"Anti-Bullying" Campaigns Are Useless

Idiots, the lot of them: "Together, we can stop bullying!" Are their powers of reasoning so stunted, so inconceivably diminutive, that they think they can actually stop it? I hate to break it to you, but bullying will NOT stop. It is the #1 trait of humanity - to crave conformity and ostracise difference. And this trait hasn't just amounted to bullying in the playground, either. Take a look at history; the slave trade, the Crusades, the Holocaust. Why were our fellow humans treated so barbarically? Because they were different. And we don't like different. This vice has been the cause of some of the most horrific events in the history of mankind. It's ingrained in us - even when it's on a smaller scale, like bullying... there is nothing we can do about it.

a reply to: Tenebris

Yes, like all of the 'awareness' campaigns, the ultimate result of promoting a topic, irrespective of conclusion, is deleterious.

Study: Anti-Bullying Programs May Have Opposite Effect

Often, those programs promote conformity, so if you don't conform in any way, you are bullied into it ironically enough.

a reply to: greencmp

To be honest, it wouldn't bug me if they just said they aim to raise awareness. Claiming to be able to put a stop to it, however, does nothing to increase credibility. Plus, it's a waste of time and resources.

a reply to: Tenebris

That too but, the real kicker is that these social engineering programs tend to encourage the very behavior they claim to dissuade.

At some point, one must ask, is this intentional or just incompetent?

a reply to: Tenebris

I can see how it might be so.

Bullying is endemic in human nature. I dare say our evolution is influenced by this behaviour in terms of fittest of the fittest and all that. It is like a barbaric atavism though. In the modern age it is self defeating actually in the finish. Using cunning can defeat the power of the fist. A little imagination and planning can defeat the brutality of threat.

Perhaps the best method is to face bullying out. I think the method Jesus had works quite well metaphorically speaking; to turn the other cheek. It is not a cowardly action. That demands both discipline and bravery mixed with a little audacity and yet is not stooping to the depths of the perpetrator.

a reply to: Tenebris

Or people could just raise their children the way it was back in my day, my father always told me don't start the fight but if somebody else does by damn end it. I may be a bit off in my view of the world but the only people i see who get bullied are the soft ones anyway.

Agreed. It's a human condition that unfortunately exists.

I do however remember reading about an older civilization that actually punished, banished and sometimes killed their own if that person happened to be overly negative towards others, as it had no productive value to the tribe and they saw these people as very destructive to the tribes overall being.

Searched around and couldn't find anything on that matter, but will post here if I do as I found it very interesting. Also, if anyone knows what I'm talking about and can provide the info, please do!

a reply to: Tenebris

I think it ought to be pointed out that many of your mass-shooting suspects were very likely bullied. Nevermind that its "not nice" to rag on your fellow students for laughs, kids. These days, you might just get yourself shot.

Bullying happens because kids are dicks and, up until recently, there was nothing anyone could do if they chose to bully...but now there is.

a reply to: Urantia1111

We're questioning how well it works.

These days the bullies just swap tactics. Now they can bully people by accusing them of bullying.

I teach an anti bullying campaign 3 nights a week.. It's a wrestling and judo class for kids and teens.

a reply to: greencmp

I'd say incompetence rather than deliberate intent. The former is a product of stupidity, whereas the latter requires a certain degree of intelligence. And the difference between stupidity and intelligence is that intelligence has limits

a reply to: luthier

Ah, the martial arts a most respectable discipline.

All schools should have a zero tolerance policy for bullying. If a kid wants to act like an animal, expel his butt!

a reply to: Night Star

As much as I'd like to agree, it must be said that expulsion would only make matters worse. Lack of education is what created these brutes in the first place.

The best way to stop a bully is to break their nose. It worked for me! And I still can't breathe out of one nostril.

No, we can't do anything about bullying. We can't do anything about mass murders. We can't do anything about racism, or poverty, or mental illness, or the world on fire.

So hell, let's just give up trying to do anything. Let's just go home and take a nap and watch television.

You all can be defeatist if you like but many of us will continue to try. We'll be the ones to set the future, while the rest of you whine and cry that nothing can be done.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
The best way to stop a bully is to break their nose. It worked for me! And I still can't breathe out of one nostril.

