bullying on social media articles

Bullying on Social Media: 5 Reasons Why People Do It

‘Want to know exactly why people participate in bullying on social media? Here are the 5 most common motives.

bullying on social media

Bullying on social media can be more humiliating and more devastating victims than face-to-face bullying. Why? Because the cruel taunts and attacks can be ready by a much wider audience. Moreover, vicious lies and ugly rumors have a much farther reach than in the days before the internet.

In this post, you will learn the most common reasons people use social media to bully. In other words, you’ll learn the goals of this type of bullying.

Once you learn all about these objectives, you will be better able to call it out. Also, you’ll have the ability to explain it to police, attorneys, the court, and therapists in a clearer, more intelligible manner without the risk of rambling and having to pause mid-sentence to search for the words to describe what you’re enduring.

This post is all about social media bullying, why people do it, and what they hope to rain so that you can have a better understanding of it all and quickly call it out.

Bullying on Social Media

This type of cyber-bullying is difficult for anyone. However, it’s especially damaging for children and teenagers, whose brains are still developing.

Sadly, many in this age group rely on likes, positive comments, praises, and high friend/follower counts to maintain their self-esteem. It shouldn’t be this way. No one should rely on social media to feel validated.

We live in the age of electronic baby sitters and internet addiction. Moreover, we have a generation of children and young adults who rely more on online communication than on face-to-face interactions.

This, in and of itself is a huge problem. However, it’s the reality of the times we live in.

Also, if you’re an adult who owns a business, especially a small business, this type of bullying can decimate your entire livelihood.

Therefor, the main reason people bully you on social media is to destroy your online and real-life reputation. This is the main goal of all cyber-bullies.

Effects of Bullying on Social Media

Marriage and Family:

Many people will use social media to destroy your marriage and cause discord in your family.

Causes many divorces and rifts in families. Cyber-bullies have been known to spread lies of infidelity to destroy their target’s marriage and cause problems in their families. Moreover, online harassers have also stalked their victims’ children and other family members.

People are sick these days. Therefore, you must gather evidence of it and report it to the police. Although there’s only so much the law can do, by reporting it, at least you’ll establish a paper trail.

Job and Career:

Many use social media bullying to destroy your job and career.

Can cause termination of employment from current job. Moreover, it can bring about loss of opportunities for future employment.

Cyber-bullies love to call their targets’ places of employment and get them terminated. Also, they love to blackball them to keep them from obtaining future employment.

You should never take this type of bullying lightly. Do your own investigation and gather your own evidence. Now’s not the time to be lazy.

Bullying on social media can destroy your finances:

This kind of bullying causes loss of income due to firing and lack of future employment opportunities. Therefore, it can also cause victims to lose their homes, vehicles, entire life savings, etc.

Therefore, if you have evidence of this kind of cyber-bullying and can ID the troll, talk to an attorney. You might be able to sue for damages.

Business:

Loss of customers and therefore, revenue. Cyber-trolls love to destroy businesses. Therefore, realize that it’s about power.

Again, if you have evidence and identification of the cyber-bully. Consult a lawyer and take it to court.

Health:

The stress from bullying on social media can cause not only mental health issues, but also physical ailments as well. Victims can also become disabled and unable to work because of the distress brought about by this type of online bullying.

Examples:

Examples of social media bullying include:

1. Spreading ugly rumors and lies about someone.

Cyber-bullies do this in hopes of defaming you and turning your friends and followers against you. Moreover, if you own a small company, they’ll do it to put a dent in profits and destroy your business and livelihood.

This type of bullying has caused many innocent people to lose their hard-earned reputations and, therefore, their businesses.

Additionally, cyber-bullies have ruined victim’s marriages by spreading lies and accusations of infidelity. In that, they caused division in families.

In short, many innocent targets have had their entire lives ruined due to cyber-bullies. Many more have died by suicide or have been murdered because of the vicious lies and cruelty of online trolls.

2. Bullying on Social Media:

Posting porn or compromising photos of someone

Online bullies do this to embarrass and humiliate their victims. Moreover, they also do it to make them look bad and sully their good name.

For example, classmates may sneak into the gym shower room and secretly take nude pictures of a targeted girl while she’s in the shower. They do this without her knowledge.

Later, they’ll post the pictures online for all to see.

Consequently, not only does this humiliate her, but it puts her in danger of being stalked and possibly raped by predators in the area.

