[BartSimpson]

Derby had brought up the subject of bullying in his thread about Columbine and I'd like to just create a space here where whoever can state their own experiences either as victims of bullying or as perpertrators of it.

I'll start.

As most of you know, I'm pretty blunt about the applied use of force as a means of dealing with brigands when diplomacy fails. As someone once pointed out to me, they thought I was actually kind of mean.

Maybe I am.

What you don't know is that up until my junior year of high school (Grade 11) I was the target of every creep and bastard from about third grade on. That makes about eight years of my childhood in which school was just hell.

In my early years I had a speech impediment and I spoke with a lisp (like that of Cindy Brady on the Brady Bunch ) and then for several years I also wore these hideous glasses that my drunken Irish and abusive father wanted me to wear. He thought the heavy black frames were "sturdy" whil;e my peers thought they made me look like a retard - which they admittedly did.

My father, a classic abuser and a tyrant, demanded that I never upset him with any problems at school so I almost never fought back because I was more afraid of then getting in trouble for fighting than for getting beaten.

Add to that the seemingly migratory patterns of movement my family made about the country during those years and the result was that my accent was always 'funny' to whatever locale I landed in.

Now compound this with the fact that I was an avid reader at a young age (and had completed the works of Mark Twain by age seven) and was also conversant in science, politics, and other more "adult" pursuits.

There's the set up.

The transient lifestyle of my parents ended as I started high school so I did have the mixed blessing of only having to attend one schol through those years.

My first two years were hell. Absolute, unmitigated hell.

The teachers were nothing but talk when I'd go to them for help.

On a daily basis I could anticipate not being able to cross campus between classes without at least someone calling me a faggot, hitting me, "bumping" into me, or assaulting me outright.

In October 1980 my father went to attack me for opening a package of cinnamon rolls "the wrong way" and I snapped. I hit him just once and knocked him unconscious. He never hit me again the rest of his life.

With the worst bully in my life now conquered my attitude was on the cusp of change.

Later that same month the catalyst for change occured.

Five of the jocks (any one of which would've been able to wipe the floor with me) jumped me in a bathroom between classes and beat me savagely.

When I got myself put together enough I went to class.

The teacher asked me what happened and I told him, "I fell."

He sent me to the vice-principal's office and I repeated the same thing to him and he talked to me for a while and tried to get me to tell him some names and I said, "Why? You're not going to do one fucking thing so why tell you their names?"

It still amazes me that I did not get a detention or a suspension for cussing out the vice-principal. Maybe all the blood all over my clothes made me look pathetic.

Subsequently, I went on the war path.

I caught four of my five attackers in various situations and I made them pay. One of them was actually hospitalized. When he came back to school he came after me again and this time I attacked him with far more fury than I think he'd given me credit for.

The fifth of the four assholes I caught alone at the school's squash courts (in a very isolated part of the school) and when I announced myself he looked at me, realized what was coming, and peed his pants. I walked away knowing that there was nothing worse I could do to him - and I was right as he spent the balance of his senior year suffering taunts for pissing his pants.

From November 1980 to when I graduated I never had to deal with another unprovoked assault. Those people who called me names in the hall were met with immediate and severe repercussions and I soon gained a reputation among certain folks as a psychopath. I didn't care what the fuck they thought of me so long as they left me alone. By the spring semester of 1981 I had no problems anymore.

My GPA went from 2.3 to 4.0.

In my senior year I was voted one of the ten most popular people in school in the school newspaper. I initially considered this to be yet another taunt and I hunted down the editor with the intent of harm and he explained to me in rapid words that the vote was genuine.

In later years I've run into people I'd gone to school with whose names I didn't know and found that they knew me. I was popular for not taking shit from anyone and people thought that made me cool.

I was actually a role model for some people. (Lesson: be careful who your kids idolize)

I joined the Marine Corps the summer after school and had a Drill Instructor who was initially intent on seeing me drummed out of the Corps. I told him flat out that I'd already been to hell and that there was not one fucking thing that he, the Marine Corps, or any potential enemy could dish out that I couldn't eat for breakfast and then come back for more at lunch and dinner.

I said this at the top of my lungs during review.

That's usually a big no-no.

He came over to me and punched me square in the face and I came back and broke both of his collar bones. He went up on charges and I ended up going to OSC which proved to me that there can be justice in this world.

The rest of the story most of you know.

