicity, my last name, my attitude (I was always antagonistic to others by nature), opinions, appearance and eventually because I wasn't fighting back. and I did fight back, and it solved problems. Then when I got bullied for fighting back, you know - coz kids are cunts - I continued.

Violence has solved most of my problems, and my violence has solved the problems of friends, and has gotten me paid exceedingly well.
Bullying (in my eyes, and my eyes alone) will never be stopped, and should never be 'fully eradicated' in the same way I hope world peace never occurs.
but I'm aware this isn't the common view, not everyone can fight, not everyone is willing to fight, not everyone is willing to risk their future with a criminal record, (I'm not glorifying this here. That's a potential risk, and it fucks shit up), and there's nothing I can do about any of that.
My little cousin listened to the teachers opinion, the brochures/pamphlets at school, his parents, my parents, his grandma and all that about dealing with bullying. It didn't work. Eventually he took my route and stuck sewing (sowing? I don't know how to spell it) scissors into the kids gut. After a year and a half of non-stop physical, emotional and cyber- bullying. You know what happened? He got suspended for a month, had to go to some anger-management bullshit class, and the bullying stopped overnight.
He hasn't been bullied since and it's been nearly 2 years now.

This is why I don't partake in these arguments.

Captcha: You are happy.

I find some posts on bullying threads hilarious. You and the other guy who quoted me have both talked about how violence solved your issue right up. And yes, there is the occasional case of that working. But it makes me wonder what country you are in. Cause stabbing a kid in the gut with scissors would get you into Juvi over in the UK. Then I get to your views on violence as a whole and I realise that most of your argument falls flat because you seem to love violence.

One of the main problems here is people think that bullying is so black and white. Bullying comes in so many forms, some of those forms more damaging than others. From a personal perspective, 'Bullying' or at least the logical extension thereof forced me to leave a city I used to love dearly. I shit you not. Things had genuinely got to the point where I was no longer safe in the college I was attending, I was no longer safe outside that college, I was univeraslly hated throughout the town I was living in and that cancer was slowly spreading further. So I had to up sticks and leave.

That is the kind of fallout that comes from 'bullying'. And no, it is not possible to fight your way out of that sort of situation. Was I supposed to beat the crap out of my ex and her best friend for the rumours they were spreading? Really? What would that have solved? Absolutely nothing. It would have made the situation far worse.

Bullying is a complex issue. It is not so black and white, it is mostly grey. And whilst violence can sometimes be an answer, it is never THE answer. When people say 'Boys will be boys' it makes me want to cut people, when people say 'Bullying is natural' it makes me want to burn people. Education is the answer to this shit, education and talking. Ignorance is the source of violence and bullying. Eradicate ignorance, eradicate issues.

I hate this victim blaming mentality. It is not my fault I dated a crazy person who then destroyed my life with the help of another crazy person. Its not my fault I was powerless to stop this. And I know I am not a case study for all bullyin, I know there are people out there who can take the power back and stop how they are being treated.

But should they have to? Or should the assholes making their life hell be stopped?

 

[generals3]

It's hilarious that you argue logic when you fail to grasp the the actual consequence to bullying.

It's not loss of a persons will to live, it's loss of a persons self-worth. Given enough time a victim of bullying starts to think the same way as the bully. They see themselves as petty, weak, useless. Depending on the source of the bullying it can infer other things (abusive parents infers you aren't wanted, abusive faculty members implies that your bullies are right and you are wrong, useless advice like "man up" infers you are less then a man, etc.)

At a point they don't even feel like lashing out, they can't even see how they could be wrong. If a bully is able to whittle someone that far down, the family fails to notice or doesn't care and the people in our society who have power to intervene don't, then the "LOGICAL" conclusion for the victim is that the bully is right and he is worthless and deserves the punishment.

But no one want's to live like that, so they choose the most rational course of action giving how fucked up their values are. They kill themselves in a fit of self-loathing, not in anger.

EDIT: In case that isn't clear, for some victims of bullying, the bully isn't even an aggressor. I mean, it's the victim, after all, who's at fault. It's his flaw and he can't figure out what that flaw is. Since the bully will keep bullying no matter how much that person changes. It won't even cross his mind to confront the bully because the bully is merely reacting to the victims aggravating and pathetic presence.

EDIT EDIT: There is an alternative outcome, where people do turn on their bullies... it's called going psycho and killing a bunch of people. You know, School shootings and the such.

I think i need to clarify some things. Firstly, usually bullying hits the media after suicides of the victims(hence why i specifically addressed that in the first paragraph, the second was a bit more in general).

Secondly self loathing isn't always the reason, some unfortunately end up committing suicide because they see no end in the tormenting.

And i don't really believe the first edit. I have a friend who used to get bullied by someone and my friend solved that issue by making it clear if the bully would continue he'd kick his ass. Now ok he did get a small beating from the bully's big brother but my friend never heard anything from the bully himself anymore. Usually bullies attack easy targets, people with low self esteem, not that many friends, people who basically don't have anyone to stand up for them or who don't dare to stand up for themselves (there are exceptions, obviously).

And about the second edit. Standing up for yourself =/= going psycho. I know it happens quite often in the US but i actually don't remember any case of shootings and such in shools over here in my lifetime.

Also, while I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you're not advocating murder as an alternative to suicide, what you just said veers creepily close to the sort of mentality that drives school-shootings. 'Well, I want to die anyway, I might as well go out in a blaze of glory and make all my bullies pay for their crimes.'