Here’s another example: You have a lover who talks you into sending them nude pics of you and, without thinking, you comply. After all, you’re only thinking it would enhance your relationship. Right?

However, what happens a few months later, when the relationship ends and you part on bad terms? Remember, your ex still has all those nudie pics and beaver shots you sent six months ago. Moreover, your now ex-lover posts them online to get back at you for breaking it off with them.

Therefore, never EVER send a romantic partner nude pics of yourself. It doesn’t matter how much they beg and say they love you and would never this or that. Don’t do it! It just isn’t worth the risk!

3. Impersonating someone ad sending cruel messages to others in that person’s name.

Cyber-bullies do this to cause trouble in all your online relationships. In fact, this is a form of relational or social aggression because it’s specifically designed to destroy your relationships and to isolate you.

Therefore, if you endure bullying on social media, keep an eye out for any duplicate accounts with your name and claiming to be you. If you find some, send a disclaimer to all your friends/followers, warning them of the duplicates and to not accept friend/follow requests from them.

Moreover, taking screenshots is super important! So, gather your own evidence!

4. Bullying on Social Media:

Sending Cruel, threatening, or abusive messages/images through private message platforms, text, email, etc.

This tactic is designed to intimidate you and instill fear. Moreover, these bullies choose messaging platforms for secrecy and to keep others from seeing what lowlifes they truly are.

Therefore, take screenshots! Always, take screenshots when a cyber-bully attacks you via messaging. Then out them with it. It’s what I did when it happened to me and it worked. They left me alone.

5. Doxxing.

Doxxing is the most dangerous kind of cyber-bullying there is. What is it? You may ask.

When a cyber-bully doxxes you, they collect personal information on you and plaster it all over the internet. Moreover, the information they gather is your home address, phone number, email, and the names and addresses of your family members, friends, and associates.

Doxxers can even get your SS number and banking information to steal your identity.

Also, they also find the name, address and phone number of your employer and any organization you’re affiliated with.

This is especially dangerous because it puts you at risk of being home invaded, robbed, murdered. Someone could even target one of your family members just to get to you.

It just causes so many risks that wouldn’t be if your information hadn’t fallen into the wrong hands.

Therefore, people dox you to get your personal information and exploit it to cause you fear. Moreover, they may do it to place you and your family in harm’s way.

It’s best to contact police in situations like these. It may or may not work. However, you’ll have a report of it on file, which is a good step!

Bullying On Social Media:

In conclusion

One thing that bullying online has over face-to-face bullying is that you can gather evidence of it easily. Anything done online automatically leaves a digital footprint.

Also, you can take screenshots and print hard copies of any incendiary messages and comments to take to court.

Face-to-face bullying can’t be proven unless you keep documentation of it in a journal, wear a hidden body camera, or hide an audio-recording device in your purse, briefcase, or book bag.

However, this can be illegal depending on the laws of the state you live in. Therefore, before using any recording device whether body cam or audio, be sure to get abreast of the law. The last thing you want is for your bullies to sue you for invasion of privacy.

If you keep documentation of the bullying incidents, make sure you use the 5W method when doing so.

This post is all about bullying on social media and the reasons why people do it so that you can better pinpoint, report, and explain it when it happens to you.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. Cyberbullying Tactics: 9 Common Tricks of Cyber-Bullies and Trolls

2. Fight Flight Freeze Fawn: 4 Stress Responses of Bullying Victims

3. Stop Victim Blaming: 8 Reasons People Blame Targets for Bullying

4. Bullying is Abuse: 9 Ways Bullying and Abuse are The Same

5. Social Bullying Examples: 7 Reasons Bullies Destroy Relationships

cyberbullying tactics

Cyberbullying Tactics: 9 Common Tricks of Cyber-Bullies and Trolls

Do you want to know all the cyberbullying tactics so that you can better protect yourself against cyberbullies? cyberbullying tactics

Cyberbullying can be bullying of the most devastating kind and for anyone of any age- children, teens, and adults alike. If you’re a victim of this insidious form of bullying, you are doing all the research you can to find out all the cyberbullying tactics.

As someone who’s been there myself, I’m giving you the seven most-used cyberbullying tactics you need to be aware of.

You are going to learn all the tactics cyberbullies use.

After you learn about all the most-used cyberbullying tactics, you will be wise to cyberbullies and will better be able to protect yourself against them. Moreover, you will also be able to gather your own evidence against them and get rid of them once and for all.

