School Bullying Tied To Trump Supporters

[ImmortalFlame]

There has been a spirit of maliciousness going on in American political conservatism for a long time. Trump is just another in a long line of verbal 'bullyboys' that the American right seems to universally support and admire. The question in my mind has always been what's fueling all this bile toward their fellow Americans? Why are they so keen to insult and humiliate fellow citizens, and fellow humans?

I think it's an expression of their own fear and personal loss of autonomy, dignity, and self-respect in a culture that has become only and all about money, under a government that treats it's own people like nothing more than serfs and slaves to a corporate oligarchy that seeks only to subjugate and exploit everyone and every thing for their own profit. In the same way that abused children grow up to become angry, resentful, and abusive adults, the American right has become the personal identification umbrella for many adults who are feeling abused by their own government and culture and want to abuse someone else to try and gain back some sense of their own power. It's why scapegoating others, especially anyone they perceive to be weaker or lesser then themselves has become such a high priority for the new American right. They watched and hooted their pleasure and agreement every time Bill O'Rielly verbally humilited some guest he'd labeled a "liberal" on his show, regardless of the ceapness of his tactics, his ignorance of the facts, or the actual cultural/political affiliation of the 'guest'. He was the favorite verbal gladiator of the American right for a long time. And there were and still are many others. It's also the reason the American right is so obsessed with their loathing of "political correctness". Which is in reality any instance where their vitriol and bile and bullying toward their fellow citizens is being publicly exposed for what it is, and called into ethical and moral question.

As the corporations have gotten better and better at turning us all into their 'abused children', those among us feeling that abuse most keenly, and not wanting to face their own humiliation, are seeking to abuse and humiliate others, to get back some sense of their own power and self-worth. And the republican party, the party most aligned with the abusers, have realized that they can use that bile and desire to bully others to their own advantage, just as the radio and tv networks have also realized they could cater to it to gain many loyal viewers and listeners. So that now we have a whole industrial strength conglomerate feeding off of, and feeding into this desire to abuse and humiliate those they label as being of lesser value. We have become a culture bullies and bullying. And Trump is the current mascot for it, riding that wave of fear, anger, resentment, and bile in the hearts of those who are being subjugated and abused, but are too confused and frighted to actually identify and fight back against their real abusers. And of course he's doing, like all the other people riding that wave of bile, to his own personal advantage.

Excellent post - I think you've hit the nail on the head here.

 

[Audie]

​

It's almost an, "of course there is. Why would anyone be surprised?"

"Bullying rates among middle school students in the spring of 2017 were 18 percent higher in localities where voters had favored Donald Trump than in those that had supported Hillary Clinton, according to a study published online today in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. Similarly, student reports of peers being teased or put down because of their race or ethnicity were 9 percent higher in localities favoring the Republican candidate."
source
​

.

Is this a satire on "blame trumo for evertything"?

 

[Audie]

There has been a spirit of maliciousness going on in American political conservatism for a long time. Trump is just another in a long line of verbal 'bullyboys' that the American right seems to universally support and admire. The question in my mind has always been what's fueling all this bile toward their fellow Americans? Why are they so keen to insult and humiliate fellow citizens, and fellow humans?

I think it's an expression of their own fear and personal loss of autonomy, dignity, and self-respect in a culture that has become only and all about money, under a government that treats it's own people like nothing more than serfs and slaves to a corporate oligarchy that seeks only to subjugate and exploit everyone and every thing for their own profit. In the same way that abused children grow up to become angry, resentful, and abusive adults, the American right has become the personal identification umbrella for many adults who are feeling abused by their own government and culture and want to abuse someone else to try and gain back some sense of their own power. It's why scapegoating others, especially anyone they perceive to be weaker or lesser then themselves has become such a high priority for the new American right. They watched and hooted their pleasure and agreement every time Bill O'Rielly verbally humilited some guest he'd labeled a "liberal" on his show, regardless of the ceapness of his tactics, his ignorance of the facts, or the actual cultural/political affiliation of the 'guest'. He was the favorite verbal gladiator of the American right for a long time. And there were and still are many others. It's also the reason the American right is so obsessed with their loathing of "political correctness". Which is in reality any instance where their vitriol and bile and bullying toward their fellow citizens is being publicly exposed for what it is, and called into ethical and moral question.

