I like my coffee how I like my women... blonde, with big tits and low self esteem.

(Conan O'Brien)

Being bullied a lot as a kid led me to develop severe social phobia starting at 17, ruining whatever was left of my social life during my twenties and also helped me drop out of college, twice. After two years of therapy as an adult, I can deal with social anxiety a lot better, but I probably won't be able to function socially 100%.

I was also bullied at home by one of my older brothers who, only later in life as a father of three, found out he's bipolar and now takes medication. I love him, he never physically bullied me, it was mostly psychological warfare with that guy, picking apart any shred of self esteem I had as a kid and meticulously crushing it every chance he got. He sometimes humilliates his own kids, my nephews, I'm going to have to explain that he can't just think, "I did that all the time with my kid brother and he turned out OK".

Uh, no he didn't.

what you said at the end, that i think is the real issue. youve got a documentary crew filming bullying on a bus and yet the officials (whoever that lady was, principal i presume) are in complete denial instead of looking into it further and taking appropriate disciplinary action.



by and large children are products of whoever raises em, whoever their adult influence is. you could take virtually any "bully" look at his parents and find the root cause (most of the time anyway). i know a lot of the boys who bullied me in jr high and high school i later came to find out almost all of them had no father figure. do you really think anti bullying rules or something is gonna stop that? the problem is deeper than that, much deeper. do you think bullying stops after high school? do you think it doesnt take place at work, at college, at a park, at the movies, at anywhere?

i think overall the point im getting at is it really doesnt matter what we do or dont do, we cannot prevent bullying. it will happen, it always has and it always will, and thats not a "swept under the rug" answer to the issue, its the reality. so how can we resolve it? by changing not only our mindset as adults, but positively influencing the mindsets of our children as well.

as a side note, as far as the 24-7 thing is concerned, i was bullied at school and at home almost a full decade before the internet and looooong before myspace and facebook. i had an older sister who was such a tomboy growing up she was practically another older brother. but i mainly got picked on by my older brother who was just a year apart from me. i got shit from him and his friends at school, i got it from him and his friends when we'd play in and around our neighborhood and i got it from him at home. in a way, thats infinitely more invasive and inescapable than e-bullying. i lived with him, and for a number of years i had to share a room with him. so ya, to me, it isnt different at all. and while my testimony may be a special case, its far from being unique and youd be naive to think so.

if teen crime rates are declining and bullying is pretty much a constant, that certainly doesnt suggest bullying is becoming worse or even that its a "huge problem". all that suggests is what ive been saying; bullying isnt anything new, and it will always be with us.

maybe im not articulating myself in a compassionate way. im certainly not advocating turning a blind eye to bullies or bullying. i squash it pretty quick when it happens in class, and whenever appropriate i try to talk to the bully one on one in hopes that i may discern what the issue really is. is he picking on that kid cuz he's just a shitty kid? or is he lashing out over emotional/mental issues he's unprepared to cope with? or is he compensating for severe self esteem issues? those are the things we should be addressing to "prevent" bullying, not creating this bizarre subculture war where its us vs them.
>> ^SDGundamX:

>> ^smooman:
>> ^berticus:
what? no comment yet from someone saying how bullying "toughens you up and prepares you for the real world"? COME ON!

ok i'll start. im all for moderate measures to be taken to monitor and disrupt bullying (man, that almost became full alliteration). that being said, the bullying scandal and the myriad documentaries and specials and exposes on the subject are just redundant. as someone who works in the school system bullying really isnt any different than when i was in school, or when my parents went to school, or their parents, etc. bullying isnt anything new. calling it an epidemic is laughable and just plain absurd.
does my heart go out to individuals who have been bullied? absolutely. i myself was constantly bullied growing up (both at school and at home). now berticus, what you said is true even if you were being facetious. being bullied forced me to quickly develop social skills needed to diffuse confrontations among other things. it sharpened my wit, even as an adult. the point isnt that we need bullies to make men out of our children. the point is bullies arent anything new, and they will always be with us. react accordingly

I downvoted your comment and I just wanted to explain why.
First off, while you may technically be correct in that the amount of bullying has not changed over time, technological advances (i.e. the Internet) allow that bullying to continue 24-7 so that there is no refuge from it, even after you get out of school. In other words, while the rate of bullying may not be changing the severity and impact is--it is more invasive, harder to escape, and therefore is NOT the same as when you were a kid.
But even disregarding that, I think the term "epidemic" is appropriate when you look at the fact that over the past 50 years crime among teens has consistently been decreasing in the U.S. (according to FBI statistics a drop of over 44%) and yet the rate of bullying appears to remain the same. To me, that says there is a huge problem that is not being addressed by either our society or our school system. And taking the attitude that "bullies aren't anything new, and they will always be with us" does not seem to me to be the way to go about solving that problem. Rather, it virtually guarantees that in the next 50 years we will see bullying to continue at the same rate as bullies find ways to circumvent the "moderate measures [...] to monitor and disrupt bullying" that you advocate.
Documentaries like this are critically important because they expose just how deep the problems are--you have school officials claiming the bus is perfectly safe while the documentary filmmakers are capturing multiple acts of violence and bullying on the bus. We need more documentaries like this and much more research into how bullying manifests and how to prevent it because we're clearly doing a piss-poor job of it right now.

