Schoolyard bully mentality

FusionTheism

I'm not naming names, but I just want to encourage people on here or on Reddit or Twitter, and tell you that you do NOT have to tolerate people who act like schoolyard bullies in the way they speak to you online.

I think anonymity is a big part of it. They feel like there is zero accountability so they can be a bully all they want.

I recommend just ignoring or blocking anyone who is verbally abusive or treats you like schoolyard bullies treated you.

Life is way too short to spend any time dealing with those kinds of people.

truthseeker100

I recommend just ignoring or blocking anyone who is verbally abusive or treats you like schoolyard bullies treated you.

Fusion, you can recommend ignoring but blocking sounds like a witness disfellowship doctrine to me. No body on this site can hurt you so they certainly are not school yard bullies.

You can put your ideas out there just be able to defend them.

millie210

You make a good point.

Since you mentioned several websites I take it you are speaking in generalities.

I dont block anyone but sometimes my "scroll on by" gets a good work out!

I appreciate you making this post because along with the anonymity you mentioned is the chance that someone coming here might be hanging on by a thread.

The Org really is a bully. So are some (not all - we have some very caring ex elders here who just couldnt take it anymore) elders.

We never know if the person reading is feeling terrible. We dont know what they are going through specifically on any given day.

This place needs to be informative and a refuge. Actually it IS that.

Of course there are a few......but what can you do?

Thanks for the reminder FT - you are quality.

FusionTheism

Truthseeker,

A bully is a bully. Doesn't matter where they are.

Why would anyone want to interact with a bully?

rip van winkle

Just remember...someone with a different p.o.v. is not a bully. However, if you are being harassed, brow-beaten, stalked, then block them.

Hold Me-Thrill Me

As Witnesses we are expected to put up with elders and circuit overseers who use peer pressure and call people "weak" or "inactive" in order to get them to change and of course bully tactics have been used during judicial meetings as well.

JWs who have been conditioned to accept this kind of behavior as acceptable come here and may be fooled into thinking that such behavior by those claiming to be more educated on all things religious is somehow okay.

No, it is not okay. Whether a bully at the KH or a bully online...it is all the same. Make no mistake about that.

If someone we call a "friend" is a bully that does not make his/her bullying any less despicable only more troubling.

Jonathan Drake

I learned about the nature of science the hard way. After an undergraduate education in biology at a small southern college, I was determined to get a Ph.D in evolutionary genetics at the best laboratory in that field ... But soon after I arrived and began working on evolution in fruit flies, I thought I'd made a terrible mistake.
Shy and reserved, I felt as if I'd been hurled into a pit of unrelenting negativity. In research seminars, the audience seemed determined to dismantle the credibility of the speaker. Sometimes they wouldn't even wait until the question period after the talk, but would rudely shout out critical questions and comments during the talk itself. When I thought I had a good idea and tentatively described it to my fellow graduate students, it was picked apart like a flounder on a plate ... Eventually, fearful of being criticized, I simply kept my mouth shut and listened. That went on for two years.
But in the end, that listening was my education in science, for I learned that the pervasive doubt and criticality weren't intended as personal attacks, but we're actually the essential ingredients in science, used as a form of quality control to uncover the researchers misconceptions and mistakes.
- Jerry Coyne, "Faith VS Fact

You mistake what the people you aren't naming are doing for personal attacks when really what it is, is your first experience with the quality control of an open forum. You are having to face people who disagree with you on reasonable and factual grounds and you aren't liking it at all.

You must learn to deal with this reasonably. Reacting this way is only showing everyone you cannot deal with being wrong and cannot handle any substantial dialogue.

rip van winkle

One more thing....please don't use your tone of voice with my words. 🐸🌞

millie210

JonathanDrake
You must learn to deal with this reasonably. Reacting this way is only showing everyone you cannot deal with being wrong and cannot handle any substantial dialogue.

I respect the way you try to be careful of the dignity of others JonathanDrake so I respect your above post as your opinion but it just doesnt ring true for me.

I dont think any of us have the right to tell the OP that he needs to be more "reasonable".

Maybe you are referring to other things he has posted elsewhere but his opening post here was entirely reasonable.

He is expressing his opinion on his thread. He is also expressing the opinion of others who happen to share some of his concerns.

Like you said, open forum. He shouldnt be told he is unreasonable for having an opinion that hasnt mentioned a specific forum or poster should he?

If he (the OP) is rude or hateful here then that would be another matter. I am not seeing that.

Twitch

Why can't we all just get along?

lol

Schoolyard bully mentality

Share this