Althouse: "Schoolyard bullies may worry that their victims are free to be sniveling, cowardly worms with almost zero repercussions."

May 13, 2014

"Schoolyard bullies may worry that their victims are free to be sniveling, cowardly worms with almost zero repercussions."

"But, fortunately, they'll get their comeuppance when they grow up and die of heart disease or cancer."

29 comments:

harrogate said...: If it is true that "bullying is good for your health," it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. This study makes a certain amount of unfortunate intuitive sense.

As this becomes common knowledge we'll have yet another justification for holding down the weak kid and cutting his hair against his will. It'll benefit you down the road, in the examination room as well as the board room!; 5/13/14, 3:37 PM
traditionalguy said...: That makes sense. Bullies usually get away with releasing their anger by aggression on repressed victims. And releasing anger is the opposite of turning the anger on ones own self, also called depression. A bullies only problem seems to be meeting a tougher bully.

Which reminds me of a very good Movie on that subject called A History of Violence.

And the Obama gang has diligently turned the USA into the repressed victim in International conflicts instead of the good old healthy Bully of the World. Putin appreciates that Reset Button.; 5/13/14, 3:47 PM
Expat(ish) said...: I told my kids that if they got kicked out of school for punching a bully I'd take them to Disney.

I also said that exercising judgement and hitting back first was fine.

So far no bullied kids, no repressed anger, and no trips to Disney - despite public schools in Oz and the deep south.

-XC

PS - Both boys and the girl, ta very much.; 5/13/14, 4:13 PM
Paco Wové said...: Furthering the Putin detour: Russia is to deny the US future use of the International Space Station beyond 2020.

Heckuva job there on the foreign policy front. Who wants to take credit for this dazzling achievement, Hillary! or Kerry?; 5/13/14, 4:21 PM
Wince said...: "In our our world, you were either a bully, a toadie or one of a nameless rabble of victims."; 5/13/14, 4:27 PM
Larry J said...: As in so many things, when it comes to bullying, it's better to give than to receive, at least until the victim gets mad and shoots the bully, then that's very bad.

And I agree with traditionalguy, "A History of Violence" was an interesting movie.; 5/13/14, 4:29 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Always fight back. Even if you'll probably lose. A bully wants an easy target, and a fighting target isn't easy.; 5/13/14, 4:54 PM
grackle said...: Here's something from Instapundit that may some bearing on the subject.

http://www.tylervigen.com; 5/13/14, 5:55 PM
Robert Cook said...: "Ha ha ha ha! Little Billy didn't mind!"; 5/13/14, 6:03 PM
James Pawlak said...: What is wrong with shooting bullies? It worked at Lexington in 1775!; 5/13/14, 6:15 PM
William said...: The study is depressing enough to be true. But it doesn't quite jibe with my experience. As I remember it, those kids who used their strength or cunning in a benign way, were the ones rewarded with friendship and trust. There were bullies who got away with it and prospered, but they were distrusted and frequently betrayed. It didn't pay to be too much of a dick......Also, the study ignores hubris. Hubris is te leading cause of death in young adults, and, almost by definition, is more prevalent among the high status kids than among the victims and onlookers.; 5/13/14, 6:22 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: "My Bodyguard" is a heartwarming (if somewhat unrealistic) movie about bullying.

Russia is to deny the US future use of the International Space Station beyond 2020.

Thank God we'll still benefit from all the important scientific discoveries made on the ISS until then.

Oh, wait...there haven't been, and won't be, any.; 5/13/14, 6:35 PM
sinz52 said...: I'm surprised it took this long to discover this.

In the animal kingdom, what we call "bullying" is aggressive play to establish dominance. And being the dominant (alpha) male has obvious advantages: First pick of the available food, the available mates, etc.

Maybe the influence of modern feminism has eroded the lesson that aggression is evolutionarily advantageous.

I have seen other studies that show that most schoolyard bullies don't "grow out of it." Rather, they are more likely to be aggressive and even violent adults.

And there was a time when being an aggressive, violent adult had survival value.

We humans are violent for a reason. It tells you something about the environment we evolved in, a half a million years ago. It wasn't a rose garden.; 5/13/14, 6:47 PM
harrogate said...: Freeman wrote,

"Always fight back. Even if you'll probably lose. A bully wants an easy target, and a fighting target isn't easy."

Which albeit unintentionally, seems to echo the response that we have seen, to Foreign Policy According to Traditional Guy.

Traditional Guy thinks Happy Days was a documentary though, so it's all sort of skewed.; 5/13/14, 7:32 PM
traditionalguy said...: Actually Happy Days was fiction, but American Graffiti was a documentary.; 5/13/14, 10:34 PM
Unknown said...: "Traditional Guy thinks Happy Days was a documentary though, so it's all sort of skewed." can not stop laughing this is so perfect.

"A bullies[sic]only problem seems to be meeting a tougher bully" how the hell did you make it to whatever age you are? A bully's problem is his/her own insecurity, probably brought on be a horrible home situation. A bully begs for the sweet release of a beatdown.; 5/14/14, 1:23 AM
Unknown said...: Also traditionalguy, did you actually watch "A History of violence"? the very core of the movie revolves around peoples attitudes about and reactions to violence. Anybody who has gotten a serious ass kicking is not nearly as afraid of it as people who haven't. some people are horrified by it, others can handle it. Most good people who have been through it do their best to shield others from it; 5/14/14, 2:00 AM
Brando said...: Great--one more thing for today's helicopter parents to worry about. "Bully cancer."; 5/14/14, 7:22 AM
rhhardin said...: Schoolyard bullies become real estate developers.; 5/14/14, 7:42 AM
Wilbur said...: You need establish something in common with a bully.

