I was a bully in high school

I was a bully throughout high school; I'm quite the different now and don't pass judgments on people. I came full circle from having no respect for, and often harassing, people of lower social status than me, to having love and acceptance for all people, even if they are different from me (for the most part, bigots and elitists still get on my nerve, probably because I recognize that I used to behave the same way in the past and feel pity and disgust for them).

Change is a part of life; if you're not changing, you're dead.

I think that a majority of people try drugs throughout their high school and college years, and I can respect Obama for actually admitting to doing drugs, unlike these "holier than thou" liars who pretend to hate drugs while blowing copious amounts of snow in secrecy.

Look, nobody is perfect. I doubt a 14-24 year old has any idea he or she is going to become the president of the United States in a few decades, so cut the candidates some slack. The past is the past, people change, and those who don't are fools. If you hold onto the same beliefs and engage in the same activities that you did 10-20 years ago, you really have not grown whatsoever, which is very sad.

This is almost as dumb as blaming Rick Perry for going to that park with his family as a child.

I want a leader whom I can trust. If I have no trust in a leader, how can I possibly expect him or her to make good decisions? The fact that Obama admits his flaws is great, it humanizes him, unlike Romney who says whatever pleases his audience. As long as he isn't slinging rock or beating women now, what's the problem? The same goes for Paul, in regard to the validity of his racist newsletters, and Romney, in regard to him strapping a dog on top of his car.

If Paul isn't behaving in a racist manner now, who cares about what he did, or rather is accused of doing, in the past?
If Romney isn't still tying his dog up to the roof of his car and driving cross-country, why make him into an animal abusing monster?
If Perry isn't still going to N*****head Rock, why make claims that he's a racist based on this information alone?

Jesus Christ why can't we actually debate the candidate's policies instead of their personal lives and their pasts? This isn't a damn reality TV show, the future of our country is at stake, and people want to whine about Obama's past drug habits or Romney's douche-like behavior in High School! Let's talk about REAL issues instead of nitpicking at the candidates personal flaws (GOD FORBID SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT HAVE A SPOTLESS, PERFECT LIFE RUN FOR OFFICE!); these events occurred something like 30 years ago! THIRTY YEARS IS A LONG TIME. How much have you changed in the last three decades of your life?

Politicians are still people, they still eat, sleep, and defecate. Stop expecting them to be flawless in every aspect of their lives and start looking at what they want to actually do for our country.

On a side note, I don't support Obama or Romney, but respect and support are two different things. I can't respect a sniveling pathological liar like Romney. I can, however, respect Obama for admitting to his faults and working to move past them. I will not be voting for either of the two come November.

I agree with you.

Journalism is at an all-time low.

The tacticsthat MSM use are dispicable.

And who would want to become a politician when the media is going to drudge things up from when you were 16 to smear you?

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


Your avatar exclaims destroy four times, and your nick is DestroyDestroyDestroy...
And you will ask for compassion?
In general people do NOT change, sure on occasion somebody beats the odds but not generally.
Drudging up politicians past is a good thing.
Why you say?
Because if you do not know your past, you cannot find your future.
I do not expect my politicians to be perfect, I do however like them to be caring and to not break the laws they put upon every one of their charges.
I will remember the wrongdoings of people and hold them forever accountable, the time to forgive and forget came and left as people realize that is what is wanted of them.
Forget the atrocities and forgive, just so we can do them again at a later date.

reply to post by g146541


You seriously think people don't change? High school aged humans do not even have fully developed brains.

The prefrontal cortex, the part of the frontal lobes lying just behind the forehead, is often referred to as the “CEO of the brain.” This brain region is responsible for cognitive analysis and abstract thought, and the moderation of “correct” behavior in social situations. The prefrontal cortex takes in information from all of the senses and orchestrates thoughts and actions to achieve specific goals.1,2

The prefrontal cortex is one of the last regions of the brain to reach maturation. This delay may help to explain why some adolescents act the way they do.

www.hhs.gov...

reply to post by RealSpoke


Considering I went to a few class reunions and folks have not changed much, nope.
People stay the same, some just learn to hide it better than others.
The only real change I see is when folks become aware or awake and realize that what they have been fed all of their lives is in fact a lie, then change will occur, otherwise nope!

If we are going to have leaders, I would rather have one who has had a bit of life experience and not lived a sheltered life. I want someone who has made mistakes and learnt from them and someone not afraid to admit to experimentation as a youngster. Everyone I know, has done something at one point in their life, that would probably end any political ambitions

If we are going to have leaders, I would rather have one who has had a bit of life experience and not lived a sheltered life. I want someone who has made mistakes and learnt from them and someone not afraid to admit to experimentation as a youngster. Everyone I know, has done something at one point in their life, that would probably end any political ambitions

reply to post by g146541

The only real change I see is when folks become aware or awake and realize that what they have been fed all of their lives is in fact a lie, then change will occur, otherwise nope!

You just contradicted yourself, so you believe people can change.

