When Words Hurt: Dear Bully

When I wrote my blog last week "When Words Hurt" I intended for that to be a one shot blog but then something happened...again.

Words are thrown around so carelessly on the Internet and people use them without thought about repercussions. Explaining away with excuses "that's my bit". Well, guess what David Letterman, you are only half as funny as you and your little entourage of Internet bullies think you are. It isn't about your bit. It's about stopping the spread of hate on-line, in schools, and on the streets. Hate that leads to anger and anger that leads to the senseless violence against innocent people. Don't believe me? Let's think about it shall we? Aurora, Sandy Hook, Boston just to name three but this list could go on for years. Literally. What do they have in common? Angry, awkward people who lash out at a society that somehow, in their eyes anyway, failed them or terrorized them.

I bet you are thinking to yourself, what is she talking about? What kind of words? You know the kind of words that are based on a persons gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or physical or mental handicap for example. Things that your mother would have slapped you silly for saying unless of course, your mother wore a white hood and burned crosses...but I digress.

You may detect a tiny bit of anger mixed in with a little bit of annoyance when it comes to this subject. Probably because somehow the Internet seems to turn otherwise rational, level headed people into bullies. Oh, I will be the first to admit that I will call a person out when they are wrong but I draw the line at personal attacks and that is simply the moment when things become a matter of "unfollow and block" for me. That moment where people start targeting me. They start mass retweeting me, calling me names or setting their little gang of bullies on me. I am a grown up and I don't play child's games with children. Unfortunately the Internet is full of little kids hiding behind their avatars and playing grown up. The worst part of this is that a lot of the people hiding are the same socially awkward people that get attacked in real life and that is why they lash out on-line. Because they can. Nobody knows who they really are.

I have taken a stand against this on both of my Twitter accounts. It is now zero tolerance for me. I am unfollowing everyone who I see spreading or promoting the kinds of hate I mentioned above. Personally, I can't look the other way anymore. I am just tired and I have fought myself too long on this issue.

So, please share your thoughts on this. You may notice this is a subject overall that I am rather passionate about!


Simply,
Laura
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