Some thoughts from Lileks:
Oh grow up. Please. Any form of disputation is now “Bullying,” as if the act of being less than supportive is a passive version of pushing someone down in the mud in the playground. The spread of the term beyond school infantilizes everyone and dilutes the term. Criticism is bullying; failure to agree with someone else’s precepts is “hate.” The internet did not invent this; it just allowed people with mushy noggins to retreat into supportive spaces where everyone outside the wall was a meany.
And there are a lot of mushy noggins out there.
Yeah, this quiche-eating escalation of bullying has made its way up to the Miami Dolphins. Richie Martin should have defended the honor of his sister by taking on his taunting team mates individually and introducing their faces to the surface of the locker room floor when coach wasn’t looking. I mean what kind of NFL player apart from, say, a place kicker, wouldn’t fight for his honor if he were disrespected.
Martin offers the vague excuse that “fighting back” “would not be appropriate” or some such weak tea.
Maybe, just maybe, what Mr. Martin is trying to say is that just as we outlawed dueling with deadly weapons to resolve such disputes, the law would look with a dim eye towards an able bodies adult resolvng such a dispute with his fists or his brawn, even if he and the other parties were all professional athletes in contact sport.
Maybe, just maybe, with all of our “zero tolerance policies” and “standards for conduct in the workplace”, Mr. Martin fighting back might bring felony criminal charges.
Good for him that Mr. Martin is standing up for his rights and not stooping to the level of this tormentors by fighting back the traditional way.
I have learned to simply savor the irony when statists complain about “bullying.”
This bullying line is yet another in a long series of attempts to shut up any opposition. When simple disagreement with someone is bullying, then nothing is. The irony is that this whole thing is using bully tactics to stifle opposition to the collective.
Let me give you an honest example of Internet bullying:
Hey, does anyone know how to get [Program] to do [Task], cause I tried the recommended ways and looked on [Techsite] but I can’t seem to figure out how to do it. Any help would be appreciated.
Have ya tried reading the manual? Lol, newb.
Maybe you’re just too stupid to use computers.
I do that every day, I don’t know what your problem is, but it’s probably your fault.
A good forum will delete such replies. They only encourage more unhelpful behavior.