personally, I was mostly the victim. but I can think of a small number of times where I punched down the pecking order because that's how I poorly dealt with the abuse by the real bullies.

I wish I had been encouraged to fight back by my parents. unfortunately the emotional abuse at home fully contributed to the lack of self esteem required to do so.

[–] countflacula@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago

Do you think your bullies would spend time on Lemmy? Much less admit they were bullies on a thread like this? I think there might be a bias at play here.

[–] YeOldGrim@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Well, speak of the devil. I was both. When one suffers, it is the way of life to spread suffering.

What would you like a person like me to say? That I was wrong? Sure. Do I still want to beat the everloving shit out of the people that perpetuated that against me first? Sure. Would I understand the guy that I was bullying to do it to me? 100%.

I suppose it would make it even. Regardless, the meme is applicable. Teachers knew and ignored the fact that I was bullied, but fuck me if I ever stood up for myself.

[–] Cannacheques@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 year ago

I will admit that I have probably been the main villain if not an asshole in different people's stories.

[–] InputZero@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I was mostly the victim of bullying, sometimes I'd bully others but I kinda knew how bad it was so I never went too far. Except for one guy. He was bullied by the whole school and because my friends had a bit of sympathy for him we were the closest thing to a group of friends he had. We'd eat lunch with him hang out during recess with him. Even we bullied him sometimes, although sometimes he really was insufferable. Many years later, long after we all were done with school and went out own ways I learned that he killed himself. I don't think that the bullying we did was what pushed him to choose to take his life. That would be really narcissistic. I do wish I could take it back and I can't tell him how sorry I am.