Ow ow. I never advocated murder! What i merely said is that the worst that could happen to someone who would stand up for himself is that it can result into a fight which might end up fatal (usually for the victim because not many bullies attack people who have twice the amount of muscles, usually...). All i was advocating is standing up for yourself and applied the logic, if you embrace death already why not stand up for yourself, after all the biggest issue with standing up for yourself is that you could get beaten up nasty but since you don't even fear death it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Bullying just flat out shouldn't happen and in a perfect world wouldn't exist. In reality, it's going to exist inevitably forever.

The media's skewed way of presenting bullying seems to portray it in a way that stresses empowerment of the bullies and further victimizes the victims. Sob stories about helpless children who could have done absolutely nothing to stop the all-powerful bullies and then ended their lives. An act wherein no accountability falls on the weakness of the person who actually pulled the trigger and all blame should be placed on the mean words and actions that tangentially led them to it.

There's an emphasis that the media puts on helplessness which is a dangerous mentality to have. When you're bullied you're outmatched, not helpless. It's a bad situation to be in, but not one that's impossible to get out of. What should be emphasized is assessing the situation and thinking of a way to overcome it. Treating bullied kids like there was nothing they could have done is detrimental, not reassuring.

 

[Vkmies]

I agree with you. Maybe I was never bullied enough, but really. I do not understand how "bullying" as it was explained to me by a dictionary, could make someone commit suicide, unless they were suicidal before. Just don't get it and that makes it hard for me to feel empathy towards the people who kill themselves because of it. I wonder how many people die yearly because of bullying. Probably quite a bit less than children who die of hunger, war or something like that. But bullying seems to be the media-sexy thing right now, so that's what we have to listen right now.

You should consider that you basically spend every day at a place where you have to sit and give your best to stay invisible, because if you don't, you will be humiliated for amusement of other people.

It gets under your skin in the weirdest way possible.

I believed there were normal people and then there were people who are a level beneath everyone. Freaks like me, socially awkward and generally less worth than your average human.

I still had the internet, games, anime and my twin sister. But I always felt like I was worthless. But not only that, I also knew that everyone in school would be happier if one day I just would stop coming to classes. It would be a relief, because I was embarassing to them, had to be assigned for group work (ugh, but who wants to work with THAT girl?) and if I absolutely had to talk to someone you could literally see that they wished I just wasn't there.

And you should keep in mind that the form of bullying I got was extremely mild, I wasn't picked upon daily, I never got beat up and generally the only thing I got were rare insults when someone was extremely annoyed by my presence (that was my number one offence, obviously).


Of course, now I would simply laugh in the face of anyone that would try to do that again to me. I could make a riot, bring in teachers, talk to the classmates, reminding them of their conscience. NOW, I could have brought myself out of this mysery, but back then I didn't have the confidence to defend myself from a puppy.

Seriously, if you never had been bullied, you can't know how much it f*cks with your mind. You start believing everything the bullies tell you in some way. You hate yourself, you despise yourself for being so weak and disgusting.

I had good things to keep me going. But many people don't.

Maybe it's a personal thing then. Because me, a weird, long haired hippie with odd band-shirts and a Pink Floyd Beanie, I got picked on. Every now and then, maybe about weekly, I got a snarky comment or someone tried to start shit with me. Somehow I just grew into it. I got a few close friends and completely disregarded all the assholes. Apparently that's not something many people can do. Maybe I am lucky. I just managed to laugh in the faces of all the bullies and eventually they stopped trying. Granted, I had to experience that whenever I changed schools, but it always worked.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Its

snip

There is a difference between a mild teasing and bullying. Look calling someone fat is ok as long as its in good fun and you are not doing it repeatedly. If you get called fat every day for 4 years straight your going to be affected as a person. Thats bullying. Thats what the big deal is.

Thanks for the spell check. Appreciate it.

There's a great quote by Nancy Reagan that goes along the lines of "not letting others affect how you feel". I may not be the smartest tool in the shed, but that idea goes a long way.

Oops that wasn't suppose to be there. That just text I didn't delete my bad. I don't do that spell check revising thing.

I agree 100%

Trouble is, that idea only goes so far.

Unless you train yourself (or have someone else train you for years), you simply can't manage your own psyche well enough for that concept to be truly effective.

Sure, consciously, you might manage that... to a degree (how many people do you know that can always perfectly control how they feel about anything?).

But subconsciously? People have no control over that. And it is in the subconscious where all of the bullshit people spout at you is internalized.

Well... I do recall blowing up on people after repressing an inner rage from being bullied so yeah its probably not the best idea. But putting your emotions on your sleeve seem to just welcome more bullying.

 

[StarStruckStrumpets]

I'm 17, so I was in school when they believed fighting was wrong and a punishable offence.

Fuck authority. I fought back anyway. If authority tells me that being hurt by scum is fine, I'm not going to do what they please anymore. I appreciate the violence doesn't solve everything, but in this 'molly-coddling' culture we have where children are raised to believe it's wrong to stand up for yourself, people are bound to get torn to pieces. People should at least know that they can fight for themselves without the powers that be punishing them for it. People having a little self-worth would probably stop a lot of bullying in the first place. The weak get picked on for a reason. You don't see the school Jock going toe-to-toe with his bigger, burlier friend.

If standing your ground doesn't work, then tell someone. The bullying issue is massively overplayed, this coming from someone who was constantly insulted, humiliated and hated from primary school up until college. The society we live in is raising children to be weak, and it's fucking wrong.

 

[HippySteve]

I think the "bullying-suicide epidemic", as I've seen it called stateside on the idea that everyone is inherently worth something. So then, when someone gets in their face and tells them they're not, they don't know how to react. They don't say "fuck you" and brush it off, and they don't stand up for themselves. They feel put upon, and just let themselves to continue to be a target.