h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i personally liken this sick, deprived past time to dropping an atom bomb or fireing a missile you press a button and off it goes you don't see the devestation it causes,
but what do you think

Well...I doubt you're going to get anyone singing the praises of cyber bullying. *However*...as bad as dropping an atom bomb or firing a missile?

it is similar in the way that you annot immedetly see the effects and it is as cowardly

I hope that's not happening here

no i just read an artical about that family

Any form of bullying is bad

*weighs up the two*

Option 1 - blown into tiny shreds/slow death from radiation sickness etc.

Option 2 - somebody I've never met, posts things about me in a medium where I only exist as a pseudonym.

Let me think about it...

sprout

I think it was likened to. That doesn't imply it is as bad as.

It's called drawing an analogy.

I'm not convinced it's that anonymous though. I think most cyber-bullies wouldn't get what they wanted out of it if they kept it all anonymous and never really saw the effects.

Bullying in general certainly isn't harmless and like those weapons mentioned in openning post, causes deaths. School children in particular seem to take their own lives, I suspect partly due to fact they are in school and it isn't easy to get away. Even adults I would imagine kill theselves due to bullying, it must be difficult for a man to admit to being a victim of workplace or otherwise bullying. I often wonder if cars that have been in accidents with no cause where a man on his own has died were suicide.

what family were you readnig about?

My guess is it's this one

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7970491.stm

To me this is worse than dropping a bomb on Hiroshima. Not, obviously I hope, in terms of consequence, but in terms of relationship between abuser and abusee.

Sitting in the loading bay of the Enola Gay, doing your bit for Uncle Sam and preparing a city of people you've never met nor had any occasion to give a moment's thought to a hideous death. Contrasted against specific people to whose squalidity of life you've been given front row tickets, been invited to judge them on the grounds of their burden to the state, then picked off with mental violence one by one, from the safety of the cosy desk you're sat at, blissfully bereft of the impulse to look down and see the wreckage you've left behind.

I would rather carry an extra 20 stone of fat than a gramme of the sort of mentality that would pick out the weaknesses of people like this and hound them to such personal agony for it. If you think they deserve to be treated like that for allowing themselves to get so fat, then you deserve equal disgust for allowing yourself to get so unforgiving.

while i dont condone bullying of any type.....(yes its not going to be nice in some peoples views)

if you put yourself out there in persuit of the cult of celebrity, you should be aware that there will be a negative element and you must accept some of the responsability for making a target of your self.

everyone knows what a pack of pirahnahs, heyenas and jackals the press are and the only way to avoid their attention is not to show up on their radar, or be whiter than white, good news does not sell papers..........

"I often wonder if cars that have been in accidents with no cause where a man on his own has died were suicide."

Often pondered that one myself. Either that or it's the irrational feeling people often get when death could be a split second away if the tiniest of movements were to be carried out; twist the steering wheel, step off a high place, drink something toxic, etc.

I think most people have felt it. They have no reason to want to kill themselves, it's just that at that precise moment it would be so easy. It's like seeing a big red 'press me' button. Perhaps some people actually hit the button for absolutely no reason, other than they can.

There was a Siouxie and the Banshees track - 'fear of the unknown' (perhaps not originally by them) that describes this phenomenon.