Remember that iconic PSA about the dad who confronts his teenaged son about the pot he found in his room? The dad angrily shouts “Where did you learn this?!” and finally the son cracks and spews forth: “YOU, ALRIGHT? I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!”
And ta-da! Daddy is forced to face the Frankenstein’s monster that is the product of his own drug use in his angst-ridden son.
Welcome to the “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” society, perpetuated most confusingly by the media, entertainment, and pop-culture. We have the famous “It Gets Better!” anti-gay bullying campaign where adults tell bully victims that … it gets better and publicly denounce bullying. We have the White House moving on an anti-bullying summit. We have anti-bullying legislation being considered at the federal level. I just saw an anti-bullying PSA featuring Bas Rutten on cartoon network.
Columnists are wrestling with this problem, most recently brought back to the forefront after two viral videos: the victim who strikes back and the video of the Rebecca Black song, “Friday.” While it’s a trainwreck of a song written by a middle-of-the-road company, it was done by and for a 13-year-old and is decent for a teen. People trolling a barely non-tween about a song have hurt her feelings and parents are wringing their hands. While I believe that if you can’t take the good with the bad, then stay out of the industry, I recognize that such a stance also excuses the regressive parts of our society who think too much of themselves to dissent with any decorum, thus, bullying.
With all of this awareness, how can bullying possibly still be a problem? We must need MORE awareness!
No, there is plenty of awareness — it’s just that the adults aren’t aware of the bully tactics they employ daily which are witnessed by thousands and thousands of youth across the country every time they happen by a news broadcast or the paper. The media is proving to be a stronger PSA campaign than any of the above-mentioned initiatives.
Bullying is a problem amongst youth because it is a problem amongst the adults and it is sanctioned by the White House and Hollywood and even carried out by the media.
See, it’s OK to bully, so long as your victim is a conservative — better yet, a Christian, Jewish, or black conservative. (And especially if your victim is a female conservative.)
We saw the media openly persecute and bully Sarah Palin, conservatives, and tea partiers in the wake of the Tucson tragedy, which we chronicled extensively here at Big Journalism. Before anything about the killer – name, age, motive – was known, the media pummeled audiences with speculation that the act may have been perpetuated by a tea partier. Sheriff Dupnik neglected his duties and used the press conference as a soapbox, attacking talk radio and conservatives and doing opposite his job of protecting the public by putting innocent people — many he was charged to protect — at risk.
As a result, death threats against Sarah Palin skyrocketed and Tucson tea party organizer Trent Humphries received a death threat on national television.
Alternet took to crafting racial smears in lieu of legitimate, well-written content bullying Herman Cain simply because he is a black conservative tea party supporter who is running for the White House.
We saw protesters in Portland parade around with signs calling Sarah Palin a “whore.”
We heard Nancy Pelosi and an assortment of Democrats slander conservatives, call them Nazis, and bully them via the DHS.
We’re bullied every time we compromise our Fourth Amendment rights and allow the TSA to probe beyond our clothes and scan our junk or feel up out sensitive areas because the DHS is too terrified of political correctness to do real security.
Having learned nothing from the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, leftists emulated Jared Loughner by threatening to kill Scott Walker publicly. They issued numerous death threats to GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin, and entertained various wealthy celebrities (one of whom ironically made some of his fortune by not supporting union labor) call Walker an “idiot,” and tell everyone else why they must give up part of their paychecks without explaining to the masses why they’ve never taken the time themselves to send a voluntary extra check to the Treasury.
We’ve witnessed bullies threaten blogger Ann Althouse, telling her to step in line or get “f’ed up.”
We watched the DNC and OFA brag about assisting the Wisconsin rallies which has led to death threats against elected officials and private citizens, property damage, and “vitriolic rhetoric.”
We’ve also seen how some in society act like bullying is this newfangled problem, inherently suggesting, by omission of its long history, that it’s someone attributable to conservatives.
I could go on for great lengths.
So you’ll see why I mock the deliberate obtuseness with which certain media figures and entertainers hand-clasp over this newfound problem of bullying. It continues to exist because it is forever perpetuated and splashed all across the media.
The reason we see it amongst the youth is because the youth see all of the above. They learn it by watching you.
*I originally had listed Bas’s last name as “Lurmann,” not Rutten. As soeone who watches MMA, I should know better. Apologies.