Does school bullying play an important role in society?

[MCheetah]

Does school bullying play an important role in society?
As in, does a healthy society need school bullies and enemies in school, in order to create healthy adults?

Note: I am NOT asking "Do you like bullying?" or not; almost no one actually likes bullies. Nor do I care about your morality, either.

I am asking "DOES VERBAL SCHOOL BULLYING AND NAMECALLING PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN DEVELOPING CHILDREN INTO BECOMING WHO THEY ARE AS ADULTS IN A HEALTHY SOCIETY?"

Doesn't even have to be actual "bullying," but mocking or teasing someone. I am mostly talking about verbal bullying and maybe some light physical contact, like wedgies and stuff. I'm not really talking about fist fights and serious violence in schools, nor am I talking about death threats or trying to get children to off themselves. Obviously, there's a point of going too far. I'm not talking about that.

I strongly believe, yes, bullying or pushback served a role in balancing the social hierarchy for children.

"Bullying is a natural part of a balanced society. The negative to counterbalance the positives in life and make you appreciate them more. Like the predators that hunt prey in the wild. They may not be 'good' in the eyes of some people, but they definitely served a purpose. By either teaching kids how to defend themselves against those that would seek to oppress them. Or by putting the feckless and weak in their place so we don't get a generation of Millhouses on social media who think they can disrespect people without consequences. Bullies also often got put in their place as well, so they too don't grow up to become corporate D-bags and managers who disrespect people in workplaces like EA and Activision-Blizzard. When you remove bullying from an entire society for 25 years, you get Millennials and Twitter. Do you really want to live in a world where kids grow up to become Blue Checkmarks?" - MCheetah (off GAG)

Yes; regardless of them being 'good' or not for society, mocking, teasing, and bullying played an important role in the social hierarchy of children and helping to develop who they'd become as adults.

No, I don't think teasing or bullying was ever useful in any way and that society is better off without anyone ever disagreeing with, mocking, or teasing other children in school.

Updates

+1 y

Regarding myself... I went to a suburban high school full of weaklings and nerds. While I had an abusive mother at home and was borderline suicidal. No one really bullied each other at my school, but one kid tried to bully me. I pinned my elbow against his throat onto a locker and told him I was the type who'd follow him home and slit his throat in his sleep while he least suspected it. He never bothered me again. So while I could've easily been bullied, I wasn't exactly "sane" in high school.

[ChiTown33]

I think bullying is an inevitable part of life. Just another "rite of passage". I mean I'm not against anti bullying campaigns and whatnot. But I think it's delusional to think you'll ever eradicate it.

[JesseJayNeak]

Yes, in a way it does. Ever since we got rid of bullying, gender confused folks and keyboard warriors emerged more often than ever feeling comfortable disrespecting their peers

[annabananna]

We got rid of bullying?

[MCheetah]

@annabananna
There is Zero Tolerance rules in most schools in North America after Columbine happened in 1999, the first major school shooting in America. The only "bullying" that goes on nowadays is super-soft, weak BS like "cyberbullying." Back in the day, kids would actually get violent and punch each other. THAT used to be bullying, not "LOL, go KYS (kill yourself)" on Twitter. Not to mention, this hyper PC culture Hell we live in where "misgendering" someone can get a kid expelled from school.

So MOST of bullying has been outlawed nowadays in the West.

[Fuentes]

Lol i would not know at my schools was ghetto and i was kicked outta my first high school and i went to 3 different ones after and dropped out and went to an alternative charter school a year later as a super senior i was already known as crazy from my 8th grade days so nobody would ever step to me. Was their bullies, we had that saying "tryna be the big fish in the pond you know how them pirahannas get" so nobody really bullied.

Say there was a kid who just wasn't about it and he got punked, then you have to leave it at the fact you punked him or socked him out one time. But repeatedly trying tp fight someone who doesn't wanna fight pisses off other around and they would step up to fight. I remember at my third highschool their were a few instances of two dides getting into a fight one dude was pissed off his homie got beat up so they wanted to jump him. They came back while me and my homie were talking to the dude asking him why he fought and then the other guys came up saying come around the corner i don't like how you did my homie like that, come handle it with us and me and my friend jumped up like lets go. They said nah we dont got issues with you bro, just him i said nah y'all wanna jump when he already won let's go and the other dudes turned around and walked off & we didn't even know the guy they wanted to jump lol.