As the corporations have gotten better and better at turning us all into their 'abused children', those among us feeling that abuse most keenly, and not wanting to face their own humiliation, are seeking to abuse and humiliate others, to get back some sense of their own power and self-worth. And the republican party, the party most aligned with the abusers, have realized that they can use that bile and desire to bully others to their own advantage, just as the radio and tv networks have also realized they could cater to it to gain many loyal viewers and listeners. So that now we have a whole industrial strength conglomerate feeding off of, and feeding into this desire to abuse and humiliate those they label as being of lesser value. We have become a culture bullies and bullying. And Trump is the current mascot for it, riding that wave of fear, anger, resentment, and bile in the hearts of those who are being subjugated and abused, but are too confused and frighted to actually identify and fight back against their real abusers. And of course he's doing, like all the other people riding that wave of bile, to his own personal advantage.

For those unsure of the difference between a "screed" and a
"scrod", a scrod is a fish. The above is a screed.

G. Orwell said it with fewer words:

"Two legs bad, four legs good"

 

[Audie]

The four legs-two legs is not actually meant to be funny.
The ugly venom in the post I was responding to is far
from funny.

I like to believe that both the liberals and conservatives
are primarily people of good will, and good patriotic
people who want the best for their country.

And not that far apart in their ideas.

If the shrill fringe of extremists think they
are somehow making anything better with their
polemics, just how that will happen is a mystery to
me.

 

[Mindmaster]

How did they sample? What was their target population and what was their study population? Did you even look?

I'm just saying you can support these statements either way - they're not entirely untrue just localized, depending on where you feel like looking. If you go to Jackson, Tennessee it's going to support the "Liberals being bullied" narrative, if you go to Los Angeles or Chicago it's "Conservatives being bullied." (And, I can personally attest to that being the case in both those locations. )

 

[PureX]

Excellent post - I think you've hit the nail on the head here.

Unfortunately, the bullies will not see themselves for what they have become. So this wave of bile and abuse will continue, because the politicians and media (and religious groups, too) that are riding the wave will continue to profit from it while the oligarchs will continue to use them to further enslave us all.

 

[Revoltingest]

I'm just saying you can support these statements either way - they're not entirely untrue just localized, depending on where you feel like looking. If you go to Jackson, Tennessee it's going to support the "Liberals being bullied" narrative, if you go to Los Angeles or Chicago it's "Conservatives being bullied." (And, I can personally attest to that being the case in both those locations. )

In good old Ann Arbor, MI, the leftiest town in the midwest,
being seen as a non-liberal will get one violence & vandalism.
(When a fundie conservative friend got a new truck, he finally
took my advice to avoid his usual bumper stickers. No more
slashed tires. It's hardly an isolated thing.)

Some liberals are continually putting up threads to stroke their
sense of superiority....they're smarter, faster, better, darker,
more educated, more tolerant, more artistic, more open minded,
more...you know...all that is good & moral.
Whence springs this need to feel above others?
And why is it so fragile?

 

[Audie]

Unfortunately, the bullies will not see themselves for what they have become. So this wave of bile and abuse will continue, because the politicians and media (and religious groups, too) that are riding the wave will continue to profit from it while the oligarchs will continue to use them to further enslave us all.

The libs on the other hand know exactly how rotten
they are, so they hide their faces.

 

[PureX]

In good old Ann Arbor, MI, the leftiest town in the midwest,
being seen as a non-liberal will get one violence & vandalism.
(When a fundie conservative friend got a new truck, he finally
took my advice to avoid his usual bumper stickers. No more
slashed tires. It's hardly an isolated thing.)

