Reply #207: In real life, bullies seldom back down.

[ieoeja]

One day at recess in elementary school the bully came over and knocked me down. I got back to my feet and asked him why he did that.

"Because," he replied and knocked me down again. Again I rose to my feet and asked if he didn't have a better reason than that.

Back and forth we went. Him calling me names, knocking me down and telling me to stay down. Me getting right back up and questioning him on his motives, did it make him feel good, etc. I honestly found his actions confusing and was seriously trying to understand. Finally, he calls me "weird" and stalks off bragging to his buddies about kicking my ass.

He quickly finds another kid to knock down. Only this kid starts crying. So I walk over and knock the bully down.

At last, the bully has the fight he was looking for. Because contrary to what people like to think, bullies generally enjoy a good fight. But I did not give him a good fight. I just beat the crap out of him. THAT he didn't particularly enjoy.

I would repeat this incident many times over the years against many bullies. And most of the time the bullies didn't use physical violence against their victims. They just exercised their freedom of speech to humiliate other kids into crying until I would step in and stop it. And you don't stop it by reasoning with the unreasonable.

The reason you can speak freely is because someone else beat up the guys who wouldn't have let you speak freely.