As a soon-to-be dad, in a recent post, coalspeaker writes eloquently about his concerns about bullying. But yesterday he wrote a great post called “The Great Division meets the Great Diversion” where he points out:
Americans have been forced to debate fraudulent issues.. Gay marriage, social issues.. we are blinded by anger that has no bearing on our lives.
This is something I’ve taken to calling “the Absurd Disconnect.” And sadly, I think even coalspeaker got hit with it in between writing these two posts. Bullying is like terrorism—it’s always been with us and it probably always will be with us. And just like the media took a handful of extremists and helped the government turn them into a war against our very way of life, the media is blowing this whole bullying thing completely out of proportion.
Should bullying be a crime? Of course NOT. The things we already designate as crimes are already more than enough to cover our bases. In fact, these things are too much since hate crimes are essentially punishment for wrongthinking. It shouldn’t matter why I kill someone. All that should matter is that I kill someone.
Likewise, you can’t arrest someone for being a horrible person unless he/she actually does something horrible (and illegal). And if picking on someone smaller than you is horrible then you better start arresting people in the US government and the US military and… you get the idea.
I believe firmly in a human right to choose to live or die on your own terms, but killing yourself because of what other people think? That seems pretty stupid to me.
Is it sad that a bunch of gay teens killed themselves? Of course. Is the bullying they experienced wrong, unfair and mean? OF COURSE. But were these kids ultimately responsible for their own choice to end their lives? Yes.
You’ll never make everyone happy—there will always be someone out there who hates you vindictively, whether he’s a bully or a Taliban. The smarter thing to do is just live your life as best as you know how and let the hard times make you stronger and smarter.
And does ANY of this have any bearing on saving our way of life?
Nope.
Just another absurd disconnection.