Some liberals are continually putting up threads to stroke their
sense of superiority....they're smarter, faster, better, darker,
more educated, more tolerant, more artistic, more open minded,
more...you know...all that is good & moral.
Whence springs this need to feel above others?
And why is it so fragile?

And country music does the same thing for the right, ad-nauseam. The tribalism on both sides is being driven by the hyperbole of politicians and media personalities, both of which are gaining personal advantage and economic profit off our unfortunate human propensity to scapegoat others for the sake of our own self-esteem. Humans have a lot of "lesser angels" like these, but we can manage to reign them in when our culture and social systems encourage us to do so. Unfortunately, at the moment, our culture and social (mostly economic) system is encouraging just the opposite. And so the scapegoating and tribalism is dominating.

 

[youknowme]

I'm just saying you can support these statements either way - they're not entirely untrue just localized, depending on where you feel like looking. If you go to Jackson, Tennessee it's going to support the "Liberals being bullied" narrative, if you go to Los Angeles or Chicago it's "Conservatives being bullied." (And, I can personally attest to that being the case in both those locations. )

In other words: You didn't look at the study.

 

[Audie]

And country music does the same thing for the right, ad-nauseam. The tribalism on both sides is being driven by the hyperbole of politicians and media personalities, both of which are gaining personal advantage and economic profit off our unfortunate human propensity to scapegoat others for the sake of our own self-esteem. Humans have a lot of "lesser angels" like these, but we can manage to reign them in when our culture and social systems encourage us to do so. Unfortunately, at the moment, our culture and social (mostly economic) system is encouraging just the opposite. And so the scapegoating and tribalism is dominating.

Ok good to see you say that, as your posts
have normally been very one sided

 

[Mindmaster]

In other words: You didn't look at the study.

Does it bother you? Maybe, I'm just not interested in reading something I knew already. Life is too short to waste on non-essential efforts.

Or, is it that you're a control freak and you're triggered?

 

[youknowme]

Does it bother you? Maybe, I'm just not interested in reading something I knew already. Life is too short to waste on non-essential efforts.

Or, is it that you're a control freak and you're triggered?

I don't think you really know that much. I think you pretend to know, but that you don't really.

 

[youknowme]

​

It's almost an, "of course there is. Why would anyone be surprised?"

"Bullying rates among middle school students in the spring of 2017 were 18 percent higher in localities where voters had favored Donald Trump than in those that had supported Hillary Clinton, according to a study published online today in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. Similarly, student reports of peers being teased or put down because of their race or ethnicity were 9 percent higher in localities favoring the Republican candidate."
source
​

.

After some thought here is my input on your study. This was an interesting study, as it raises some questions about making inferences.

It is for the state of Virginia, that means it cannot be generalized on a national scale.

The data are from a "survey to seventh- and eighth-grade students in the spring of 2013, 2015, and 2017" and were collected from "Nearly all (97%) eligible schools with seventh- and eighth-grade students participated, with student participation rates exceeding 80% in all years", by using an online Qualtrics survey.

This creates an interesting statistical dilemma, since we nearly have a census but not quite and we don't have random sampling. If we have a census (where every subject in the population is measured) then we don't need random sampling to make inferences; however, when we don't have a census then we need random sampling. I think making probabilistic inferences here is a bit shaky, due to the fact that we didn't achieve an actual census and we do not have random sampling; our uncertainty is without a doubt inflated by an indeterminable amount. 97% of all eligible schools is good, but 80% student participation leaves too much room for error.

One thing I did like about this study was that the researchers seemed transparent about the limitation of their study, they stated, "These findings are correlational and cannot establish a causal relationship but invite the need for further study." I don't mind such limits when the researchers don't cover them up, I also don't mind limits to the scope of inference when people are honest about them. However, the media release seemed to be a bit more misleading than the researchers.

Some pros and cons, I think it is more of a preliminary study to find direction than something we can use to make solid conclusions.