Monday morning I was harassed by a man when I took my dog outside. He slowed down, rolled down the window, and yelled something at me. I couldn’t understand what he said to me and I don’t care. It was uncalled for and inappropriate behavior on his part.
Later in the day, two men who were high school classmates, cyber bullied me on Facebook. Their reason was that my politics differed from theirs. They didn’t defend their position, they just personally attacked me with attacks that had no basis in reality. Both called me stupid, among many other names.
I didn’t remind them that I was an honor roll student in school and they weren’t, although I could have done so. I called them out for their inappropriate attacks. They doubled down on the attacks. Others defended them because they shared the political views of these two men. If you can defend your views, do so. If all you can do is insult people who disagree with you, keep your mouth shut. Don’t tell me I’m too stupid to understand what you say if you aren’t saying anything but insulting words.
I am usually able to deal with bullies by telling myself, “that I would rather deal with them than be them.” Monday it was hard to do that because I had so much venom thrown at me.
Above all, don’t defend bullies by calling their victims “snowflakes” or by saying that our society is “too politically correct.” Call out adults who bully others. I find that they are more likely to stop their behavior if called out by someone other than their victim.
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We all need to call out adults who bully. It doesn’t matter if you agree with their politics or not. It’s not being “politically correct” or being a “snowflake,” it’s being a person who is civil and has some basic manners. Children are watching.