But now you know why I have no patience for people who use force against weaker or unarmed people. I don't give one fucking damn about their motivations, I want them to stop or I want them to die. Either resolution is acceptable to me. Life taught me that bullies are emboldened by the civil conventions of decent people and that some of them can only be dissuaded from their behavior by the use of applied force. It's amazing what cowards these bastards become when faced with someone who takes their crap and shoves it right down their throats.

It has now been 26 years since I decided to stand up for myself and I have no regrets other than that I wish I'd done it sooner.

The ironic or paradoxical thing about who I am now is that I walk around with the confidence of someone who has no qualms about inflicting pain on those who have it coming and, because of that, no one bothers me.

Because I am prepared to unleash mayhem on those who may attract my attention then no one goes out of their way to attract it.

On a global scale I apply this lesson to my politics that nations that respond to terrorism and etc. with devastating force send a message to the other people who may wish to do them harm.

So I do adhere to the old adage that to prepare for peace one must prepare for war.

Again, my compliments to Derby for bringing this up.

Now I need a beer. Have a nice weekend folks.

[ShepherdsDog]

I brought this matter up many moon agao and for the most part it disintegrated into ridiculous declarations, by some, of how they would shoot or knife anyone who messed with them at school. I dealt with bullies and I dealt with them in their own language, which is politically incorrect nowadays. Let's hope the ressurection of the issue is a little more sensible in its postings, as this is a serious, not a joking matter because kids die as a result.

[Bodah]

Good job Bart,

Not too many people in that situation can turn that situation around while going through that shit.

[fatbasturd]

I was twelve years old when my father died and he left alot of bills my mother could not pay.The result of that was that I was called a welfare bum by my class mates untill I could not take it anymore.I hung my head in shame and let them get the best of me ....they ran me out of school by the time I was thirteen.
That was along time ago, nowdays I don't pick on people.... I don't pick fights...but I sure as fuck finish them .It has also left me with an over developed sense of fair play to the point that I can't let somethings go that others can.It took me a long time to understand the fact that if someone is bullying you, your best option is to hit the fucker as hard as you can.....win or lose you still feel the joy of knowing that you just told the asshole to go fuck himself in a way he might just understand.

[ShepherdsDog]

for years everyone said that bullies were cowards with low self esteem. Now all the talk is about how they have an over inflated ego. They bully because they know they can get away with it. i was bullied when younger, but by the time I was in grade 7, I was 6 inches taller and about 30 lbs heavier than my antagonists.

[Newfy]

I've been bullied in some form or another now for most of my life, even now at the age of 24. When I was younger it was because my father is a minister in the Anglican church. I got labelled the Preachers kid and goody two shoes. I was lucky never to be physically bullied at school, although the mental stuff can be just as bad. As a teenager I found myself being bullied at home and not by my parents as you might think but by my new Step-brother. He's the same age as me but was brought up quite differently, and didn't have a "steady" male role model. Every adult man he had ever known has abusive in one form or another. So, when he got angry he got violent. I have never liked violent action nor have I needed to use it, but it means i've been a very easy target throughout my life. Luckily my step-brother's grown up now and has realised how much pain he caused me and has apoligised.We get on great now. I've found a new type of bullying now ,however, in the work place. Obviously I am in the army and so have to expect a bit of winding up and piss taking but the fact that I am Canadian and a Newfy means that I serve as the butt of alot of jokes. I'm learning to give as good as I get but also I've always been told never to sink to a bullies level as then you are just as bad as they are.

[fatbasturd]

Newfy Newfy:

I've been bullied in some form or another now for most of my life, even now at the age of 24. When I was younger it was because my father is a minister in the Anglican church. I got labelled the Preachers kid and goody two shoes. I was lucky never to be physically bullied at school, although the mental stuff can be just as bad. As a teenager I found myself being bullied at home and not by my parents as you might think but by my new Step-brother. He's the same age as me but was brought up quite differently, and didn't have a "steady" male role model. Every adult man he had ever known has abusive in one form or another. So, when he got angry he got violent. I have never liked violent action nor have I needed to use it, but it means i've been a very easy target throughout my life. Luckily my step-brother's grown up now and has realised how much pain he caused me and has apoligised.We get on great now. I've found a new type of bullying now ,however, in the work place. Obviously I am in the army and so have to expect a bit of winding up and piss taking but the fact that I am Canadian and a Newfy means that I serve as the butt of alot of jokes. I'm learning to give as good as I get but also I've always been told never to sink to a bullies level as then you are just as bad as they are.