This post is all about the cyberbullying tactics cyberbullies use to help you gather your evidence, stand against them, and overcome cyberbullies and internet trolls.

Cyberbullying Tactics

Before we go any further, let’s explore what cyberbullying is and how it negatively affects lives.

Cyberbullying is the most malicious and dangerous form of bullying there is. This is because attacks are seen by a much wider audience, and there’s a high degree of anonymity as cyberbullies are cowards and hide behind fake screen names and profiles to avoid exposure.

With that said…

Here are the 7 most common cyberbullying tactics:

1. Flaming: Inboxing you with a barrage of insidious messages.

Again, cyberbullies are cowards who fear being detected for the sick creeps they are. So, they use your private message inbox to unleash their vitriol onto you. Even if you delete the person from your friends’ list, they can still flame you through the inbox.

Many cyberbullies think that you will be so overly emotional that you won’t think to take a screenshot of the message. Therefore, they will be emboldened to keep this up until you properly handle the situation, which I will show you how later in this post.

However, here’s something you must NEVER do:

Never react to the vile messages by sending evil messages of your own. In other words, don’t call the cyberbullies names even if they start out name-calling you. Do not react by cursing the cyberbully out or use all caps, which is read as yelling.

The cyberbullies will only use your reaction against you. Remember that they want you to react so that they can turn it around on you and make you look like the troll. Don’t give them that opportunity!

Therefore, the best response is either no response at all or an intelligent response. If you’re going to respond, respond with something to the tune of, “You seem so angry,” or, “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

These are perfect responses because you aren’t taking the blame for their behavior. Also, it doesn’t make you sound like you’re bullying anyone.

2. Cyberbullies will tag you in a post, then claim you’re stalking their page.

This happened to me once. Although this is rather obvious (or should be) to others, this tactic is used by clueless and maybe drunk cyberbullies.

Therefore, screenshot this. In fact, screenshot everything.

3. They rally their friends to troll your page.

Once you hit the “Block” button, watch for an influx of friend requests from people you don’t know or who would otherwise never in a million years “friend” you. This almost always happens just after you’ve blocked a cyberbully.

4. Cyberbullies will troll the pages of your spouse, family, and friends.

 They do this to seek and gather information about you and those you’re closest to, which is then used as either ammunition to defame you, make fun of you, or to attack those you love.

Cyberbullies who are mentally sick and dangerous will use this tactic. Don’t let this scare you, but do be concerned.

5. Cyberbullying tactics: Creating hurtful, degrading, and humiliating memes of you.

Cyberbullies do this to intimidate, embarrass you, and to bait others to harass you. Again, screenshot this as you would incendiary messages and everything else they throw at you.

6. They have others (or they do it themselves) to insert images of porn and other disgusting materials onto your timeline.

Cyberbullies do this to cause you embarrassment. Moreover, they do this hoping that others will see it and think you’re some kind of pervert.

In most cases, this doesn’t work. However, you must still make screenshots. This is how you do your own investigation and gather your own evidence.

7. Cyberbullies will copy your profile photo and create duplicate and fake profiles in your name, claiming to be you.

Next, they send requests to all your family, friends, and associates to bait them to accept.

Once the requests have been accepted, the cyberbully then sends your associates deplorable messages or tags them and posts flaming or lewd posts to their timelines in hopes of causing friction between you and the people you care about.

Therefore, it’s up to you to warn your family and friends about what’s been going on. Also, you must tell them that if they get any duplicate friend requests from you, it isn’t you sending it. This is so important!

Sadly, there isn’t much anyone can do legally until better technology is introduced to track down these vile bullies, and more robust laws are passed against this practice.

8. cyberbullying tactics: lies and accusations

Cyberbullies will also post lies and accusations about you on social media and public forums. Therefore, they sully your good name and reputation, killing opportunities of all kinds. Moreover, if you own a business, your profits could take a huge hit.

Understand that this is a way for cyberbullies to cause you to become a victim of cancel culture. This has ruined many lives and families.

I can’t stress the importance of gathering your own evidence. This is not the time to be lazy!

9. They dox you.

Doxxing is when cyberbullies and trolls gather your personal information. They can get access to your street address, phone number, email, and worse, your driver’s license and banking information.

Other information they may access is where you work, where your children go to school, and who your parents are and their addresses. Scary, isn’t it?

Next, they will post it all online and even on the dark web to cause you to be harassed. Also, this can cause you to become a victim of identity theft.

