2389 Bullying?

Friday, May 8, 2009

I came across this: "David Hasselhoff posted a dangerously high blood-alcohol level in what authorities are calling a dramatic attempt to forget he’s David Hasselhoff" in the Newsdroppings section of Shoebox.

That strikes me as unnecessarily nasty, to blame his drinking on his being him, like he can't stand himself. Um, maybe you bullies are his problem?

I don't know how stuff like that gets started. Other examples of people being picked on or sneered at for no real reason are Jerry Lewis, John Tesh, Richard Simmons, Paula Abdul, and believe it or not, people are starting to sneer at Susan Boyle.

All they've done is be themselves. They've done nothing that the sneerers or their neighbors or family members haven't done. They're just people, doing their thing. If you want to comment on their drinking, or drugging, or annoying enthusiasm, fine. That's a external, an action. But it's incredibly mean to blast them simply because they are who they are.

Sometimes I think some people get picked on more than others because they are weak, they don't defend themselves very well. That doesn't speak well of the picker-oners. Like they do it because they can. They don't even have the excuse of preserving strong genes that birds have when they oust the weakest nest mate.

Take the quote in the first paragraph, and substitute your own name (and for the failing, some weakness of your own). How much does that hurt? And how much more does it hurt that other people think it's funny?

This is the nastiest of bullying, and I don't like it!

What scares me most is that there are people who wouldn't understand what my objection is. Maybe even most people. We have become a nation of bullies.
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