Dear MAGA: 20190531 Open Topic

There was some legitimate research into bullying phenomena being done, which has led to some interesting and valuable insights. The bullying research was in its infancy in the 1990s, but ramped up dramatically after Columbine in 1998.
The real problem is the Neo-Marxist narratives of victim/oppression are tailored to provide pre-determined victim/oppressor groups.
Given the timeframe (late 90s, early 2000s) the victimhood narrative that was the most popular was the neo-marxist fable that homosexual children were being aggressively bullied by hetero-normative society and peers. Cue up many bullying incident stories where students were teased for acting in stereotypical opposite gender manners, combined with name-calling “wusses”, “sissies”, “fags”, etc.
It’s helpful to recognize that around the same time, when young people “came out of the closet” (and I saw this mostly with undergrad college students) it was not unusual for them frame their story of “coming out” in terms of 1) how that they did not match up with the stereotypical gender roles (boys who were not athletic, or artistic interests) 2) that they were teased for being different than other of the same gender (for example, locker room teasing about not being athletic, name calling “fag”, etc.) 3) at some point, a struggle occurred for their sexual identity, and they either “discovered” they were or finally “accepted” that they were homosexual.
I’ve had this question many times, “how do you know that you are gay?” and it always defaulted back to the behavioral interests and never to something more concrete. Even the literature provided by the LGBT student unions was telling, “There is no sure way to tell if a person is gay, but…”
So LGBT-questioning students are told they are victims of bullying, and they are likely to find examples in their personal history that affirm that narrative. Combine with a little love bombing, and provide them faux social acceptance when they affirm LGBT ideology, and you have a powerful mix that resembles the mind control methods employed by cults since the 1960s.
The “bullying epidemic” does show how much of a joke the “socialization” argument is when employed against homeschoolers. The fact is that unregulated peer socialization among children, combined with the toxicity of cultural influences that said children bring to the table from their various backgrounds, results in a very toxic social mix. Social stratification results, with a high degree of in-group/out-group behaviors which cannot be reasonably described as healthy. In-group identities are subject to extreme peer pressure that reflects tribal conformity: brand identification, mimicking clothing and dress styles (usually without room for deviance), often immature or toxic behavioral norms, and of course common risk taking activities and initiations to prove loyalty with the tribe against outside groups most notably authorities. Out-group socialization and ostracism has its own sets of problems. This kind of “socialization” is absurd, yet professional educators continue to trumpet this as a benefit of school systems, even while they struggle to deal with the supposed “bullying epidemic” facing American schools. There is no logic here: Bullying is always happening somewhere else they rationalize because they are aware and dealing with it.
Unsurprisingly, these leftist indoctrinated teachers and administrators are often themselves the bullies. They have preferred and prejudiced narratives of who the bullies/victims are. They often side with the bullies against the victims, overlooking blatant offenses with pathetic excuses “he’s too sensitive” “he needs to toughen up” or the real gem “he was asking for it”. In effect they encourage the bullies and disempower the victims from standing up for themselves – a key authority figure, the teacher, won’t take the victim’s story seriously, and the child has absolutely no recourse or action in this system when the teacher will not advocate on his behalf.
The bullying teachers and administrators, enlightened saints of anti-bullying who Are Never Wrong, bully other teachers and administrators into compliance. But that’s not enough – they constantly bully parents into compliance with their norms as well, issuing idiotic edicts and using their power over student records and graduation requirements as weapons to make parents act as they like in the most controlling of manners, including how they drop of their “students” (always referred to as “students” and never as the parents’ children) or what is or is not allowed in their lunches.
Anyway there are two major solutions for dealing with bullying:
1) Help the individual student develop resiliency. This does not mean telling the kid he has to “toughen up” but rather actually help him by providing the tools he needs to be resilient. This includes more than just a vague emotional resilience, but also developing a trust in authorities that his problem will be taken seriously, that there is a fair and just order society is expected to follow, and helping provide the tools for how to respond in bullying situations.
2) Strive to create bully-free environments. Protect students by removing identified bullies. If that can’t be done, create safe spaces where students can be safe from bullying and bullying language. Teach the students about the dangers of bullying speech, and reign in any speech that is deemed harmful, offensive, or hurtful.
Hmmm, we can see where THAT is going, right? Let’s guess which path most leftist educators prefer…