The best way to stop bullying has always been to remove the incentive of the bully. Bullies tend to be cowardly and lacking in self-esteem. Therefore, if you make yourself an undesirable target by fighting back the bullying will end.

I always taught my daughter this and when a fellow male student got fresh with her and squeezed her butt she broke his nose. I never did punish her and neither did the school.

a reply to: Tenebris

Anti bullying campaigns will only work when the main thrust of them is victim support, and involves freeing victims from the shackles of non-retaliatory responses to threat, which are forced on them by school boards and regulations. You see, kids who are not bullies, do not want trouble, do not cause it, and seek no attention from either staff, or students. Kids who are bullies know that they have the advantage. They do not care about the rules, because all they care about is status, and gaining a reputation which gives them power over others.

But any method of preventing bullying, which does not include changing the ridiculous idea that "it doesn't matter who started it" will fail. Giving victims carte Blanche to mangle their assailants faces if they get a chance to do so however, would be FAR more effective. Removing the protection bullies enjoy through their lack of care for the rules, would go an awfully long way to crushing the pathetic, weak minds and egos of the maladjusted little bastards making life hell for kids in school.

When I was a lad, I took an awful lot of abuse from others, simply because I did not want to get into trouble. I did not realise how much damage that YEARS of repressing my anger had done, until I finally flipped out, and terrified people in one massive outburst of savagery. No child should feel that they could get in more trouble for defending themselves, than an assailant or assailants will for starting a fight. It leads to crushed spirits, when one is not only un defended by authorities, but sanctioned for acting in the absence of any effective protection from that authority.

That must stop. At the moment, if I am attacked in the street, I have the right to defend myself. A child attacked in a classroom has no such right according to the rules of most educational environments. That is simply unacceptable.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Tenebris

Anti bullying campaigns will only work when the main thrust of them is victim support, and involves freeing victims from the shackles of non-retaliatory responses to threat, which are forced on them by school boards and regulations. You see, kids who are not bullies, do not want trouble, do not cause it, and seek no attention from either staff, or students. Kids who are bullies know that they have the advantage. They do not care about the rules, because all they care about is status, and gaining a reputation which gives them power over others.

But any method of preventing bullying, which does not include changing the ridiculous idea that "it doesn't matter who started it" will fail. Giving victims carte Blanche to mangle their assailants faces if they get a chance to do so however, would be FAR more effective. Removing the protection bullies enjoy through their lack of care for the rules, would go an awfully long way to crushing the pathetic, weak minds and egos of the maladjusted little bastards making life hell for kids in school.

When I was a lad, I took an awful lot of abuse from others, simply because I did not want to get into trouble. I did not realise how much damage that YEARS of repressing my anger had done, until I finally flipped out, and terrified people in one massive outburst of savagery. No child should feel that they could get in more trouble for defending themselves, than an assailant or assailants will for starting a fight. It leads to crushed spirits, when one is not only un defended by authorities, but sanctioned for acting in the absence of any effective protection from that authority.

That must stop. At the moment, if I am attacked in the street, I have the right to defend myself. A child attacked in a classroom has no such right according to the rules of most educational environments. That is simply unacceptable.

Well said. I always advocate for any kids I have taught. In the wrestling program a good deal of the kids are considered nerds. None of them get picked on they can simply out work people twice their size with the amount of conditioning wrestling takes. I have had some very awkward kids learn incredible self esteem from being physically useless to being competant in one season.

These programs are under assault. We lost 200 school wrestling programs last year across the US. They don't want kids winning and loosing and having physical conflicts even though they are controlled. I have had countless parents upset when their kids aren't doing as well as other kids. Everyone is a victim now.

Judo is little different it has a resurgence with mma and bjj. It's also highly effective with bullies. My first confrontation was as a freshman a senior hocky player was making fun of my hair and tried to push me down the stairs. I ended up riding him down the stairs after a hip throw. Nobody messed with me after. But I was also a nice kid to everybody. We actually became somewhat friends after (classic)

The karate kid was a great movie about bullies and how to handle them. Not a victim. Half these kids that grow up to be psychos never learned to deal with it and these new anti bullying programs are part of the problem.

The world sucks sometimes. It's better to learn to deal than to just be a victim.