There’s been a big push lately for “anti-bully” measures, whatever that means. As best as I can tell, that translates to efforts by schools and other groups to ostracize and punish anyone that says anything that might hurt anyone else’s soft, fragile, tender feelings. And what that really translates to is efforts by schools to destroy anyone who does or says anything that the administrators don’t like.
In case you can’t tell, I’m not a big fan. And there’s a few reasons why.
When I was young, bullying meant something very specific. It meant that someone was using physical violence or the threat thereof to harass you. It meant getting tripped, pushed, punched, kicked, and otherwise assaulted. It meant having your things taken or destroyed.
You see, back then there was a distinct line between verbal and physical abuse. And I think the conflation of the two is in error. Reason being that verbal abuse can be dealt with in many ways, and can be very subjective. There is no standard to judge it by other than the feelings of any onlooker (because it’s not just the target of the insults that has claim to victimization here). So if you say something to someone else, and I overhear it and decide that if I squint just right, it may be offensive to someone else, then you are a bully and a victimizer, and deserve to be severely punished. And frankly that gives people way too much power of what other people can say. Continue reading
Blacklight Metaphysics 