The Bully Culture

As I read about Goposaur Shelby's blanket hold on Obama's nominations (read more), I was reminded of this creepy kid I went to school with when I was about ten or eleven years old.

He was a big, hulking, sullen mass of walking resentment. We all knew he had a shitty home life, but back then, considering the school and the neighborhood we were in, who didn't? He always harassed the youngest and the weakest, terrorized the shyest student, and mocked the most helpless. He lied, cheated and stole to get what he wanted. He got angry if he didn't get his way, and he implied what he believed was the only truth and those who believed differently were idiots, living on another planet, or commies.

Acording to Bully Online, he was a classic bully who fit the following characteristics:

* has never learned to accept responsibility for their behavior

* wants to enjoy the benefits of living in the adult world, but who is unable and unwilling to accept the responsibilities that are a prerequisite for being part of the adult world.

* abdicates and denies responsibility for their behavior and its consequences (abdication and denial are common features of bullying)

* is unable and unwilling to recognize the effect of their behavior on others

* does not want to know of any other way of behaving

* is unwilling to recognize that there could be better ways of behaving."

The shameful bullying engaged in by Shelby and his Republican Party is symptomatic of the cultural illness that has taken hold of this country. We have become a nation of bullies where one person can hold the rest hostage until he or she gets their way. This is not just the seedy realm of GOP political operatives and their ethically challenged enablers, but has infected just about every aspect of our society.

But not all bullying is obvious. The kissing cousin of the Political and Schoolyard Bully is Little Miss Entitlement, who is otherwise known as "I have an opinion and will make your life hell until it becomes your opinion as well." She (or he) has perfected the meme that in other times what was considered rude, nosy, none of your business, or excessive interference in someone's personal life--is now the holy grail of good for you as wielded by Joan of Political Correctness.

Here is a perfect example: A school in Kirkland, Washington has censored parts of Snow White because, as they ironically claim, it encourages bullying and other not so nice behavior. (read more) It's freaking Snow White, not little Miss Sunshine! But in their perfect vanilla world, I'll bet the evil stepmother is merely having a bad day and we should all be more understanding of her shortcomings, because in their world no one ever has to take any responsibility for their own actions. It's ALWAYS someone else's fault.

These people would never in their addled little imaginations ever see their own actions as bullying. They would never understand that by censoring something instead of explaining it, they are raising their children in a world that does not exist. They are sheltering them from truths that will whack them smack upside their poor deprived little heads the minute they have to live in the real world. They will never understand this because the idea they might be wrong, that their ideas might be wrong, that their actions might be wrong, would never occur to them. They are always right, which is what bullies also believe.

And they share this obsession with forcing others to live in a world they made for them, with the ultimate bully cult: religion. What do you want to bet those who made that decision for EVERYONE'S children, also share characteristics with the really whacked out religious loonies who engage in things like shunning, ostracizing, and denigrating anyone who might believe differently? How closely do they fit this description from the Wikipedia page on bullying?

"...social aggression or indirect bullying is characterized by threatening the victim into social isolation. This isolation is achieved through a wide variety of techniques, including spreading gossip, refusing to socialize with the victim, bullying other people who wish to socialize with the victim, and criticizing the victim's manner of dress and other socially-significant markers (including the victim's race, religion, disability, etc)." read more

I think being called stupid by a character invented in the 30's pales in comparison to their method of handling it. I suspect they're just looking for an excuse to control, convert, and manipulate information that already suits what they believe, just like any politician with an agenda, any crazy christian looking to inflict their version of imaginary playmates on everyone else, and any bully looking to intimidate the weaker kids into giving up their lunch money.

But the biggest damage done by bullies is the festering wound religion has opened up in this country. It has become a political tool used to manipulate voters into supporting the agenda of corporate sleaze balls. It has become the ultimate bully that treads on the individual rights of citizens, inflicts its agenda on politics, schools, the media, and people's personal lives.

What especially defines it as a bully is that no matter how much power or influence it has, it always wants more. For a bully nothing is ever enough. There is always more lunch money to steal, more humanity to destroy. A bully will not engage you in discourse but will shout you down, beat you up, and then proclaim him or herself the victim.

I believe this disgusting takeover of our country has come about because of the enablers who are like that Kirkland school. No one wants to stand up to a bully, and they count on that. They shout. They whine. They intimidate. They threaten to sue. They hold meetings where they reinforce each others biases.

