Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11188061-20140819134710/@comment-9090085-20140819195402

I must confess to not having much experience with bullying(I was only really bullied during my first job, and even then, only for the last few months), and social interaction intimidates me.

BUT, from what little I understand of bullying, fighting bullying often makes it worse.

Stand up for someone else? They'll just be bullied even more when your not around. Stand up to them? Well, now they've gotten a rise out of you, giving them a reason to continue going after you. Tell an authority figure? They'll go after you whenever that authority figure's not around. (those last two, by the way, are what fucking happened to me)

So you must excuse me if I don't think RWBY and JNPR standing up to CRDL was the "mature" thing to do. If anything, the show indicates that would have made it worse: Cardin disproportionately lashes out at anyone who slights him(He wanted to get Pyrrha stung by a bunch of wasps for a few harsh words). Cardin only gets off his high horse when a monster almost kills him, and he is saved by the very person he was bullying.

Why do you think bullying is such a big deal? It's because there's no easy answer to solving it: Some bullies bully more when you stand up to them; others bully more when you try and ignore them(and some, both). Some bullies are easily cowed by authority, others are too slippery to catch.

Whew... just wanted to get that off my chest. Thanks for listening.