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I remember being relentlessly bullied during a specific period as a kid. Only when I decided to decisively fight back did it end and it ended immediately. It’s

I remember being relentlessly bullied during a specific period as a kid. Only when I decided to decisively fight back did it end and it ended immediately. It’s a lesson I won’t be forgetting.

benjohnson 6y ago
Same experience. And I lost the fight badly. Just showing that you have the ability to strike back is often enough. Oddly, became friends with my tormenter and had a lot in common.
- throwawayboise 6y ago
  I've seen the same thing happen with one of my kids, including the development of a friendship. Grandfather was right -- if you get hit, hit back, twice as hard.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    Does this advice work for any difference in sizes between the people? I suspect if one is so small as to not pose any threat at all and/or take on extra damage, it would end badly for them more often than not.
    - benjohnson 6y ago
      For me... yes. I was significantly smaller and was only able to weakly punch his chest. I got punched in the face and got a black eye and a sore skull. As an adult the concept works. Bees can’t hurt me significantly, and even when they land an attack they die - but I go out of my way to leave them alone.
    - krageon 6y ago
      > I suspect if one is so small as to not pose any threat at all and/or take on extra damage The trick is to turn off the switch in your head that tells you to stop if you're in too much pain or something is very wrong. Only real lunatics will keep going at someone that fights like that, and those are pretty rare.
kar5pt 6y ago
The bullying that I experienced was verbal. Hitting the bullies for saying mean things probably would have been overreacting (and lead to me getting in trouble), but it was happening in class so I couldn't "walk away" either.
- nicolas_t 6y ago
  I experienced a lot of bullying in middle school (junior high I guess in the US), almost everyone in the school called me the fag (le pédé in French). This was in the 90s so at that time homosexuality was much less accepted than it is today. It was verbal, I didn't fight back and had a hell of a year. When I went to highschool, someone in the class came up with a new nickname for me, despite much smaller than that person I fought back, I punched him as hard as I could, got badly punched back too. But after that, no one ever called me by that nickname. When my son goes to school, I will tell him to fight back in case of bullying. It's the way the world works and if I had known that in middle school, I would have had a much better time and wouldn't have had thoughts of suicide.

I remember being relentlessly bullied during a specific period as a kid. Only when I decided to decisively fight back did it end and it ended immediately. It’s a lesson I won’t be forgetting.

benjohnson 6y ago

Same experience. And I lost the fight badly. Just showing that you have the ability to strike back is often enough. Oddly, became friends with my tormenter and had a lot in common.

throwawayboise 6y ago
I've seen the same thing happen with one of my kids, including the development of a friendship. Grandfather was right -- if you get hit, hit back, twice as hard.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  Does this advice work for any difference in sizes between the people? I suspect if one is so small as to not pose any threat at all and/or take on extra damage, it would end badly for them more often than not.
  - benjohnson 6y ago
    For me... yes. I was significantly smaller and was only able to weakly punch his chest. I got punched in the face and got a black eye and a sore skull. As an adult the concept works. Bees can’t hurt me significantly, and even when they land an attack they die - but I go out of my way to leave them alone.
  - krageon 6y ago
    > I suspect if one is so small as to not pose any threat at all and/or take on extra damage The trick is to turn off the switch in your head that tells you to stop if you're in too much pain or something is very wrong. Only real lunatics will keep going at someone that fights like that, and those are pretty rare.

kar5pt 6y ago

The bullying that I experienced was verbal. Hitting the bullies for saying mean things probably would have been overreacting (and lead to me getting in trouble), but it was happening in class so I couldn't "walk away" either.

nicolas_t 6y ago
I experienced a lot of bullying in middle school (junior high I guess in the US), almost everyone in the school called me the fag (le pédé in French). This was in the 90s so at that time homosexuality was much less accepted than it is today. It was verbal, I didn't fight back and had a hell of a year. When I went to highschool, someone in the class came up with a new nickname for me, despite much smaller than that person I fought back, I punched him as hard as I could, got badly punched back too. But after that, no one ever called me by that nickname. When my son goes to school, I will tell him to fight back in case of bullying. It's the way the world works and if I had known that in middle school, I would have had a much better time and wouldn't have had thoughts of suicide.