{"id":102742,"date":"2026-05-30T03:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T07:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=102742"},"modified":"2026-05-29T12:04:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T16:04:58","slug":"bullying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2026\/05\/30\/bullying\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Bullying&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was bullied as a kid. I hated it. Most kids experience it, and either hate it or embrace it as &#8220;how things are done&#8221; (most likely both). This is basic human nature across all cultures. It&#8217;s how we learn how to conform, or appear to conform, to cultural expectations. In a pre-urban environment, the community could only handle so many non-conformists &mdash; that is: close to zero &mdash; so nipping it in the bud with the children was a pro-survival\/pro-communitarian mechanism. In modern urban environments, bullying still happens because it&#8217;s part of human nature rather than being how children learn how to cope with social situations.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve even migrated the notion of suppressing &#8220;bullying&#8221; to the military, as <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/infantrydort\/status\/2060328865780605024\" target=\"_blank\">InfantryDort<\/a> explains:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-29-at-11-59-51-Tim-\ud83e\uddac-on-X-@infantrydort-Defending-bullying-is-inappropriate.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-29-at-11-59-51-Tim-\ud83e\uddac-on-X-@infantrydort-Defending-bullying-is-inappropriate.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"598\" height=\"267\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-102743\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-29-at-11-59-51-Tim-\ud83e\uddac-on-X-@infantrydort-Defending-bullying-is-inappropriate.png 598w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-29-at-11-59-51-Tim-\ud83e\uddac-on-X-@infantrydort-Defending-bullying-is-inappropriate-480x214.png 480w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-29-at-11-59-51-Tim-\ud83e\uddac-on-X-@infantrydort-Defending-bullying-is-inappropriate-150x67.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Any man who thinks bullying is ubiquitously inappropriate has the survival instincts of a deer gazing longingly at headlights.<\/p>\n<p>For most of human history, communities had weak formal institutions. Public ridicule, shaming, and ostracism were used to enforce norms.<\/p>\n<p>Examples:<\/p>\n<p>> Villages mocking chronic thieves.<br \/>\n> Military units humiliating cowards.<br \/>\n> Tradesmen ridiculing apprentices who refused to learn.<\/p>\n<p>The positive effect was often:<\/p>\n<p>> Greater conformity to community standards.<br \/>\n> Faster correction of disruptive behavior.<br \/>\n> Stronger group cohesion.<\/p>\n<p>It hardens individuals to harsh environments when properly applied. And enforces societal norms we want and dissuades the ones we don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of bullying is how people grow up to adulthood and say things like &#8220;I&#8217;m gonna kill you and your whole family&#8221; at some political protest. And have it come out of their mouth as normal as breathing.<\/p>\n<p>Because nobody ever stood them down in their formative years.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re a JAG. You think every problem has a legal solution. It doesn&#8217;t. You don&#8217;t understand the way the world works outside of the one the law has carefully curated for you. Made possible by people who&#8217;ve been using strength to coerce others for all of human history.<\/p>\n<p>Let me spank the kids while you do the dishes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was bullied as a kid. I hated it. Most kids experience it, and either hate it or embrace it as &#8220;how things are done&#8221; (most likely both). This is basic human nature across all cultures. It&#8217;s how we learn how to conform, or appear to conform, to cultural expectations. In a pre-urban environment, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[66,5,53,13],"tags":[828,262,139],"class_list":["post-102742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-science","category-military","category-politics","category-usa","tag-bullying","tag-culture","tag-psychology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2hpV6-bullying","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102742"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102745,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102742\/revisions\/102745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}