So i can't say there was really bullies growing up, everyone was their own bully i guess, when we all lived in poverty.

[JosyJosy]

In a way, it does yeah. Survival of the fittest. And if you get through it, it can build character. And some of the bullies might continue doing their thing and may end up working for the bullied victim so to speak.
But I don't like it, it makes you or it breaks you. You can get through and become stronger than ever but there is the other way too. Even if you 'survive'. You'll either choose to move on or decide to live in the past. With social media, the victim isn't even safe at home anymore. And looking at these spam posts "Am I ugly?" I think these people would break, imagining them getting bullied. They'd probably break.

[MCheetah]

I agree with you, but don't think Cyberbullying on social media counts. Everyone knows sites like Twitter and Reddit are full of some of the sh*ttiest people imaginable, and unlike actual school bullying, you can just turn the computer/phone off.

[JosyJosy]

I agree, but. But most kids don't know better, they won't turn it off, no thick skin, they'll let it get to them. School popularity already means the world to them.

[LovingLoverReturned]

In this form we are in yes, I think so. Like it build resilience.

But I think some targets (of bullies) are more heavily disadvantaged than others.. some will break, others will do like elastic and bounce back... Not sure if it is nature or nurture that determines how a person handles bullying. 🤔 Wish I knew.

[Aerissa_Jade]

Can't say it is a good thing, since it goes beyond just in school anymore to social media and online and people commit suicide over it.

It does though in a way, by showing who is going to grow up to be a asshole and likely criminal. Many bullies continue down that path as adults into doing whatever they want, not all of them but many do trying to get others to submit. Several of the bullies I went to school with are now in prison.

[exitseven]

I was buliied in 9th grade by a kid who was 17. He got left back a couple of times so he was older than everyone else. He was gone in 10th grade. I assume he dropped out. I never could find out what happened to him. I imagine his life did not turn out so good. I am probably a jerk to be happy about that but it is what it is.

[Aerissa_Jade]

@exitseven The big school bully in Junior high, a guy that picked on other guys, all the way through high school then turned to violence against women and ended up in prison for rape for 5 years in another state. I don't know what happened to him after that. It was his girlfriend he attacked, felt bad for her.

He just wanted others to submit to his will, or beat the shit out of them if they didn't. I suppose the next natural step for someone like that is to try and control women to, do what I say or else I'll just do it anyways.

I hope he ended up back in jail for the rest of his life... but I hear ya, can't these days it goes from in person to online as well.

[MCheetah]

@Aerissa_Jade
Sounded like if he got a good ass-kicking in junior high, it probably would've humbled him and he never would've tried that crap again. I blame others - students and faculty - for not stepping in and teaching this guy a lesson. Sounded like he never got any real consequences for his actions until well into adulthood.

[Aerissa_Jade]

@mcheetah He did get his ass kicked a few times, but rather than back off and be decent, he turned passive aggressive.

Meaning started doing things like throwing rocks through windows, vandalism. All off school property though, did it to his 'enemies' this was a guy that would never back down.

He even pulled knives on some people and tried to stab them, started getting in trouble with the police as early as 9th grade.

He then went from doing fights to just jumping people from behind and knocking them out with pipes then beating up unconscious people.

Maybe if he had that all happened to him first time he tried, but I don't think his family life helped. As his mother defended him, he would never do any of that and would scream racism for everything. She enabled him to do it.

[MCheetah]

@Aerissa_Jade
This is kind of what I mean, though. Bullies need to be "bullied" too. (Though in this case, we'd call it justice.) He didn't really get his ass kicked if he kept doing it. He just lost a fight or two. He needed to be sent to Scared Straight and have some actual convicts get in his face. That's the "right" kind of bullying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXtjfSUuuzg

[exitseven]

I vote B. I think a lot of kids get stunted by bullying They do not reach their full potential because they are discouraged to try. Yes it is true that maybe some that learn how to defend themselves. I am one of those people myself. However bullying does more harm than good.

[FatherJack]

As a result of dealing with bullies , I turned myself into a trained & resonably capable fighter , which is a plus , I can & have defended my family effectively. Mike Tyson is spot on !!

[Markie-mark]

Agreed, it's a means to learn passivity and also how to deal with conflict from other people

[TheSpaceGnome]

No, bullying us a useless thing, however measures to prevent it are also useless, because people need to stand up for themselves and others.

[ALewis30]

It some what help kids learn to stand up for themselves.