Here is what you do...stand up after the next guy tells a Newfie joke and say...Whats black and blue and moans all day...the next dumb fuck that tells a Newfie joke.
Don't let it get to you east of Montreal we are all Newifes to the rest of Canada....the sad thing is most of them couldn't hack an eastcoast life style.

[Newfy]

fatbasturd fatbasturd:

Newfy Newfy:

I've been bullied in some form or another now for most of my life, even now at the age of 24. When I was younger it was because my father is a minister in the Anglican church. I got labelled the Preachers kid and goody two shoes. I was lucky never to be physically bullied at school, although the mental stuff can be just as bad. As a teenager I found myself being bullied at home and not by my parents as you might think but by my new Step-brother. He's the same age as me but was brought up quite differently, and didn't have a "steady" male role model. Every adult man he had ever known has abusive in one form or another. So, when he got angry he got violent. I have never liked violent action nor have I needed to use it, but it means i've been a very easy target throughout my life. Luckily my step-brother's grown up now and has realised how much pain he caused me and has apoligised.We get on great now. I've found a new type of bullying now ,however, in the work place. Obviously I am in the army and so have to expect a bit of winding up and piss taking but the fact that I am Canadian and a Newfy means that I serve as the butt of alot of jokes. I'm learning to give as good as I get but also I've always been told never to sink to a bullies level as then you are just as bad as they are.

Here is what you do...stand up after the next guy tells a Newfie joke and say...Whats black and blue and moans all day...the next dumb fuck that tells a Newfie joke.
Don't let it get to you east of Montreal we are all Newifes to the rest of Canada....the sad thing is most of them couldn't hack an eastcoast life style.

Cheers buddy, the only problem is the only thing most of these guys know about Canada is from South Park or Due South etc etc, which doesn't help.

[Scape]

Enjoy your beer Bart, as I will enjoy mine on my b-day.

Great post!

[EyeBrock]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Derby had brought up the subject of bullying in his thread about Columbine and I'd like to just create a space here where whoever can state their own experiences either as victims of bullying or as perpertrators of it.

I'll start.

As most of you know, I'm pretty blunt about the applied use of force as a means of dealing with brigands when diplomacy fails. As someone once pointed out to me, they thought I was actually kind of mean.

Maybe I am.

What you don't know is that up until my junior year of high school (Grade 11) I was the target of every creep and bastard from about third grade on. That makes about eight years of my childhood in which school was just hell.

In my early years I had a speech impediment and I spoke with a lisp (like that of Cindy Brady on the Brady Bunch ) and then for several years I also wore these hideous glasses that my drunken Irish and abusive father wanted me to wear. He thought the heavy black frames were "sturdy" whil;e my peers thought they made me look like a retard - which they admittedly did.

My father, a classic abuser and a tyrant, demanded that I never upset him with any problems at school so I almost never fought back because I was more afraid of then getting in trouble for fighting than for getting beaten.

Add to that the seemingly migratory patterns of movement my family made about the country during those years and the result was that my accent was always 'funny' to whatever locale I landed in.

Now compound this with the fact that I was an avid reader at a young age (and had completed the works of Mark Twain by age seven) and was also conversant in science, politics, and other more "adult" pursuits.

There's the set up.

The transient lifestyle of my parents ended as I started high school so I did have the mixed blessing of only having to attend one schol through those years.

My first two years were hell. Absolute, unmitigated hell.

The teachers were nothing but talk when I'd go to them for help.

On a daily basis I could anticipate not being able to cross campus between classes without at least someone calling me a faggot, hitting me, "bumping" into me, or assaulting me outright.

In October 1980 my father went to attack me for opening a package of cinnamon rolls "the wrong way" and I snapped. I hit him just once and knocked him unconscious. He never hit me again the rest of his life.

With the worst bully in my life now conquered my attitude was on the cusp of change.

Later that same month the catalyst for change occured.

Five of the jocks (any one of which would've been able to wipe the floor with me) jumped me in a bathroom between classes and beat me savagely.

When I got myself put together enough I went to class.

The teacher asked me what happened and I told him, "I fell."

He sent me to the vice-principal's office and I repeated the same thing to him and he talked to me for a while and tried to get me to tell him some names and I said, "Why? You're not going to do one fucking thing so why tell you their names?"

It still amazes me that I did not get a detention or a suspension for cussing out the vice-principal. Maybe all the blood all over my clothes made me look pathetic.

Subsequently, I went on the war path.

I caught four of my five attackers in various situations and I made them pay. One of them was actually hospitalized. When he came back to school he came after me again and this time I attacked him with far more fury than I think he'd given me credit for.

