Bullies and bullying- how close to home is it?

[strait shooter]

Originally Posted by RandyWayne

I dunno. No doubt SOME are sorry for things they did in the past but in my experience, most just laugh it off since they were actually having FUN at the time. Of course I'm talking about kids who bullied others who DIDN'T end up killing themselves.

I've thought about a scenario where someone would offer me special "gifts" AND the ability to go back in time 30 years, if I would do it. Life is good now but I can imagine the massive satisfaction of going all all Carrie on about 1/4 of my school. Shoot, the analogy goes even further in that my own folks were very close to Carrie's crazy religion-obsessed mother having bought into the pastor-centric-hero-worship of the UPC at the time. (My folks are NOT like that now nor have they been for a very long time, but just like my comment above about most bullies not being truly sorry for things they've done, my folks don't have a CLUE about how my current view on religion was shaped by them.)

Congrats to RW...he finds a way to blame pretty much everything on the UPC


Bullying....UPC's fault.

High crime...UPC's fault.

Global warming....UPC's fault


George W must be breathing a sigh of relief...it's not all his fault anymore.

[Sasha]

Originally Posted by strait shooter

Congrats to RW...he finds a way to blame pretty much everything on the UPC


Bullying....UPC's fault.

High crime...UPC's fault.

Global warming....UPC's fault


George W must be breathing a sigh of relief...it's not all his fault anymore.

I totally understand what he's saying, and it's not blaming the UPC for anything. In my case, people in the church saw me as a child that needed to be whipped several times daily until my mom got rid of the rebellion everyone thought they saw. So, I was bullied at school and when I acted out, instead of people seeing that I was troubled and needed assistance, my actions were seen as rebellious and misbehavior, and I was punished on a daily basis. Coincidentally, it was UPC folks including the pastor who are to blame for what my mother did to me, not the UPC itself.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by Sasha

I totally understand what he's saying, and it's not blaming the UPC for anything. In my case, people in the church saw me as a child that needed to be whipped several times daily until my mom got rid of the rebellion everyone thought they saw. So, I was bullied at school and when I acted out, instead of people seeing that I was troubled and needed assistance, my actions were seen as rebellious and misbehavior, and I was punished on a daily basis. Coincidentally, it was UPC folks including the pastor who are to blame for what my mother did to me, not the UPC itself.

Well, I was blaming them just a little. But more specific, blaming (a little) our church than the org, AND admit that the culture there was quite a bit different 30 years ago than it seems to be today. . . . Bullied at school mercilessly then controlled by the pod people at home. Yes, times were good.



I tell ya what, if I can indulge in one more quick "blame", the UPC/our church also taught me to NEVER be seen praying. Since every problem in life could be solved at a apostolic alter (with some shock-a-locka thrown in for good measure), if you were seen praying then everything must be just hunkiedorie.

Oh, and Mr Straightshooter. I am fairly sure you wish the UPC culture today was more like it was 30 years ago. By the way, why do you hate puppies? What is so wrong with the color red anyways? I completely disagree that photography is stealing the souls of the dead! Why do YOU think that?

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by Sasha

Understand that the bullying of today is NOTHING like it was when we were kids. It's much more harsh and cruel.

Balderdash.

I have heard the 'reports' from local kids about what life is like in school. My kids (who are homeschooled) interact with neighborhood kids daily, and the picture they have presented to me, which corroborates the picture I have gotten from my own talking with neighborhood kids and their parents, is that the vast majority of kids in public school today are metrosexual highly effeminate dorks who would have NEVER made it one year in my old high school... and MY school was one of the 'nicer' ones.

And when I say 'highly effeminate dorks' you need to understand we live in a rural area where most of the kids we know are what back in my day would be called 'kickers' (that's the clean version) and 'country boys'.

Only SOME - a SMALL number - of the local public school kids leave the pavement to go hiking in the woods. Only SOME - a SMALL number - of these kids will actually get rough if someone insults them. I have personally witnessed kids being rude and insulting to one another (joking, they say) and the response was INCONCEIVABLE to what I know for a fact would have happened in my day.

I knew guys - and I was one of them - who literally LOOKED for excuses to 'throw down' with someone - anyone - anytime - any reason. And we constituted a large chunk of the school population. I don't know a SINGLE kid today, and neither do my kids, who have that mentality.

