I'm big on the positive aspects of human nature.

Blade,

I recommend: Mutual Aid (Kropotkin), Love at Goon Park (Deborah Blum), "Good Natured" and "Peacemaking Among Primates" by Frans de Waal.

I wouldn't say those things to anyone anyway. And the idea of escalating things to a situation that cannot be handled is what makes abuse both heart breaking and infuriating at the same time. It's not always a solution, nor is any escalation of violence a particularly desired one either.

My thinking when I say a fragile ego needs figurative muscle is that, while we're all trying to protect individuals from the herd, just because a kid "doesn't have it in them" or holds zero tolerance for any modicum of pain doesn't mean they can't be exposed to environments or activities which help them gain confidence, discipline, and perseverance. You don't teach kids martial arts or MMA specifically to become a ninja. They're there, hopefully, to improve many aspects of themselves through the activity. It doesn't have to just be working out to get swol or learning how to fight. Physical abuse isn't the only bullying anyway. There are kids right now who are going to be picked on no matter what anyone does anyway. I'd prefer those kids to have a more stable mind in the face of adversity than less. And I want to stress, before anyone misconstrues me again, first priority is protecting individuals from the herd.

I posted the video of a song once on FB. It was Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al". One of the first lines is "Why am I soft in the middle now?" My comment with the vid was that we have failed as a society if we all aren't soft in the middle. Indeed everyone in the world should be free to be who they are and not forced to change coerced through violence, discrimination, or societal pressure...Unfortunately, we still go to war. We still discriminate. And we are still way too violent. Society just isn't there yet.

IDK. I mean I see that vid that Suzzer posted and I see several victims and failing everywhere. I would bet a stack or two that the kid who is the bully in that vid and pursuing the other kid around has been victimized plenty in his life without relief. The fact that there was a teacher in the situation that was unable or unwilling to stop it sucks. The fact that people are happy with the outcome instead of curious about how to teach these men to solve their issues...I mean ****. We (as a society) are looking at a kid explode violently in a rage and call it standing up for himself in a thread where kids are taking that rage to mass murder. Black males are killed for it. If you substitute the unrelenting, aggressive pursuer with George Zimmerman or a cop you have a dead kid there.

To bring it full circle, flooding our lives with readily available killing devices is just adding to the damage done, and the gun lust/fetishization is as well, but cheering for the bullied kids to fight is ****ing nonsense. And I say that as someone who fought back once successfully and was lucky enough to have had it work out.

A friend of mine is a clinical psychologist in the UK and interviewed a patient of his that was diagnosed with bipolar affect disorder in the US, hospitalized, released and given back his guns and ammunition when was threatening to shoot himself or others. A good listen:

https://thebluetreeclinic.com/wp-con.../podcast-J.m4a

It would be good if we could teach kids to come to the defense of the bullied and also break up fights rather than get out their popcorn and cellphones. The kids laughing on the sidelines share some of the blame, not just the bully. We should work toward a culture where watching people get harmed isn't considered entertainment. Ideally, imo this should even extend to MMA/Boxing/NFL, which can be enjoyed without enjoying the part where someone gets badly hurt.

I have a theory that a bullying culture or not largely comes down to the leaders of that particular class at school. If the leaders happen to be mature, decent kids who look at for the downtrodden, the class follows suit. If the class leaders are a**holes, things get real bad further down the line.

What schools can do to foster the former I'm not sure. But I bet there are some things they could do. If I was principal I'd certainly identify the leaders and try to trigger their empathy for kids who might be under fire from other members of the their clique.

Basically just watch the movie Lucas.

great post.

I haven't watched Suzzer's vid but I think there's an important distinction between the use of violence on the one hand and the lionization/worship of it on the other. For example, it is normal for a country to use military force sometimes. There are a long list of "not normal" examples I could pick, but here is chatter from Fox anchors as they play footage of a MOAB being dropped in Afghanistan, with Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" over the top:

"Not normal" right there. Again, you'll have to take my word for it, but I would be very surprised if Rivera's comment there did not get him sacked from an Australian network.

There are of course also criticisms to be made of America's actual use of violence. What I'm saying by analogy is that there's a difference between condoning violence as a last-resort way to set boundaries and celebrating the use of violence. I don't think that difference is a subtle one. There are also criticisms to be made of kids "standing up for themselves" using violence, but I wouldn't draw a straight line between those kind of situations and mass shootings. As was mentioned earlier ITT, there is no bullying involved in many of these shootings. The connection between recent shootings and Columbine is not bullying, but the glorification of violence.

btw, it's incredibly lol that people are worried about VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES when there's literally a well-known journalist on a major network saying that one of his favorite things to do is watch people die in real life.

I don't know what to do with bullying because trying to get them to stop only seems to make them want to do it more--even as adults. Schools are only interested in saving their own asses. So many ****ing sociopaths out there these days and that's getting worse from what I can tell.

I knew I was missing out not reading this thread.

I hope they find the ****ers who did this and lock them up.

https://twitter.com/justinjm1/status...665953280?s=19

There's just no level to which they won't sink.

HOGGWATCH

half the comments in that link are offputting to say the least

To make it even worse, there was a lockdown at an elementary school so the jackasses who did this also terrorized a bunch of little kids and their parents.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...all/672545002/

Not to mention tremendous disrespect to and misuse of law enforcement.

Cool so this was the first attempt to murder David Hogg. By one of the good guys with guns no doubt.

There has to be a way to make it so that every anonymous call about a guy with a gun doesn't trigger a 10 piece armed assault on a home, right?

If everyone has a gun, then no need for police because it is both no longer cause for alarm and because the good guys with guns will handle it.

EZ fix, imo.

Betsy DeVos Says School Safety Commission Won’t Look At Role Of Guns In School Shootings

Thanks for posting. It's a hard listen at times but very interesting.

Some law was crafted with the NRA in mind that bans the use of public funds on the effects of gun control on gun violence iirc.

You would think they should be able to run an address through the system and see if there any wants or warrants or history going on there before gearing up. However the first time they sent a squad car to one of these to verify and it turns out to be bad and that officer gets roasted there would be hell to pay. Swatting is just part of the price of freedom.

"Commission won't study effect of guns on gun violence"

Not Onion

USA

The Dickey Amendment

I hope every single Republican and Democrat who accepts money from the NRA gets voted out permanently.