How much of human behaviour is nothing more than bullying

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kraftiekortie
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20 Aug 2019, 8:45 am

I agree with everything except the last line. I don't believe it's as simple as "alphas" and "betas." Though I believe the "animal heritage" aspect has some importance.



Bravo5150
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20 Aug 2019, 3:35 pm

GiantHockeyFan wrote:
jimmy m wrote:
Teasing and Bullying – Those terms are very understated. The term teasing and bullying are terms developed to protect the abusers. They minimize the offense. A more accurate phrase is cruel and relentless torture. In adult society, the terms used are physical abuse, psychological abuse, and assault and they are criminal offenses.

* Bullies are very adept at what they do. It is almost like they took a course in the subject.
* They instinctively recognize those that are weak, alone and defenseless, venerable individuals.
* They know where in the playground or inside the school, they can strike outside the view of authorities
* They know how to inflict the maximum amount of pain without leaving visible marks as evidence [such as a jab to the ribcage, a kick to the nuts, or a chokehold].
* Many times they operate as a group, a gang.
* They know about the unwritten rules such as the “Code of Silence” and the “Never Snitch”. They enforce these rules to silence witnesses.

In general, bullies are cowards and rarely fight fair.
* They form into groups with lieutenants and soldiers.
* In a conflict it is always about the one (the victim) verses the many (the gang).
* You show up armed only with your fists to protect yourself, while they might show up
armed to the teeth. Any fight is rarely fought on a level playing field and the conclusions are rarely left up to chance.
* And in the aftermath of the physical and verbal attack, it is always the word of the many (the gang), combined with the silence of the eyewitnesses (unwritten code of silence) against the word of the one (the victim).

It all springs from our animal heritage. Bullies are Alphas, Their Gang are Betas, and we unfortunately are Omegas.


This is without a doubt the best summary I have ever seen and should be included in all anti-bullying literature. I wish I could show this to everyone who ever said "just fight back!" It's not that simple when you are outnumbered 6 to 1 and they have zero worries of consequences. The one time I did fight back against the "ringleader" all entire "gang" backed him up so *I* was punished for being the bully (and the bullying ramped by ten fold)! Saying fight back is as ridiculous as pulling a gun on a heavily armed SWAT team that breaks into your house: no matter how right you are, you aren't going to win.

I do tip by hat to the bully in that a former classmate (and I believe them) told me they saw zero evidence I was bullied. He was a master at going right to the limit without going over to the point where the police or media would get involved. When we were one on one or there was a "tough" authority figure around he was my best friend, even to the point where he gave an anti-bullying speech once and we Aspies are the crazy ones?

I've said it before and I will say it again: what is considered "teasing" as teenagers is considered a criminal offense by adults. That's probably why I was never bullied past the age of 16. I love how as an adult I can get a restraining order, get the offender arrested, etc but as a teenager the cops told me "it's a school problem" before walking away even though the bullies could have killed me!


Atleast some people like you can get police reports filed. With me, it is an issue where the cops share the same mentality as telling you it is a school problem, but they always blame me some how either for misunderstanding the law and claiming it is a civil matter or try to make it as though I was dumb enough to instigate a fight even though I was unarmed and alone against several people.

Like I said, PTSD affects my ability to perform first aid proceedures. I am unable to provide help to anyone in need that resembles a bully.



GiantHockeyFan
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21 Aug 2019, 6:30 am

Bravo5150 wrote:
Atleast some people like you can get police reports filed. With me, it is an issue where the cops share the same mentality as telling you it is a school problem, but they always blame me some how either for misunderstanding the law and claiming it is a civil matter or try to make it as though I was dumb enough to instigate a fight even though I was unarmed and alone against several people.


Whenever I went to see an authority figure, it was always framed as what *I* did wrong to attract the bullies and what *I* need to change to not be a target, never that the bullies were 100% in the wrong and they are the ones wo need to change. Imagine a woman going to the police or HR about sexual abuse and being shown how to dress more conservatively to not be attacked.

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Like I said, PTSD affects my ability to perform first aid proceedures. I am unable to provide help to anyone in need that resembles a bully.