Doxxing is the most dangerous form of cyberbullying there is!

Here are the best ways to bust a cyberbully.

I always use a method I call the SBRE method: Screenshot, Block, Report, Expose!

For this method to work best, you must perform it in this exact order!

1. Screenshot.

Out them! Expose them by taking screenshots of their profiles and of the nasty messages they send you. Screenshot every message or vile comment.

Also, screenshot every cruel meme. In short, screenshot everything.

Then plaster them all over the internet. Hey, they asked for it. So, put them on blast. Exposure is the best way to shut these idiots down.

Delete the incendiary posts or comments but keep the screenshots stored in a folder.

2. Combat Cyberbullying tactics:

BLOCK.

If the cyberbullies happen to be on your friends or follower lists, you don’t need them in your life- or stalking your page. Get rid of them!

Also, the sooner you block the creeps, the less likely they are to send you a virus or get access to any sensitive information.

Therefore, after you get all the screenshots you need (only you can judge whether you have enough evidence), block them.

3. Report.

Report the cyberbullies to the social media outlet. Every social media entity has this option. Use it. They may or may not do anything about it.

However, there will still be a record. Once you report the person, take a screenshot of your report and the response you get from the social media outlet.

4. expose.

Remember that a cyberbully’s worse fear is being exposed. Make their worst fears come true. Expose them by plastering the screenshots all over the internet.

You not only do this to spare your reputation and protect yourself. But you also expose the cyberbullies to protect others from being trolled by them.

And trust me! Other users will thank you for it!

This bears repeating! Always take screenshots and save any online bullying evidence because you never know when you might need them for litigation. If by chance, you find the true identities of your cyberbullies (this is easier than you think), you can more successfully pursue litigation.

Understand that this may take a little bit of work. However, it will be so worth it in the long run.If other tricks have been used against you and that I have left out, please feel free to comment.

This post was all about the most common cyberbullying tactics that cyberbullies use to help you to better protect yourself.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. Signs of Gaslighting: The 7 Signs You Must Know

2. Setting Boundaries: 3 Powerful Practices to Hold Your Ground

3. Acceptance and Tolerance: 5 Best Ways to Know the Difference

4. Signs of Toxic People: 5 Tell-Tale Indicators

5. Conditioning: 5 Signs You’re Being Conditioned

When Cyber-Bullying Becomes Dangerous- Doxxing

Not long ago, I wrote a post entitled, “Cyber-Bullies, Stalkers, and Trolls.” In it I mentioned the importance of not letting faceless cowards get to you. I also mentioned that most of the above were a bunch of losers who were living in their mom’s basements and were bored and miserable with their existences and were to be laughed at or pitied.

And that’s most certainly true with most keyboard warriors. But!

What happens when online bullying goes too far? What happens when you encounter a more sinister troll- one who doxxes you and finds out your address, cellphone number, where you work, go to school, hang out- or, even scarier, who your family members are?

Then, it’s no laughing matter! This is a situation you must take seriously because things can get dangerous fast. If a troll doxxes you and finds out all this information, who’s to say the cyber-stalking bully won’t show up at your door and try to break in? Who’s to say the creep won’t go after your spouse and kids?

Anytime you have a doxxer on your tail, you’re dealing with a very vindictive, diabolical, and mentally disturbed individual(s) and you don’t know what the person is capable of!

In recent years, we’ve heard many, many stories of people being doxxed and creeps showing up on their doorsteps wanting to deal with them personally. Some people have had to go into hiding and a few have even had to go underground. It’s terrifying!

This is not paranoia; these are real and legitimate fears. And it’s plain to see that the law isn’t doing enough to protect innocent, law-abiding citizens when it comes to cyber-bullying and doxxing.

I believe the reason why people aren’t protected, and laws aren’t passed to crack down on trolling, cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking, and doxxing is because neither Big Tech nor the government takes it seriously, and may even condone the behavior.

Big Tech is too powerful. Also, many of our lawmakers, especially oones with an evil agenda, secretly encourage this kind of behavior. How else could they keep track of, instill fear in, and censor those who do not go along with their narratives and who don’t live their lives the way theu think they should?

So, why would they regulate their own minions and tools who’ve been working for them and risk Big Tech de-funding their causes and campaigns?

Sadly, I don’t expect any laws to be passed to protect private citizens against doxxing anytime soon. In fact, if certain wealthy people (like George Soros, for instance) actually hire people to cyber-bully, troll, and dox “dissenters,” it’s a given that nothing will be done to protect the innocent.

