My Little Pony and a young Flammer

[runningdownthatdream]

Children are not rabid dogs, not even children who bully. They often have difficulty learning to socialize with their peers, and sometimes need adult help. This is especially so for bullies.

I do agree that bullying has a purpose. It is used by the practitioner to gain peer approval. But it is a purpose that serves only the practitioner while victimizing his target and degrading those who laugh and lend their approval.

I think the bully often is simply reinforcing the society's mores/morals. Obviously when you're on the wrong side of a beatdown (physical or emotional) you don't bother to notice these things. Believe me, when I was bullied for a) having better grades than my peers and b) for being an immigrant and c) for being non-white I soon came to realize that the people doing the bullying weren't acting out on their own. They were simply acting out their parents, teachers, and the other racist garbage that used to rule Toronto. So that grade 4 kid bullying the other kid is just acting out what's he/she has learned either at home or in the broader society around.

[bluesoul]

You disagree that humans are hardwired to raise their children? You dispute that children are hardwired to learn from their social setting? The definition of a feral animal is one that is domesticated but born in the wild or has been returned to the wild. Humans are not generally born feral. Look it up.

wrong. the problem is that you're introducing too many variables into your argument. most animals, feral or domesticated, are hardwired to raise their children. for example do lionesses abandon their young immediately after birth? do monkeys? aren't their offspring hardwired to learn from their social settings? eg. lion cubs imitating their mothers during a hunt?

I agree, "disciplining" bullies won't help. But that's no reason to side with the bully against their prey. Bullies act to gain the approval of their peers at the expense of another.

i wasn’t siding with them. i was acknowledging their response as i see it as a natural and primitive one.

also when you say bullies act to gain approval of their peers, it sounds like you're saying they don't have friends and do it to make friends. i've found most people who bully, do so when they're already in groups, and thus, with peers.
but i do agree it can be done to gain approval as well.

I don't think that word means what you think it means. Nothing is born "feral," nor is anything born "domesticated."

i disagree with you too

Fuck you, asshole.

in a thread about bullying, don't you think you really could've not resorted to insulting someone just because you disagree with them?

[Jamie French]

The only thing the mother failed to do was put a gun in the kid's back pack. Hate ponies? Bullet to the head. Who needs ya?

[trish]

wrong. the problem is that you're introducing too many variables into your argument. most animals, feral or domesticated, are hardwired to raise their children. for example do lionesses abandon their young immediately after birth? do monkeys? aren't their offspring hardwired to learn from their social settings? eg. lion cubs imitating their mothers during a hunt?

Yes. And do lion cubs bully other lion cubs and call them names? Of course not. Bullying is neither natural nor primitive. It is a learned social behavior. And that behavior can be modified.

i wasn’t siding with them. i was acknowledging their response as i see it as a natural and primitive one.

See above.

also when you say bullies act to gain approval of their peers, it sounds like you're saying they don't have friends and do it to make friends. i've found most people who bully, do so when they're already in groups, and thus, with peers.
but i do agree it can be done to gain approval as well.

Never said bullies don't have friends; only that they are desperate to win and keep the approval of their friends. They harass others because to divert attention from what they are afraid others will perceive as their own inadequacies. This is not a natural or primitive state. It is certainly not a feral state as the term is understood by lexicographers. It is an abnormal state full of anxiety and self-doubt that is redirected toward their targets. The focus of the institution (in this case the school) should be on helping the bully (not punishing the victim) because the bully is the one in need.

[trish]

The only thing the mother failed to do was put a gun in the kid's back pack. Hate ponies? Bullet to the head. Who needs ya?

Pretty close to my initial reaction. Great picture btw. I like the pink pony.

[mildcigar_2001]

Pretty close to my initial reaction. Great picture btw. I like the pink pony.

So the "George Zimmerman" approach is okay as long as you are a sissy and people are making fun of you. Interesting.

[trish]

Read my very first post in this thread. I gave my initial reaction, and then my serious reaction. Please don't conflate the two.

[thombergeron]

So the "George Zimmerman" approach is okay as long as you are a sissy and people are making fun of you. Interesting.

So, in the course of the last 24 hours or so, you, presumably an adult, have referred to a nine-year-old child as a "flammer" [sic], "clueless," "flamboyant," and "stupid." (The last is deliciously ironic, since most 4th graders know how to spell.)

Not content to leave it at that, you chime in yet again to call this child a "sissy."

And what did this child do to deserve such derision from a grown-ass man? He likes a particular toy that this grown-ass man thinks is silly.

in a thread about bullying, don't you think you really could've not resorted to insulting someone just because you disagree with them?

It appears that you have an incomplete understanding of bullying, as well. I don't "just" disagree with this person. mildcigar_2001 is encouraging the ongoing victimization of children. In a civilized society, that is unacceptable. I will make no apologies at all for condemning unacceptable, antisocial behavior from grown-us who should know better.

It's just rich when bigots and bullies are called out for their disgusting behavior, and then they play the victim card themselves. I guess you buy the bogus argument that banning discrimination violates the "religious freedom" of bigots.

[Jamie French]

Hey bucko, in America you can go around carrying whatever friggin' toy your friendly neighborhood Walmart sells ya without the expectation of gettin' hassled over it. You hassle, you pay. Toys don't come with bully safety warnings because picking on someone over a worthless piece of plastic that just happens to be molded into a shape that queers your boner is an offense worthy of jail time. It's the American way. Pick on a kid, maybe you get to eat a bullet that day. Play the odds and find out if you get to star in tomorrow's headlines.

So the "George Zimmerman" approach is okay as long as you are a sissy and people are making fun of you. Interesting.

[Odelay]

When you think about it, this argument is very similar to the one where women who dress seductively are just begging to be raped. Those women should have known better, and what the hell were their parents thinking?