Isn't it time to make these people grow up? How about if the next time some whiny ass Christian comes up and claims persecution, instead of walking politely away or being reluctant to attack their "personal belief," why not stand up for your rights to have some beliefs of your own? Why not say fuck you and your bullshit? They sure aren't shy about making what you believe seem evil or wrong or not worthy of the air it takes up to express it. Grow a pair and tell them to go back under their rock where everyone thinks the same as they do, and you will believe what you want, thank you very much.

The next time some corporate whore of a politician decides to throw a temper tantrum to continually fatten his own bank account stuffed from corporate "donations," why not get on the phone to him or her and remind them who they're really working for, and if they don't get it, vote their asses out?

And the next time some Little Miss Entitlement whines to you that rules and standards set by them are for your own good, remind them you also have rules and standards and it's time they really practiced some equality and lived by yours for a change. If not, then replace them. They are not the boss of you, even though they think they are. They're just schoolyard bullies who grew up and got someone to pay them to continue to be schoolyard bullies.

It's time to buy a broom and clean up some messes you helped cause by being too nice, oblivious, or indifferent. If you want to live in a Democracy, you're going to have to build it from the ground up again. It's what happens when you let the crazies take over. You have to clean up the really shitty messes they leave behind. Maybe next time, you'll pay better attention and speak up sooner and louder and you won't have to get on your knees to scrub the shit out of the floorboards.

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The Bully Culture

So Many Stupid People, So Few Asteroids

I read a lot of blogs. I read the comments section of blogs. When I'm not working, I read. And as in real life, the quality and subject matter varies according to the authors. But it's in the comments left behind where the real consistency is often found, where the types wrap themselves up in their predictability and let everyone know who and what they are almost immediately. Here are the types I see most often:

1. SPAM In the top position are spammers, the cut and pasters who want to give me a huge penis and also gigantic breasts. Yeah, those work really well together. And I don't have to worry about paying for them because everyone wants to lend me money so I can also afford to buy all the drugs I'm offered on a daily basis.

2. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY TALKING POINT is the winner of the second position. These are the equivalent of the seedy looking guy handing out leaflets on the street corner. Once upon a time when the Goposaurs had endless money to buy propaganda, they paid shills to go post the daily talking point on the opposition's blogs. Now that they spent all their money on tea bags, they have to rely on the "one issue crazies" to spread the word for free. That's why you'll find badly spelled and grammatically creative diatribes about birth certificates and other whacked out conspiracy fantasies smack in the middle of a discussion of northerly bird migrations. Nothing stands in the way of them posting their talking point, no matter how bad the fit.

They do have their counterparts in the Liberal version who post passionate and tediously long polemics on what they perceive should be obvious to everyone who has at least a graduate level degree in political science, and the fact that most people don't is usually proof that the world really is going to hell...and they'll be glad to postulate why in postings that exceed the length limit and have to be carried over to the next post, and sometimes the next.

3. THE FETUS MILITIA In third position are the absolute crazies who turn every discussion into the holy fetus war. And they always make a point of mentioning how they're guaranteed the right to bear the arms they're going to practice the sanctity of human life with by killing abortion doctors. Often you don't even have to read their posts because they're instantly recognizable by their incomprehensible sentence structure and words that were never in their miserable little lives, meant to be spelled so atrociously.

4. GOD'S IDIOT CHILDREN In position number four are the real whacked out loonies who go on about how we're such a great nation because we have freedom of religion and goddamnit they will fucking kill your ass if you don't happen to share the freedom of their own particular religion and prefer one of your own, or none at all. They've taught me that the most fervent the believer, the greater variations of fuck they will use in their posts, as in fuck you you fucking fuck go fucking rot in fucking hell.

5. HELP MY CAPS KEY IS STUCK In position number five is angry white male who can't figure out how to unstick the caps key. Usually has an assholes on line email addy and is fond of phrases such as Nobama and Obamacare with various references to nazis, stalin, commies, socialists, birth certificates and patriotism. No matter what the discussion, he will leave an angry, hate-filled, conspiracy-theory fueled, badly spelled attack against Obama all typed with HIS CAP KEY STUCK.

These are just a few of the regulars who frequent some of the blogs I read. I chose them because they're so common and so predictable that you can almost see the next word before it's typed. The phrases are so similar, the sentence structure so wonderfully creative, the ideas so deliciously insane that in some strange way, they make my day as it lets me know once more that when whoever the great "they" is with the nets, there's a whole shit load of crazies in line for capture before me so I can slip easily away unnoticed for a long long time.

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So Many Stupid People, So Few Asteroids