With that said, if you’re ever in a situation where you’ve been cyber-stalked and doxxed by a cyber-bully, you must do what you must do to protect your privacy (or what little of it we all have left). Be aware of your surroundings and if anyone approaches you or breaks into your home, do what you’ve got to do to stay safe!

Doxxing cyber bullying

You have a  God-given, primal, and Constitutional right to protect yourself and the people you love. Yeah! You know what I’m saying. If someone inters your home uninvited and has clear intentions to hurt you and your family, you know what to do!

I may get some heat from the PC “woke” crowd over this post, but I don’t care. When it comes to safety and protection of human lives, any feelings and opinions automatically take a back seat. Period. Full stop!

Because, if some creep ever invades my house and it comes down to the lives of myself and my family, it’s no holds barred! I believe in the right to bear arms and to use them when the lives of you or your loved ones are threatened.

And I’d much rather be judged by twelve than carried by six- or worse, one of my family members get carried by six.

With knowledge comes empowerment!

Cancel Culture- A Breeding Ground for Cyber-Bullies Who Are Twice as Dangerous (Part 2)

 (…Continued from Part 1)

For the life of me, I cannot understand why these things have been allowed to go on. Why doesn’t the law do anything about terroristic threats like the ones above? Before the internet, if you stalked someone and threatened to kill them, you were arrested. You were charged with Terroristic Threatening, Stalking, or both and you went to jail. And back then, if you slandered or libeled someone without any evidence to back up your claims, you got your pants sued off.

You can’t tell me that this can’t still be done with the robust cyber-security agencies that we have today. You cannot tell me that the law hasn’t caught up with technology and can’t find the criminals who are destroying the lives of innocent people. How hard is it to ping an IP address? Even if the cyber-bully is hiding behind a proxy and cloaking their IP address, we have cyber-security teams who could still find ways to track them.

And what really blows my mind is that you don’t see many pedophiles and child sex traffickers being cancelled, which is pretty odd (and suspicious) to me. But I’ll save that for a future post.

Most of the time, cancel culture isn’t even justifiable. Cyber-bullies in the age of cancel culture attack people and publicly shame them for the most absurd, ludicrous, and ridiculous reasons! All it takes is for a person to say something, anything that someone else takes the wrong way, or for the wrong person to see an old high school photograph of a guy in drag at a Halloween party back in the 70’s. And back then, a lot of men dressed as women on Halloween, and no one thought anything of it. It was just a Halloween costume and some crazy kids out having fun. Yet the guy gets cancelled over it 40 years later. It’s ridiculous!

Alas, despite the deaths from suicide and murder that have arisen from cancel culture, people still allow this scourge on humanity to persist. And it’s so widespread that it will come knocking on your door sooner or later. Being a blogger, I already know that it could show up on my doorstep too! Cancel culture doesn’t discriminate, anyone can be cyber-bullied and cancelled. It can happen to you, me, anyone!

In fact, three years ago, I got attacked online for “walking on the wrong side of the street” during my power walk. Walking with traffic has always seemed like a death wish to me. I’ve always walked toward traffic just in case there’s a distracted driver on the road. And if a driver is going to veer off the road toward me, I want to see them coming so I can get the hell out of the way and avoid being hit.

Granted, I never got cancelled for it, but I was told that I was the most despicable person in the world- for walking toward traffic instead of with it. Sadly, I’ve heard of many other people getting cancelled over silly stuff like that.

People go so far as to dig up their target’s personal lives and find out where they work, where their spouses or their mothers work and get them all fired from their jobs. And for what? Some stupid Halloween costume they wore forty plus years ago? Over something stupid they may have said while drunk at a kegger thirty years ago? Or because they worked at a company or for a person that is now on the cancel culture hit list twenty year ago, ten years ago, or five years ago?

It seems that cancel culture cyber-bullies must search, and search far and wide for something- anything- even the tiniest little social infraction to get the pleasure of cancelling someone. And these people will find one even if they must invent it.

It only shows that the cyber-bullies who do these kinds of things have entirely too much time on their hands. Cancel culture does nothing to make people better or teach them a lesson. What it does is make cyber-bullies that much more brazen and much more dangerous.

It gives these bullies exactly the power they need to completely obliterate the lives of innocent people who are just trying to make a living, take care of their families, and live in peace- these targets are mostly people who mind their own business, go on about their lives, and just want to be left alone.

