There has been a lot of talk in the media lately about bullying, especially online bullying.
Everyone has an opinion and of course I have one, too.
My opinion is that kids have to be taught to be tough and not break down when someone calls them names or is cruel to them. I think that these discussions have to be at the dinner table and parents have to take an active role in helping children develop the confidence-not the "self-esteem" to deal with bullies. The other issue is that some children have mental health issues that are completely exacerbated by bullying. That's a whole other ball game.
Additionally, there are some activities that are criminal assaults, or criminal harassment-and those matters should be taken care of by the police-if only they would do their job.
I have been called plenty of fantastic names in my time and won't crumble.
I don't want to be legislated into a zombie like silence "for the children".
The whole anti-bullying movement is a whining, emasculated house of cards. When kids actually do ask for help, it often turns into a blame the victim situation. The bullied child is encouraged to move to another school because nobody has the guts to deal with the bully for fear of ruining the bully's self-esteem.
The anti-bullying movement (actually, it is bordering on a cult nowadays) is useless, and is just thinly veiled camouflage for belligerent activists to try to control other people's behaviour, and ram utopian fantasies about us all getting along, down our throats.
There have always been humans who behave badly and those who prey on children. That will never change.
There are no social contstrains on any kind of anti-social behaviour anymore. There are no public rebukes to anyone who behaves publicly in an inappropriate way. Personal modesty and public propriety are old-fashioned relics for most of the Western world. This is the world that the permissive left has created.
That genie can't be rammed back into the bottle. So instead of admitting a colossal mistake and having a return to more public decorum, or shaming bad behaviour, we are once again told that "if only" we listen to our betters, the world will be a happy place and bullying will be a thing of the past.
People are bullied all the time. The only time any governmental force should be involved is when criminal activity has taken place.
Being an asshole cannot be a criminal offense in a democracy.
