Comments on: Annotated 39-11

By: Lurklen

Lurklen — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 23:09:47 +0000

No strategy always works, but that doesn’t mean it can never work. I’ve stood up to a bully, and then had them never bother me again. It’s worked multiple times, for different reasons each time. It just as easily could have gone badly for me, but I didn’t really have another option. It was do something, or continue to suffer. Mostly it was reflexive rather than planned. Thankfully as an adult I’ve learned how to nip such interpersonal issues in the bud.

It worked. Sometimes it does, but it’s a gamble, like any untested strategy.

By: Zak McKracken

Zak McKracken — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 23:21:50 +0000

I would agree. Although giving in to bullies also does not work.
The thing that kinda works is either getting help against bullies, or being more patient than bullies.
Both of which you might call standing up. Know which fights you can’t win, but also which ones you can.

A friend of mine once said “Practicing running gives you much better chances than practicing karate.”
I agree, but you should never allow them to ruin your confidence.
I met one of my bullies from 4th grade when we were 19, and boy did I feel sorry for him. He barely managed to say a word, poor guy. *Not* rubbing it in felt so amazingly empowering.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 05:24:32 +0000

You’re right, I did forget Braggadocio. And now I remember the blind Sister of the Unyielding Heart. But when I wrote the comment, without going back through the archives, I couldn’t remember any brown or black characters except the girl we saw Iwatani with in his imagination a few pages ago.

By: Pylgrim

Pylgrim — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 02:50:17 +0000

Fully agreed (also from experience). The problem is that the advice does work against /some/ bullies. Mainly those who are not super popular or powerful and are merely lashing out some of their own issues in the other way they know. Thing is, that sort of kids need to be helped and loved, not “stood up to”.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 21:57:52 +0000

You forget Braggadocio and various background characters who are brown or black.