>> ^gwiz665:

You can't rape the truth. The truth has no orifice.


True, but you can totally ignore the truth, which will break her heart and destroy her self-esteem. So, don't do it.
Don't misrepresent her while talking about her with others, either.
You should take some time to get to know her. Yes, dealing with her may hurt or be uncomfortable sometimes, but in the end you will recognize that you can trust her 100%, she's a no bullshit kinda girl. After some time with the truth at your side you will feel good, empowered even. And the sex is amazing!

Putting school kids to work. Newt Gingrich recently said something like that and the left all put him down.

When you empower people, (children) they get self esteem and then all things are possible.

Great video. Great idea. Great teacher. We could all use more teachers like that.

I know, the dream one's in is so fragile to break into another by a thought of anxiety or thought of reality. Dreams seem like a pure form of a self-fulfilling prophecy, what you believe will happen will happen, and what you fear will happen will happen. What usually breaks a dream is when one doubts it's real. >> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

In my flying dreams, the more strongly I believe I can fly, the higher I go; the more I doubt I start bumping into the tops of trees. It's very Peter Pan - I know. Without consulting a dream dictionary, I'm pretty sure this must have to do with confidence, self doubt and self esteem. Does anyone else have flight anxiety as a part of their flying dreams?

In my flying dreams, the more strongly I believe I can fly, the higher I go; the more I doubt I start bumping into the tops of trees. It's very Peter Pan - I know. Without consulting a dream dictionary, I'm pretty sure this must have to do with confidence, self doubt and self esteem. Does anyone else have flight anxiety as a part of their flying dreams?

Contributing to Society is being able to take care of you own shit. The rich kid should work also as it builds moral fiber. As for kids social development working would be better that doing nothing, playing video games and staying on the streets all hours of the night. Work is good for ones sole. It builds self esteem, good character and you makes some money.

Oh wait that's it. If little Johnny learns the value of work he'll probably turn that little skull of his into a capitalist. Liberals can't have that, no fucking way will your ilk let that happen. Keep johnny stupid, dependent and feed him liberal lies that the world "OWES" him a better life. >> ^packo:

>> ^bobknight33:
Its call WORK. Get a job. Contribute to society not take from it.

contributing to society would be helping the poor wouldn't it?!?
how come that contract you make from society to a poor kid doesn't equate to the contract from a rich person to their child? ie, to pay their way in school, why shouldn't a rich kid be required to do the same thing?
let alone, this doesn't even touch on a child's social development, and the importance of after school activities, or a life outside school
honestly... we are talking about children in elementary school to high school here... not adults
grow a heart
contribute to society != contribute only to oneself

It's a logically consistent argument that Corolla makes but there is just one problem that I see with it: it's purely imaginary. It's easy to make a theory consistent when you don't have to incorporate actual details from messy reality.

Oh but how is it imaginary, I hear you Neocons asking? It's all based on a mythical group of trust fund 'self esteem' babies who are adverse to doing a day's work for a day's pay and want to be rewarded like a CEO for their entry level customer service worker position.

If you need evidence why this is so much bullshit, you really need to come out of your gated communities and maybe talk to some of the people formerly known as 'the middle class' but now more accurately referred to as 'the working poor.'

>> ^Trancecoach:

oh please! We might not agree with her parenting style, if cursing becomes sufficient cause to remove custody, then we've succumbed to the police state afterall.>> ^spoco2:
Oh my god this makes me so sad What a horrible, horrible, disgusting woman that is.
One would have to hope that this gets seen by the right people and she loses custody of those kids as she is raising kids with horrible self esteem in some cases, and just disgusting mean streaks in others.
So sad
So sad



No, it's not cursing that's the problem, although it's indicative of her general mental demeaner. It's the way she's treating that child. It's abuse. You can be guaranteed there's far, far worse that's going on there.

Also... a bottle of tequila for a 13 year old? Yeah, that's appropriate.

oh please! We might not agree with her parenting style, if cursing becomes sufficient cause to remove custody, then we've succumbed to the police state afterall.>> ^spoco2:

Oh my god this makes me so sad What a horrible, horrible, disgusting woman that is.
One would have to hope that this gets seen by the right people and she loses custody of those kids as she is raising kids with horrible self esteem in some cases, and just disgusting mean streaks in others.
So sad
So sad

Oh my god this makes me so sad What a horrible, horrible, disgusting woman that is.

