Perhaps I wasn't clear enough; I tried to point out there are lots of different kinds of bullies, and bullying situations. I never tried to set out that what I

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough; I tried to point out there are lots of different kinds of bullies, and bullying situations. I never tried to set out that what I was saying was representative of bullying in general, as I've never made a study of the issue. I tried to put qualifiers around what I reported was based upon my limited, personal, anecdotal experience. For the record, I do not blame the victim. I've done my speaking stint with a battered women's shelter in my area, I've seen and worked with victims aplenty and have a perspective that informs me better than to blame the victim. But victims need to know there are ways to stand up, get help, and get out of the situation. In some settings where bullying takes place in the US public school system (the context that I'm familiar with), there might actually be no help feasibly available. Facing the reality that one might have to fight back (and note that I first described it in a metaphorical sense of redirecting the bullying's energy in a judo-like manner), is to acknowledge this situation on the ground, and does not mean I desire to blame the victim or in any way stop advocating for more assistance infrastructure like what we have for battered women. If you have a more studied perspective, or your own personal views that influence how you view the issue that can help the kids getting bullied today, then I encourage you to share it here. If you want to go down the "...congratulating yourself for having it relatively easy..." road, then we all here discussing about bullying could be guilty of the same characterization, because this is #firstworldproblems to an orphaned 6-year old girl on the streets of Mumbai. There is always someone, somewhere, somewhen that has it tougher. My position is I'd rather not devolve into that kind of meta-discussion, and instead put more energy into a discussion that can help those suffering at the moment. Or we can just agree to disagree.