James Leroy Wilson's one-man magazine.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Give Me a Break, Too

I also was unfortunate enough to come across what Don Boudreaux encountered last night.

I didn't actually see the report on "adult bullying," I mainly talked to a friend about the absurdity of the concept.

Bullying applies generally to children, where they can be near each other in age but mismatched physically. It's violence and intimidation by children to other children.

And it's physical. Online "bullying" doesn't exist. Online harassment exists, but not bullying.

And, for adults, assault exists. Physical intimidation exists. But, while they're similar to childhood bullying, they're not the same.

To apply "bullying" in adult relationships is, as Boudreaux says, evidence of the "infantilization of Americans."

An adult could claim to have been insulted, harassed, threatened, coerced, or assaulted. But to say "I was bullied" seems well, inaccurate. A child victim sees very few options for recourse. Adults have knowledge of several forms of recourse. To equate the one form of victimization to the other, as if they're the same, is a disservice of both child victims of bullying and adult victims of abuse.  

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