You may disagree with me and you have every right to your opinion. But I think cancel culture should be against the law. I think it should be a Class A Felony at that! No one should be given carte blanche to screw around with someone else’s livelihood and personal life just because they don’t like them- or don’t like what they say, how they do things, the way they live their lives, or who they associate with. If that person isn’t committing a crime, their livelihoods and personal life should be off limits!

Just by the very nature of cancel culture, the cyber-bullies that go to these lengths to destroy their targets may say that they want to “teach them a thing or two” but, they’re not trying to teach any lessons here. They’re only using that as an excuse to deliberately cause trouble and ruin someone’s life strictly for the satisfaction of having the power to do so.

This is how they get the rush of power they so crave because they certainly can’t get it any other way. Understand that these people are life-losers. They’re zeroes trying to look like heroes. And the sad part of it is, they know they’re zeroes. They can’t get self-actualization, power, respect, nor notoriety through creativity and hard work because they’ve got no skills nor redeemable qualities to survive on merit.

Engaging in cyber-bullying and cancel culture is the only way these people can get those things and they will attain them even if it means destroying many lives and breaking laws to do so. And the power that cancel culture gives these people is dangerous and terrifying to those of us law-abiding citizens who only want to work, come home, enjoy the love of our families, and live our lives in peace.

With knowledge comes empowerment!

Being Predictable Is Bad for Targets of Bullying

Chess board and text “Strategic plan” Business planning concept

Being unpredictable can be your best weapon against bullies. Anytime you are predictable in a climate of bullying, you’re a sitting duck. Bullies will soon know what gets you upset, what will get you to fly off the handle and do something irrational and how to sabotage you socially and academically. You must be versatile if you expect to throw the bullies off-kilter.

Predictability is human nature. People are creatures of habit and have a need to see familiarity in the actions of others. If you’re a target of bullying, any predictability on your part will give your bullies the idea that they have control of you.

Understand that the reason bullies have so much power over you is that you’re too darn predictable. You make it too easy for them to predict what you’ll do. Because they’ve studied and picked up on your habits, they have the foreknowledge of what your reaction will be. And they’ll weaponize it every chance they get!

bullying strategy plan game table goal

But when you flip the script and begin deliberately exhibiting behavior that has no consistency and no objectives, you automatically throw your bullies for a loop! Take your unpredictable behavior up several notches and bullies will be intimidated.

Now. Before I go on, let me mention that here’s one good thing about your predictability- you’ve gotten your bullies so used to your patterns that you’ve lulled them off to sleep, which will make any versatility on your part all the more powerful once you start deliberately changing your reactions to their attacks.

So, here goes:

If you’re a target of bullying, you want to make it look you have no clear strategy. You must scramble your behavior patterns and your reactions to confuse the bullies if you want them to back off. And when you do, not only will it confuse them, it’ll scare the stupid out of them!

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I’ll use a scenario with one of my old classmates as an example:

Just two years ago, Carol, one of my old classmates, attacked me online after she found out that I was collaborating with a producer out of New York on a screenplay adaptation of my first published book.

Let me start by saying that we hadn’t seen each other since high school. Back then, I was quiet, shy and timid girl, but with a hair-trigger temper when I was pushed too far. That’s how Carol had remembered me.

And had she verbally attacked me back then, I either would’ve walked away from her without saying anything back to her, or, on a bad day, I would’ve fought fire with fire- screaming back at her, cursing her out and calling her every name but a child of God.

This time, I did neither. As you’ll see in the screenshots below, I reacted in a way she never expected me to.

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Carol expected me to fly off the handle, have a moment of sheer stupidity, and counter-attack with the same vitriol and craziness she dished out to me first. Then she could have used my counter-attack against me and made me look like the instigator. That’s exactly what she had plans to do, and I knew it.

However!

Instead of reacting, I responded.

I remained calm and told her how it was without name-calling, without cursing, and without using all caps. And boy! Did it throw her into a hissy fit! Carol literally FREAKED! ‘Had a complete meltdown online as she sent me hateful message after hateful message. I happily took screenshots and outed her all over social media before finally blocking her.

By reacting in a way I knew she never expected, I threw her off balance and not only instilled fear, but induced panic and rage in her. I shook her up so much so that she couldn’t think clearly nor rationally. She stumbled, making blunder after blunder.

