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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJim Acosta: Why are we building a nation of bullies?
Link to tweet
Acyn
@Acyn
Acosta: If Bannon can defy a subpoena while spouting batshit crazy nonsense on his disinformation podcast if the bullies and their enablers can continue gaslight us with their lies about bamboo ballots and horse paste then no wonder the bully-in-chief is plotting his comeback
1:44 PM · Oct 9, 2021
Xoan
(25,321 posts)AZLD4Candidate
(5,689 posts)The bullying in adult life is just more subtle and indirect, but it's bullying none the less.
Tactics are still the same:
Gaslighting
Playing to the crowd
Intimidation
Stabbing in the back
Narcissism
Machiavellianism
Nihilism
Sucking up to those to gain power
Stepping on those they can to get ahead
Getting rewarded for it, then becoming insufferable dictators
Shaming and ostracizing
Passive-aggression
These tactics are well rewarded in adult life. And corporate culture (I include non corporate culture like schools because it happens in schools to teachers all the time) encourages it.
Social Darwinism and "survival of the fittest" are well ingrained in cultures everywhere.
As I get told, "it's the way things have always been."
yonder
(9,665 posts)budkin
(6,703 posts)They want a strongman to put them in their place.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)These media goobers just don't get it.
The time to ask that question was thirty years ago, when Ronald Reagan was acting like he was going to put swinging doors on Congress.
Fuck "building", dude. It's done been built.
Tommymac
(7,263 posts)TFG's supporters are the loudest in the room, no doubt...but they are also way in the MINORITY of Citizens!!!!!!!!
If the media would tell it like it is, stop trying to make ratings by falsely dissing President Joe, and telling the TRUTH about TFG and his insurrectionist Party, this would stop.
Answer me that Mr. Acosta...your industry is a HUGE part of the problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AZLD4Candidate
(5,689 posts)My wife loves Gordon Ramsay. I like his recipes, but he's EVERYTHING wrong with life and proof the bigger jerk you are, the more people will like it. Why no one has ever taken a swing at him, or that right wing toll Jon Taffer, I don't ever know.
Ramsay even belittles and insults children on that children's cooking show. He's a piece of crap.
Most "breakout characters" on sitcoms are the same way. They are all bullies. Some (like Sheldon Cooper) get their own spinoff. This crap normalizes this kind of behavior.
Dick Wolf World shows produce nothing but bullies as characters, holding them on a pedestal. Law and Order (all of them) and that awful Chicago PD are the worst examples.
multigraincracker
(32,676 posts)Always. Works well.
AZLD4Candidate
(5,689 posts)OldBaldy1701E
(5,128 posts)We are just not trying to act like it isn't there anymore. Which is a good thing.
AllaN01Bear
(18,201 posts)we were doing well for a while untill tfg came along and allowed it.
why cant these ppl be arrested for contempt. i would .
relayerbob
(6,544 posts)As in present tense? They really needed to have been paying attention for the last generation or two
Baitball Blogger
(46,705 posts)It's been going on in my neighborhood for about twenty to twenty-five years now.
bucolic_frolic
(43,161 posts)They have a tactic, they're going to stick with it until it doesn't work anymore. Then they'll try something else, or something lethal.
RANDYWILDMAN
(2,672 posts)it is the only thing they understand.
we continue to be too nice to criminals
Mr. Ected
(9,670 posts)Moreover, the wheels of justice turn slowly but grind exceedingly fine.
Too slowly. WAY too slowly. The world doesn't move that slowly anymore. Today's pressing issue can't be litigated five years from now. They're using the "gap" to get away with stealing our democracy. By the time they face justice, it's too late. Anyone clinging on to the "way it's always been done" isn't accounting for the speed at which our world turns today.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,470 posts)Too many bullies too many enablers.
Too many dark triads.
Abuse dynamics are being writ large in this culture. I wonder how there has been so many abusers coming out of the woodwork and why now?
We have to do something about the psychopaths,authoritarians and narcissists.
They aren't that asshole guy at the bar or that fucker that mistreats his kids anymore . They have inserted themselves into our government and courts.
They have become a voting bloc big enough to dominate the republican party.
And they have gotten so much worse and too numerous.
But what to do about it?
I dunno.
Elessar Zappa
(13,991 posts)most Trump voters are sociopaths but I do think they appreciate an authoritarian, father figure type leader. The ones at the top who do the manipulating are certainly sociopathic though.
AZLD4Candidate
(5,689 posts)Professors bully you (especially if you disagree with them)
Co-workers bully you (especially if you aren't part of the workplace clique)
Supervisors bully you (especially if you don't kowtow to them)
Police bully you (unchecked power and a culture that rewards it)
Family members bully you (especially if you don't follow what the elders of your family demand)
Government gaslights and bullies you (especially if you disagree)
People on the sewer of social media bully you (internet trolls can keep their identity safe and say whatever they want)
Hollywood gaslights you (unrealistic standards of beauty)
Media bullies you (well, they just treat you like you're stupid and creates a narrative you are browbeaten t accept)
Government bureaucrats bully you (because if you argue with how they speak to you or treat you, security is called)
Religion bullies and gaslights you (especially if you don't accept the faith and its teachings)
Civic organizations bully you (most just want your money and the leaders act like it's their own fiefdom when you volunteer)
Bill collectors bully you (their tactics border on psychological abuse)
Parents bully you (even as adults)
This entire society, as well as most societies in the world, is built on, encourages, and rewards those that bully, stab you in the back, lie about you, snitch on you, and exhibit the most manipulative, sociopathic, narcissistic, and Machiavellian traits.
But it's been this way since the beginning of civilization. And it will never change.