Smoking, burning, boiling hot take

Okay hear me out. Bring back Bullies.

Kids these days have grown too wimpy.
When I was in elementary school, and I’m sure they still have it, It was ingrained in our soft little minds to Not bully other people, not to hurt others feelings, etc. Well, It worked too well. Everyone has grown soft and weak, both in flesh, mind, and spirit. I say we need a few bullies in the school. People that keep the others in line. I’m not saying bullying is good. It’s just necessary. Somebody needs to get the weirdos in check, somebody needs to tell the obese people to lose some weight, Somebody needs to tell the skinny people to put on some weight.

I know this is going to be controversial, but I do not see any other way that will work. (Edit: now I do after taking 5 seconds to think after reading your comments)

I’m not saying people should beat up each other. I don’t think that’s very beneficial. Who knows though, it might.

The bullies have always been around, they just hide behind rainbow flags, vague and lofty language, and weaponized empathy now.

I sort of am. You’ll never be able to deal with bullies unless you have the ability to fight them off. To gain that ability, you need to train, which means getting your ass whooped over and over.

It works the same way with fists or words.

This is a dumb thread.

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There’s better ways to learn resilience and attitude than being beaten up by some jerk in school.

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This is all my kids need in a learning environment: psychopaths deeming what is normal and abnormal (eg, “weird”) and punishing them accordingly in whatever manner they want.

Can we get what bullying is straight though? I myself have a hard time distinguishing between bullying and torment. Can you give an example of bullying? If it’s typical smack talk, I don’t really care.

Do I get permission to accost my kids’ bullies if the bullying turns to torment?

By the way, in the 80s, my granddad’s friend went around the corner to the home of his son’s “bully,” brandished a knife, and told the bully and his dad, “I will fucking kill both of you!” Yes, it happened.

Another time, after some guy threated my uncle, my granddad took him by the neck and said, “You threaten him, and I’ll kill you,” and then shoved him into a car.

Are bullies ready for this?

Teachers used to regulate students.

Will you start first? You can go up to skinny and obese people and lecture them.

Liberals and leftists are neo bullies

Bully

I know.

Are you sure a lack of bullies is causing this problem?

What if it’s because of something else, like a culture which rewards victimhood instead of grit? Or perhaps it’s caused by an abundance of parents who want approval and friendship from their kids, instead of obedience and respect.

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I’ve taken your comments into consideration:

New take:

Make ‘fighting’ (boxing, for the most part, some other stuff), a class that everyone has to take (At least for a semester)

Get parents and teachers to actually discipline the kids (Im not saying bring corporal punishment, but, something other than sitting a room, or not having to go to school for a certain amount of time. I’m not sure about you but no school sounds like fun for them.)
make gym class more intense, not Only playing some games.

These would be better than bullying now that I think of it. People need more grit.

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By the way, in the 80s, my granddad’s friend

If were sharing stories, I’ve got one. When my dad was In high school (late 80s early 90s), he got stabbed in the back in the hallway between classes. Everyone walked by while he was just laying there, bleeding out. Luckily he recovered well

How we raise our kids has definitely gotten softer. I’m not talking about being angry dad with a whip, but adults are adults, and making your kid upset for not permitting everything is normal.

Also: social media, food culture, the over-individualization etc. do play a huge part. We’re growing the kids in the world of excess and instant rewards.

The one of the biggest lies you see everywhere these days: Everyone can be anything they want and achieve anything they want.

No. You can push your limits, but you’re never going to be excellent astrophysicist or a winner of worlds strongest man without being exeptional individual and working really hard. Chances are that you’re not exeptional at all.

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I’d go with more wrestling in public schools, not boxing. Put it back in PE class.

Corporal punishment is good as well, in my opinion. That doesn’t necessarily need to mean paddling or caning. A smack on your head from the principal can be an effective shortcut to understanding behavior expectations.

In my local public school district in 2025, teachers and other school staff may not put hands on children who fight or act out. This illogical extreme has resulted in higher levels of school violence than ever before, along with penises in women’s locker rooms and sports competitions.

I live in bizarro land, where it is considered “bullying” to object to a dude who is built like a gazelle dominating women’s high school track and field. If you say that he isn’t a girl at all, but a young man, you will be bullied into compliance by public school teachers and administrators.

If you say that he isn’t a girl at all, but a young man

Our school is lucky. It doesn’t have a lot of the woke stuff, besides some teachers having an “all inclusive safe space” sticker. They shouldn’t even have it though imo, it’s high school. Most of them aren’t even adults yet. All the boys are boys and all the girls are girls in our school it seems like, except maybe like 1 or 2 kids.

Consider yourself lucky! My local public school system has been completely transformed compared to when my kid graduated in 2018, when it was just starting to take root.

There’s also WAY more bullying and violence now, especially if I compare his time in elementary school, which was a very solid institution at the time, to now, 15 short years later.

A few different things can be true at once. You are right that kids these days have grown too wimpy. Don’t be one of them. Your teachers were right to tell you to not bully other people and not hurt other people’s feelings. It is called “being polite” or “having good manners”. Back in my day it was “the golden rule”. It is also true that weight training, wrestling, boxing, martial arts and sports in general are going to make you more physically capable. You become stronger, faster, more skilled at movement and accustomed to struggling against another person.

Reading a lot of books, studying hard, and not getting your ideas about the world from tik tok, etc. will also make you harder to bully with words. Having your teacher tell you that you’re wrong, then explain why and how to be correct in the future will make your mind sharper for future engagements.

In both physical and mental arenas, you have to train if you want to be bully-proof. You have to spar with others both physically and mentally. You must also do as your teachers instructed and be polite when you interact with people.

You have to become the bully, and then never bully anyone, unless they are elected government officials.

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Has anyone met a benevolent bully, the sort alluded to in the OP that provides tough love to obese, skinny, and weird kids? If so, how did the bully go about his bullying?

I’ve known plenty of guys who do acts of tough love, but not by berating anyone or slapping and shoving them around as their go-to move.

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Yeah, we’re estranged. His tough love made me feel like an idiot and a loser. I could never earn his approval after trying for 40 years.

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That doesn’t sound benevolent to me, it just sounds like bullying. I’m not sure there’s really such a thing as “benevolent” bullying, as bullying is inherently malicious.

In my mind, “bullying” and “tough love” are nearly mutually exclusive, but it depends on how someone defines each. In some peoples’ minds (perhaps your estranged person) berating another person is an act of love, but not in mine. Physical dominance can be an act of love, but only as a response, not as aggression.

We don’t get to control how the person on the other end feels about “tough love”, so it can easily be interpreted as malicious bullying. It’s all pretty subjective, and people will always struggle with confronting other people about perceived problems.

One thing is for sure, you can’t socially engineer it out of people.

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That makes a lot of sense. Maybe it has to do with intention? I try not to overthink the why too much these days. But I just know what I won’t tolerate anymore.

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