One would have to hope that this gets seen by the right people and she loses custody of those kids as she is raising kids with horrible self esteem in some cases, and just disgusting mean streaks in others.

So sad

So sad

Trying futilely to fix this old dead vid and reread your comment. Hilarious.

In reply to this comment by quantumushroom:
Some highlights with translations:

"My degree is in enginering...that speaks to my practical and analytical side."

But my FROSTED side speaks to the deliciousness that is me! TENNIS anyone?

"When I'm not being my integrated self, I'm wallowing in the muck of my own secret hell just like everybody else."

I'm wallowing in the muck of my own secret hell for all to see online.

"But my parole office says I'm mostly done with that now."

I killed my parole officer.

"I'm a man with a big heart."

It's in a jar in my refrigerator labeled PAROEL OFFCER.

"I'm seeking a connection on many levels..."

Such as intercoursal, sexual and copulatical.

"Yeah baby."

Austin Powers and I own a timeshare in the 1990s.

"If you identify as a very good girl, then we would probably not be a very good fit."

If your remains can be identified, you're too risky to keep as a trophy.

"I'm a bit of a bad boy."

My mom thinks I'm cool.

"If we click, I'll probably challenge you and surprise you sexually."

I'm uncircumcised.

hpqp, I think you are judging things based on Switzerland. But since this video mentioned American waistlines, I speak for America... We don't believe obesity is an epidemic (Even though it is over 25%...) Most don't believe children should be taken even when it is clearly abuse... Conservatives wonder why healthcare is so fucked up but those corn-fed boys and girls are part of the problem...

(All the above is not just ignorance, it's disbelief and/or denial.)

Now, I will reiterate, obesity and religious beliefs, despite your single objection, can be paralleled the way I do.

Not believing in something that is apparent and proven is equal to or greater than believing in something that is insanely speculative and based on fantasy.

For example. I don't believe in global warming, STDs or cats... Crazy as believing in god? I think so. But you are free to disagree as you have quite clearly done so.

The reason I thought you considered obese people crazy-ish is that they are posioning themselves. And parents? You say "neglect," but would you feel the same way if parents poisoned their children with mercury instead of simply dangerous overfeeding? I mean, one may be quicker, but that doesn't really make either right (The obesity will probably be around for their entire lives, as studies have shown, and/or the effects of the obesity...)

Lastly, you did it again. You left out the single part of my point that makes it defensible. Obese people can live a life without problem. Nowhere in my post did I say contrary, despite what you noted. "B-It always destroys what (Not "who") it touches in some way or another (Society, self, self esteem, healthcare, etc.)"

In other words, even though it may not destroy a person's life, even though a person can live fine being obese, it does destroy. In America, for example, it's okay to be obese. I mean 1/4 of us our, so why not? Let's just let it spread is now the motto. It is no longer a sickness, it is just a personality trait. And that is a crazy disbelief of something real.

p.s., Sorry this reply took so long.


>> ^hpqp:

@Lawdeedaw
Obesity and religious beliefs can hardly be paralleled the way you do. Obesity is largely caused by a change of diet affected by processed foods (corn syrup anyone?) and an extremely sedentary lifestyle, made worse by the fact that it is often cheaper to buy unhealthy/processed foods. Moreover, it is quite possible that genetics are involved in a person's likelihood of being obese (http://www.cdc.gov/Features/Obesity/). Do I think obese people are crazy? No. Like you said, the fat is there, you can feel it, you can taste the 10th liter of coke you're guzzling. I may consider the morbidly obese highly irresponsible, or perhaps mentally ill in cases of obsessive binge-eating, but it is not akin to the superstitious beliefs of religion that one is indoctrinated with as a child. Of course, stuffing one's kid with unhealthy food when an alternative is possible is at best the result of ignorance, at worst irresponsible neglect.
Btw, humans may wired to project agency (thus evolving superstitious beliefs), but religious belief is a matter of indoctrination. Recent studies are showing that young children will not naturally offer supernatural explanations for phenomena (see also this article).
p.s.: one can be overweight and still live a happy and successful life... obesity does not necessarily "always destroy what it touches".

Hahah, she has a point! We do ignore out waistlines... And what does that say about our damned species?

Obesity is kind of worse than God because A-we ignore it even though we have proof of it (Unlike God) and B-It always destroys what it touches in some way or another (Society, self, self esteem, healthcare, etc.)

I wonder hp, you think religion is crazy in every form, which is fine and understandable (Even though we seem genetically favored towards that insanity,) but I can't imagine how crazy you think obese people are (Especially since most people are not genetically favored towards obesity but we sure get there )