Anyways, generally personality types do not change but peoples beliefs do. An outgoing person will usually always stay an outgoing person and vice versa. But if the person has a change in belief that can affect how they treat people, what they believe, their morals, how they see the world and how they act towards others.

reply to post by RealSpoke


I don't see a contradiction, I see a for instance or an exception.
Remember I did not say change is impossible, I say it is very unlikely.
But I am cool with you having an opinion.

young people are rather dumb, just because people bully, it doesn't really mean much, I was bullied in highschool, even tho every1 but was not bullied. It's part of life, people shouldn't hold grudges.

I tend to feel sorry for "bullies" because the motivation behind bullying comes from a deeply insecure, angry child or adult, who feels outside the regular flow of society.

I wondered about this when I read the Romney material. It may be being overplayed, or perhaps his home life was cold, or problematic in other ways. Of course now that he is in the public eye, it may be that people are remembering when he hurt their feelings in some way, and are making more of it, than it is.

Bullying does come from a place of insecurity, but it's also somewhat natural; children, and adults, assert their dominance over others as a way to test and establish who has more power and who has a more grounded sense of identity/reality.

Change is only unlikely if someone doesn't take it upon him or herself to undergo change. Of course people who do nothing with their lives are not going to change much, if at all, and this is pathetic when you think about it.

I'm not proud of having harassed people in high school, but I don't regret it either because I have learned from it, for the better.

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


I would rather vote for the person they bullied then the BULLY...And let’s be clear on a few things!

The BULLY never learns true strife and how to overcome adversity unlike the person they bully!

The BULLY typically has taken what they do not earn (OH WOW that is appropriate in this thread about a nominee…)

The BULLY does not care about anyone other than the Bully, has no compassion, remorse or a conscience.

The BULLY strives to be on and stay on TOP! No matter who gets in way or who gets hurt...

And the only time the Bully will change is when the Bully becomes the bullied…

People do change once you get Bullied yourself, to the OP you probably learned to back off? Perhaps had some hard times and learned the value of not hurting others? But, if you stayed at the top, and nothing ever made you see different you would continue to stay the same...Think about that!

Now lets’ be clear on one last thing we are talking about PREP school A PRESTIGIOUS ALL BOYS RICH BOYS CLUB SCHOOL that the 99% of us would never attend!…and he was a vicious jerk then who did whatever he wanted…

FRANKLY NOTHING HAS CHANGED…for poor Ole WILLARD THE RAT ROMNEY is only being seen for what he is, and his past is catching up because he has not changed! The worst candidate the GOP could elect WILL BULLY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TOO!

Wake up...

reply to post by g146541


My nick is DestroyDestroyDestroy because destruction is the only thing that man seems to know. I'm not asking for compassion, lol, I'm saying that I have fundamentally changed as a person over the years. I believe that we're all cut from the same cloth, and what one man can do, another can do, provided there aren't any physical or social disadvantages preventing him from doing so.

I agree that the past holds some value, but only so that we can look at it and compare a persons past to his present. It's saying a lot if a person had a tragic or hard past and overcame it, it's also saying something if a person has had everything handed to him/her since birth and hasn't learned how to be self-reliant or really work for something.

We all make mistakes, some of us learn from them.

reply to post by abeverage


No, in my case I changed schools during high school and didn't have the social pressure of my friends expecting me to be a jackass. I began taking courses in ethics and philosophy in college, which had a deep impact on me. I also went from being somewhere between an atheist and an agnostic to being a gnostic/pagan/practicing shamanism.

You can judge and stereotype if you want, but I'm living proof that just because someone was a bully in the past does not mean that he or she is in the present.

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


Oops.

Originally posted by DestroyDestroyDestroy
reply to post by abeverage

 

No, in my case I changed schools during high school and didn't have the social pressure of my friends expecting me to be a jackass. I began taking courses in ethics and philosophy in college, which had a deep impact on me. I also went from being somewhere between an atheist and an agnostic to being a gnostic/pagan/practicing shamanism.

You can judge and stereotype if you want, but I'm living proof that just because someone was a bully in the past does not mean that he or she is in the present.

Listen, I will not argue that people can and do change! I am saying that this clown has not and will not make a good leader of this country! He is a rich boy with rich boy ethics and is so out of touch with the common man and our needs. So sorry you were a bully and then learned better but I think Ole Willard the Rat has not learned this yet...

reply to post by bOneSeven


Depends on how you were bullied. Some get real nasty, and its hard for people to get over it.

Some people change, some don't.

I have had misfits become extraordinary people, others are still exactly the same, some even worse.

So its a person by person basis.

I don't personally know Romney, so I can't say.

What people are having an issue with is that he claims to not remember doing it. You want to tell me that you and your cronies, held a distressed person down, assualted them, cut their hair, and you don't remember it?

I don't know what is worse, that you are lying to not have to man up to it and own it, or that you had attacks on people that apparently are so commonly place, or your so emotionally displaced, that you don't remember it.

I'm glad that you have made some progress of change in your life Destroy. I would not be proud if I was a bully, and I would very much regret it. You should regret it too, because if you had a very high paying job and met up with your boss that you had bullied 15 years ago. Comes to say that karma will come back with a vengence. Bullying isn't a lesson, it's the consequences from bullying over time. But I am glad that you are stepping away from your bad peers. That made you the way that you were.

Growing up there's a lot of release of hormones and we feel like a totally different being.