A bullying fine?

[GMDino]

(05-13-2016, 11:20 AM)Nately120 Wrote: Actually, I'd present the possibility that Lucie's (and other like-minded parents') brand of "stand up for yourself" is what led to those from the oppressed part of town lashing out at you in the first place.  I had some friends who worked some of those awful "wrap around" jobs right out of college and the amount of time they spent with kids who were told by their parents that they need to stand up for themselves by fighting back or lashing out was just saddening.

Personally, my old man taught me that self confidence was being able to avoid a conflict by letting some ignoramus think he is right (I do that in person, but I'm obviously not doing it on internet message boards, hardy har) but other kids are taught that self-respect is standing up for your part of the town, your race, your class, your friends, yourself, etc. and  not being afraid to "take a punch" and so on.

Our culture, from its very bottom to the very top seems to have misconstrued offense with defense.  Maybe those kids on the bus figured beating you into a pulp was going to prevent you from assembling your own posse from the other side of town and starting your own conflict.  Who knows.  What I do know is that children are being programmed to believe that fighting is some sort of honorable thing and that those who avoid is are cowards, lack self-respect, or are going to grow up to be wimps.

Long story short, I'd wager those kids bullying you were just doing what they were taught was the right thing to do and saw it as a manly defense of their part of town.  Can you really have pride in your own side without actively berating/attacking the opposition?  Different strokes for different folks.  

I don't wear Bengals stuff around Pittsburgh because total strangers will actively start antagonizing me based on nothing more than my affiliation (some people feel absolutely compelled to do these things).  It wouldn't occur to me to give grief to a guy in a Steelers jersey, not because Bengals fans are better/wimpier than Steelers fans, but because I was raised to believe antagonizing strangers was stupid at best and dangerous at worst.

On our 10th wedding anniversary my wife and I went back to the Poconos.  At the resort they sit you with other couples at the the meals to encourage making friends I guess.

Guy sitting across for me is wearing everything Cowboys.  I had on Steelers shirt.

We're all making small talk and he finally gets real animated and says " I can't sit here and look at that Steeler stuff without saying how much I hate that team!" And we both laughed about it.  then we traded some barbs about which team was better and who had beat who the most and that was that.

I try not to be "that fan" who busts the other guy immediately, but I don't mind the banter.