Bullying – Buz Blog

“Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke” – Benjamin Disraeli

Bullying is always an act of intimidation. Whether it is physical action used by an individual or a group, or intellectual intimidation by the media, social media, teachers, bosses, or public figures, it is the tool of cowards to dominate those they oppose, dislike, or disagree with. As children, most of us were told to confront the bully. This usually works because even though the victim may take some lumps, the fact that one isn’t easily controlled, is an impediment to the bully’s goal. Standing up to the bully shows bravery, which is a virtue bullies don’t understand. On the other hand, succumbing to the bully is an encouragement to continue the antisocial behavior.

Some bullies act alone. Many act in a group. Almost all of them want an audience for their actions. It boosts the bully’s ego and will help to frighten others he might want to intimidate in the future. Throughout my life, my experience has shown this to be self-evident.

When I became a police officer, my father, who had retired from LAPD, told me that occasionally, I might find myself in a situation where I had to confront a hostile group, gang, or mob. I might be alone or with only my partner as backup. Groups like this often play off each other and develop a “mob courage”. If they become too aggressive, my father said there was a way to defuse the situation. In his own inimitable fashion, my dad said, “Find the guy with the loudest mouth, the biggest guy or the apparent leader, and knock him right on his ass.” This, most probably, is not possible in the environment law enforcement officers operate in today, but it always worked when I was on the streets. The crowd always dispersed as their group courage dissipated. No one wanted to be the second guy to get knocked down and arrested.

Today, intellectual bullying takes place often on the internet or through other media. We’ve all heard of the “mean girls” who post nasty things about other girls in their schools for no apparent reason except to intimidate. Athletes, public figures and other people are vilified for innocent statements or actions that the bullies in the media deem to be racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic or any other pejorative they can come up with.

The fatal mistake, those accused of these imaginary transgressions make, is to apologize. It may be a natural thing to do when one is blindsided with these accusations, but never apologize for any action or words that were never intended to offend. (No matter what anyone says or does, someone, somewhere, will be offended). If forced by circumstances, (reporters like to ambush the accused with cameras rolling and ask why the statement or action was made and demand an apology), the best defense is to go on the offensive. The response should be something like this: “I have nothing to apologize for. I am sorry that those who made these accusations were too obtuse, stupid or ignorant to comprehend that there was nothing sexist or racist about what I did or said.”

Politically, the people that get offended most often, and make these types of assertions, belong to the Democrat party. The midterm elections are on Tuesday. The Democrats have made it clear that if they take over the House of Representatives and the Senate, their bullying will blossom beyond accusations and past all the “lawfare” they have done in the past. A vote for any Democrat is a vote for unrestrained bullying.