Oh I know they are out there, mostly in the inner city 'rough schools' where the vast majority of students are gang bangers anyway and 'bullying' is not in the vocabulary.

but I think the main problem with 'bullying' today is that waaaaay too many kids are soft, have a sense of entitlement, and have not known much in the way of real hardship. They cannot compute that other people, in the 'real world', don't give a flip about them or their 'sensibilities' and that the strong prey on the weak and further that such is a fact of life.

Like my dad used to say - 'that's life in the big city, kid, adapt or get eaten.'

jmo

[RandyWayne]

I will agree that I don't think it is any worse today and in fact think it was a LITTLE worse a few decades ago -shoot, it was probably MUCH worse 100 years ago. I know some horror stories of kids who were brutalized in their schools in the 70's and 80's that were located in larger cities. I also completely believe that things weren't somehow magically better because it was just accepted as life and never or rarely talked about. Kids who are abused, whether is be by their parents or other kids, don't just "grow out of it", it does become incorporated into their personalities and does effect them and thus other people, for the rest of their lives -usually for worse, but sometimes for the better.

but I think the main problem with 'bullying' today is that waaaaay too many kids are soft, have a sense of entitlement, and have not known much in the way of real hardship. They cannot compute that other people, in the 'real world', don't give a flip about them or their 'sensibilities' and that the strong prey on the weak and further that such is a fact of life.

Yes, I do know some girls who need to be told "your pretty!" almost daily or they become emotionally distraught and thus become "mayhem" as they drive in their cars. "OMG! Becky's not even hot!"

[houston]

Originally Posted by Esaias

Only SOME - a SMALL number - of the local public school kids leave the pavement to go hiking in the woods.

Yeah, because that makes them effeminate.

Originally Posted by Esaias"

I knew guys - and I was one of them - who literally LOOKED for excuses to 'throw down' with someone - anyone - anytime - any reason. And we constituted a large chunk of the school population. I don't know a SINGLE kid today, and neither do my kids, who have that mentality.

Christian kids should be doing this?

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by houston

Yeah, because that makes them effeminate.
Christian kids should be doing this?

REAL men go hiking in the desert (and carry a camera -and a gun)!

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by houston

Yeah, because that makes them effeminate.

It doesn't make them effeminate, it indicates they ARE effeminate. What kind of boy is afraid to hike in the woods, play bb-gun wars? What kind of boy is afraid to 'deal with bugs and snakes, ewww'??? Most kids today couldn't function without their Android or iPhone.

My kids practically LIVE in the woods and the other kids think my kids are scary.

so yes, I would say most of the kids today are a bunch of effeminate wusses.

Christian kids should be doing this?

A Christian kid will refrain from being provoked into a violent defense of honour because they have PRINCIPLES by which their actions are governed, namely they believe they are commanded to 'turn the other cheek'. The kids today that I speak of, are largely unsaved, and the only principle guiding their lack of defending honour is they are weak, cowardly, and have no principle beyond immediate avoidance of pain.

One should never mistake cowardice for principled avoidance of violence, or vice versa.

Let me put it this way - there is a high school kid in our neighborhood who is a football player and power lifter. He's a big dude, he could (if he wanted to) probably beat the tar out of any adult. He's literally scared of my two teenage daughters. I don't mean 'scared' like most boys are scared of girls, I mean seriously SCARED, he thinks they are crazy because quite simply they are tougher than he is. They hike in the woods barefoot (it's like pulling teeth to get them to wear shoes), they build homemade rafts to navigate the local river, they have gone alligator hunting with nothing but a stick (literally) - and no they didn't kill the gator, they just played with it for a while as the neighborhood kids stood around commenting on how insane and freaky my kids were - i could go on and on.

Yet my kids are really no different than most kids I knew when I was growing up.

So yeah, most kids today are wusses, most adolescent boys in public school today are effeminate dorks, and my kids much prefer to be around other kids that are either Christian homeschoolers or at least kids from military families (preferably USMC or at least Army. Sailors and fly-boys don't cut it with my daughters lol).

[houston]

You have a lot of issues.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by houston

You have a lot of issues.

I have been told that. Thankfully I don't really care.