The fifth of the four assholes I caught alone at the school's squash courts (in a very isolated part of the school) and when I announced myself he looked at me, realized what was coming, and peed his pants. I walked away knowing that there was nothing worse I could do to him - and I was right as he spent the balance of his senior year suffering taunts for pissing his pants.

From November 1980 to when I graduated I never had to deal with another unprovoked assault. Those people who called me names in the hall were met with immediate and severe repercussions and I soon gained a reputation among certain folks as a psychopath. I didn't care what the fuck they thought of me so long as they left me alone. By the spring semester of 1981 I had no problems anymore.

My GPA went from 2.3 to 4.0.

In my senior year I was voted one of the ten most popular people in school in the school newspaper. I initially considered this to be yet another taunt and I hunted down the editor with the intent of harm and he explained to me in rapid words that the vote was genuine.

In later years I've run into people I'd gone to school with whose names I didn't know and found that they knew me. I was popular for not taking shit from anyone and people thought that made me cool.

I was actually a role model for some people. (Lesson: be careful who your kids idolize)

I joined the Marine Corps the summer after school and had a Drill Instructor who was initially intent on seeing me drummed out of the Corps. I told him flat out that I'd already been to hell and that there was not one fucking thing that he, the Marine Corps, or any potential enemy could dish out that I couldn't eat for breakfast and then come back for more at lunch and dinner.

I said this at the top of my lungs during review.

That's usually a big no-no.

He came over to me and punched me square in the face and I came back and broke both of his collar bones. He went up on charges and I ended up going to OSC which proved to me that there can be justice in this world.

The rest of the story most of you know.

But now you know why I have no patience for people who use force against weaker or unarmed people. I don't give one fucking damn about their motivations, I want them to stop or I want them to die. Either resolution is acceptable to me. Life taught me that bullies are emboldened by the civil conventions of decent people and that some of them can only be dissuaded from their behavior by the use of applied force. It's amazing what cowards these bastards become when faced with someone who takes their crap and shoves it right down their throats.

It has now been 26 years since I decided to stand up for myself and I have no regrets other than that I wish I'd done it sooner.

The ironic or paradoxical thing about who I am now is that I walk around with the confidence of someone who has no qualms about inflicting pain on those who have it coming and, because of that, no one bothers me.

Because I am prepared to unleash mayhem on those who may attract my attention then no one goes out of their way to attract it.

On a global scale I apply this lesson to my politics that nations that respond to terrorism and etc. with devastating force send a message to the other people who may wish to do them harm.

So I do adhere to the old adage that to prepare for peace one must prepare for war.

Again, my compliments to Derby for bringing this up.

Now I need a beer. Have a nice weekend folks.

Good shit Bart.

I wonder how many of us who joined up have been through the same shit. Most of us I reckon.

The military. The family most of us never had and it gave us the confidence to take anything on.

Semper Fi and Per Ardua ad Astra mate.

Good shit.

[Christy]

IceOwl IceOwl:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

But now you know why I have no patience for people who use force against weaker or unarmed people.

Unless that person is yourself.

You are wrong with this because it takes a lot of inner strength and self-mastery to channel a powerful emotion like anger into something controlled and constructive. He said he gets angered by people who victimise vulnerable people and that makes him kind of decent. I dated a constable once who was like that and it didn't make him a bad person. The Bible calls people like this meek which means controlled strength and not weakness like some people think. He also has a lot of courage to trust all of you with this.

[Christy]

I had my share but it wasn't traditional bullying. Being a girl it was always stuff being said behind my back and things like that and it always came from other girls. That movie Mean Girls with Lindsay Lohan was really close to real in a lot of ways.

[Christy]

IceOwl IceOwl:

Christy Christy:

IceOwl IceOwl:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

But now you know why I have no patience for people who use force against weaker or unarmed people.

Unless that person is yourself.

You are wrong with this because it takes a lot of inner strength and self-mastery to channel a powerful emotion like anger into something controlled and constructive.

I was talking about the person using force, not the person it's being used against.

So am I. The Japanese have the bushido code where strong men would swear never to misuse their strength and I don't see anything in Barts posts that show him misusing his power. People like Bart are constables and in the RAF and in the Rescue and if someone has anger like Bart did and then channels it right to do good then that takes a lot. I know you hate Bart but you need to control your hate too and allow your heart to tell you when your enemy is not your enemy. I know you are not violent but your hatred is a form of violence right? If using violence to stop violence is wrong you are wrong for useing your hatred to stop Bart because hatred is just violence of the heart.