When Beavis and Butthead lent Todd Ianuzzi some money (albeit under duress), he let them watch him beat up some other guy.

Todd rules!; 5/14/14, 7:51 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: "A bully's problem is his/her own insecurity,"

And a teacher's problem is lack of knowledge.

And a musician's problem is deafness.

And a chef's problem is lack of smell.

And a painter's problem is blindness.

And a mechanic's problem is spatial reasoning.

And a race car driver's problem is fear of speed.

Of course. Duh. I was taught this years ago.

Bullies are insecure and the bullied are brimful of confidence.; 5/14/14, 8:13 AM
carrie said...: Come on, every kid is a bully. The meek and mild do their share of bullying too. It is a continuum of behavior and the big kids get labeled more quickly as bullies than the little one. My biggest in the class son was bullied by the little, cute boys in his class. I told him he was over reacting when he came home crying every day because even I was sucked into the belief that little boys could not be bullies. Luckily, the principal of his school figured it what was going on and called out these little boys. Maybe there is some poor kid at the very bottom of the bully chain who never gets a chance to bully anyone, but I find it hard to believe that there are many people who, if they are brutally honest in evaluating their past behavior, can honestly say that they never bullied anyone.; 5/14/14, 9:08 AM
carrie said...: Come on, every kid is a bully. The meek and mild do their share of bullying too. It is a continuum of behavior and the big kids get labeled more quickly as bullies than the little one. My biggest in the class son was bullied by the little, cute boys in his class. I told him he was over reacting when he came home crying every day because even I was sucked into the belief that little boys could not be bullies. Luckily, the principal of his school figured it what was going on and called out these little boys. Maybe there is some poor kid at the very bottom of the bully chain who never gets a chance to bully anyone, but I find it hard to believe that there are many people who, if they are brutally honest in evaluating their past behavior, can honestly say that they never bullied anyone.; 5/14/14, 9:09 AM
SGT Ted said...: I was bullied.

Then I grew up and left the bullies behind. Some of those "bullies" have become friends. Because I never considered High School to be representative of actual adult culture that we were growing up into.

The over-emphasis and hysteria over "bullying" is simply yet more of the same "victimology" type of politicking we have seen from the left, applied to give *some* students more rights and a bigger voice than others.

They should be addressing the wide spread use of psychotropic drugs on kids that may be causing them to act out violently when picked on, rather than pretend that "bullying" is a unique phenomenon of the modern school setting and was never a problem before today. We had bullies growing up back then too and no one EVER thought that shooting fellow students and blowing up the school with pipe bombs was necessary to solve the problem.

And yes, some kids to need to grow thicker skin, in order to deal with the emotional hardships that life can give you as an adult.

People are ultimately responsible for their emotional responses to bad events or people and coddling people merely keeps them in an immature state, unable to deal with the harshness of real life.; 5/14/14, 9:28 AM
SGT Ted said...: Far from being insecure, most of the bullies I knew were very physically capable boys and they never stood down from a fight.; 5/14/14, 9:30 AM
bleh said...: The answer then is to allow bullying and even encourage the bullied to retaliate and become bullies themselves. Eventually, those left standing will have developed a thick skin and grown up able to withstand life's many disappointments, large and small.

Sink or swim. With Obamacare, the bullied will become unhealthy drags on the rest of society anyway. Weed them out.; 5/14/14, 12:22 PM
harrogate said...: "The answer then is to allow bullying and even encourage the bullied to retaliate and become bullies themselves. Eventually, those left standing will have developed a thick skin and grown up able to withstand life's many disappointments, large and small.

Sink or swim. With Obamacare, the bullied will become unhealthy drags on the rest of society anyway. Weed them out."

Is this a "Moby" or an actual statement of conservative allegiance? It really is getting harder and harder to tell the difference.; 5/14/14, 12:38 PM
SGT Ted said...: The answer then is to allow bullying and even encourage the bullied to retaliate and become bullies themselves.

No, the answer is to teach young men to stand up to bullies and defend themselves with their fists if need be. The right to self defense is universal.

One of the first injustices I noticed in the modern schools was that self defense was not allowed; a victim was expected to take a beating and then go to authority after the fact. I've always considered that to be complete and utter bullshit and amoral to boot.; 5/14/14, 1:45 PM
traditionalguy said...: @ Unknown... Yes, I saw A History of Violence. It is a well done story set in traditional friendly Indiana.

My favorite scene was the one where peaceful Dad (Tom) confronts his son who finally stood up to a bad bully at School and tells him, " Hitting people is not how we settle our differences in this family."

And the son who by then has come to feel his warrior Dad (Joey's) DNA, comes back at his Dad, " Yeah, in this family we shoot them."

You properly pointed out the last problem dealt with in the movie is re-acceptance of fighting men back into communities. But 100% acceptance is not all that it's stacked up to be in most communities.; 5/14/14, 8:11 PM