Bullying 2.0

 

I just read a silly screed deploring Matt Taibbi (a great investigative journalist IMHO) for rude/crude behavior many years ago in Russia….

 

Let it be known, I find rude and crude generally acceptable as long as the door isn’t locked and no one is required to listen in order to keep their job. If we women want to be seen as equal, we have to be able to function in the whole wide world and attempts to edit it to conform to recent Puritanical views are (to me) just a new form of Bullying.

 

Some years ago I started seeing the Bully as the new American role model. Now I’m seeing it further advance in an onslaught against egalitarianism, free speech and diversity. The very folks we might expect to promote diversity often now complain about ‘micro-aggression’ and demand ‘safe space’ where no contrary opinion is allowed. Those fighting to protect women from assault and intimidation have been joined by a pay-back crowd who seek celebrity based on cheap shots with little justification.  American culture at the moment has the character of a mob, bent on witch-burning and bringing down the house.

 

There are many ‘reasons’ for feelings of rage, impotence and disappointment- but there is only one real point to make here:

We are in an era of murder-suicide. The house that will topple is our own. Have we really run out of any other remedies or love for each other?