One of the reasons I quit volunteering for a very well known organization was that you were required to provide help to anyone without judgement. To put it nicely, I couldn't live up to that ideal as I would refuse to help anyone who bullied me and made no attempt to make amends.



Bravo5150
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21 Aug 2019, 8:21 am

Quote:
Like I said, PTSD affects my ability to perform first aid proceedures. I am unable to provide help to anyone in need that resembles a bully.

Quote:
One of the reasons I quit volunteering for a very well known organization was that you were required to provide help to anyone without judgement. To put it nicely, I couldn't live up to that ideal as I would refuse to help anyone who bullied me and made no attempt to make amends.


I don't know what organization you are referring to or when it was that you quit volunteering for them, but to me it sounds like they really lack touch with reality. With all of the recent legislation going on, I don't think they could even have an argument for making someone with very devout religious beliefs help a homosexual, let alone having an argument to make you help someone who has tried to cause you harm.



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21 Aug 2019, 10:21 am

I become more and more aware that people constantly project unto me.
And it doesn't leave me untouched.
Feels like I search my entire life for the people that don't project their stuff.
But how can I expect this from people who don't love themselves and find it normal to take whatever they need to fill an unconscious lack?

I recently saw the movie "Breaking the waves" again. And in the end the only "diagnosis" by the doctor is that she is simply "good".

I feel that it is hard to "live goodness" being surrounded by mistrust in inherent goodness.

So I wouldn't call bullying human behaviour. Just behaviour of some people.
Writing this I think of all my inner dynamics that feel everything else than "good" but I feel that I just tried to defend who I really am.



IsabellaLinton
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21 Aug 2019, 10:32 am

The Cat

I can say with sincerity that I like cats; also I can give very good reasons why those who despise them are wrong. A cat is an animal who has more human feelings than almost any other being. We cannot sustain a comparison with the dog, it is infinitely too good; but the cat, although it differs in some physical points, is extremely like us in disposition.

There may be people, in truth, who would say that this resemblance extends only to the most wicked men, that it is limited to their excessive hypocrisy, cruelty, and ingratitude, detestable vices in our race and equally odious in that of cats. Without disputing the limits that those individuals set on our affinity, I answer that if hypocrisy, cruelty, and ingratitude are exclusively the domain of the wicked, that class comprises everyone. Our education develops one of those qualities in great perfection; the others flourish without nurture, and far from condemning them, we regard all three with great complacency.

A cat, in its own interest, sometimes hides its misanthropy under the guise of amiable gentleness; instead of tearing what it desires from its master's hand, it approaches with a caressing air, rubs its pretty little head against him, and advances a paw whose touch is soft as down. When it has gained its end, it resumes its character of Timon, and that artfulness in it is called hypocrisy. In ourselves, we give it another name, politeness, and he who did not use it to hide his real feelings would soon be driven from society.

"But," says some delicate lady, who has murdered a half-dozen lapdogs through pure affection, "The cat is such a cruel beast, he is not content to kill his prey, he torments it before its death; you cannot make that accusation against us." More or less, Madame. Your husband, for example, likes hunting very much, but foxes being rare on his land, he would not have the means to pursue this amusement often, it he did not manage his supplies thus: once he has run an animal to its last breath, he snatches it from the jaws of the hounds and saves it to suffer the same infliction two or three more times, ending finally in death. You yourself avoid the bloody spectacle because it wounds your weak nerves. I have seen you embrace your child in transport, when he came to show you a beautiful butterfly crushed between his cruel fingers, and at that moment I really wanted to have a cat, with the tail of a half-devoured rat hanging from its mouth, to present as the image, the true copy, of your angel. You could not refuse to kiss him, as he scratches us both in revenge, so much the better. Little boys are rather liable to acknowledge their friends' caresses in that way, and the resemblance would be more perfect. They know how to value our favours at their true price, because they guess the motives that prompt us to grant them, and if those motives might sometimes be good, undoubtedly they remember always that they owe all their misery and all their evil qualities to the great ancestor of humankind. For assuredly, the cat was not wicked in Paradise.

May 15th, 1842

Emily Brontë, written in french as Le Chat, on human nature


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22 Aug 2019, 10:37 pm

People are often weird. I don't think it's intentional.