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In being unpredictable, I forced her to give me the goods I needed to expose her with. She fell face-first into the trap I calmly laid for her, and I have to admit. Outsmarting her felt soooo good! Carol played right into my hands and didn’t realize her mistake until after she’d calmed down. But by then, it was too late. Carol had made herself look like a complete lunatic and had I acted as she had, I would’ve looked just as nutty as she did.

‘You see? When you deliberately respond in ways your bullies don’t expect, you throw them off-kilter and force them to react out of fear, confusion, even anger. And when a person reacts out of pure emotion, they make a truckload of mistakes, blunders, and gaffes, then end up making a colossal fool of themselves.

Even better, after I exposed Carol online, many other old classmates, out of loyalty to her, came to her defense and attacked me the same way she had. Although they knew that she was in the wrong and that she’d attacked me without provocation, their loyalty to their old high school buddy was much stronger than their sense of right and wrong.

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Carol’s, brother, sister and son also joined in the vitriol. They even went to the pages of my husband and my son and attacked them too. Carol’s allies didn’t private message them but went to their public pages where all could see. In doing this, they also exposed themselves for the idiots they were while we sat back and laughed.

That’s what reacting out of emotion does. It causes us to make dumb mistakes.

Needless to say, after I exposed them (or they exposed themselves) those people backed off quickly and I never heard from them again. Neither did my family. They now stay far away because they were surprised to find that I’m nowhere near as naïve as I was in high school. I stayed calm and was smart enough to deflect their attacks and use them against them.

Again. Understand that by doing something unexpected, you gain a huge advantage over your bullies. And when bullies can’t figure out what you’re going to do, it scares them to death and they’ll almost always react out of fear!

Nothing is more frightening than when you make a move nobody would ever expect. It’s the reason natural disasters are so scary because no one knows when and where they’ll hit next. It’s why deer hunters can track down their prey and kill them. They know the habits and patterns of behavior of the deer they hunt.

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Realize that habits and patterns are the worst things that go against a target of bullying because bullies pick up on your routines and use them against you.

In closing, you must learn to unsettle your bullies by allowing them to see you do things they’d never expect. If a bully launches an attack, you should counter-attack suddenly, without warning, in a way they’d wouldn’t expect you to, and when they least expect it.

You must purposefully mislead your bullies to trick them into an emotional reaction!

If you’re going to be predictable, don’t stay that way. Do it for long enough that your bullies get used to your patterns and are lulled into a false sense of security, then strike suddenly with something unexpected! And that’s how you get them to leave you alone!

Cancel Culture Only Breeds Cyber-Bullies Who Are Twice as Dangerous

Cancel Culture is just the newest and a fancier name for cyber-bullying. People often say that it was intended for the purpose of shaming racists. And maybe it was intended that way. However, as the old saying goes, “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” And it’s definitely true when it comes to cancel culture.

What cancel culture does is give cyber-bullies a green light to bully anyone they deem unworthy of existing on this green earth. It only breeds cyber-bullies who are more dangerous. It even breeds cyber-criminals!

Many celebrities have been cancelled. However, they’re already rich and set for life. Stars already have a nest egg of tens of millions of dollars to fall back on, if they ever get canceled. Therefore, cancel culture won’t affect them like it would a normal, everyday person with a job, bills, and a family to feed.

Normal, everyday people are the ones who suffer the most when they are canceled. And they’re the ones cyber-bullies love to drag through the mud because, as mentioned, they don’t have much of a financial cushion to rest on. Therefore, cyber-bullies will come after them before they will those who are already set.

Why? Because they want their attacks to have the maximum negative effect, so they will most likely pick people who don’t have the wherewithal to protect themselves, their families, and their assets.

Cancel culture has only groomed cyber-bullies who are twice as dangerous as earlier cyber-bullies.

As if the incendiary comments, criticism, public shaming, threats of physical violence and death aren’t bad enough, cyber-bullies are more than willing to go to extreme lengths to destroy people’s lives. Nowadays, many cyber-bullies will dox their target. They will find out where the target works or goes to school, where the target lives, who the target’s friends and family are. These cyber-bullies are the most dangerous because they get the target’s information with plans to do evil things with it.

Many targets of cancel culture cyber-bullying have had people call their places of employment and gotten them fired. Cyber-bullies have gotten their targets kicked out of school, and even shown at the target’s houses, broke in, and beat their target within an inch of their lives. A few targets have even been murdered or driven to suicide.

Many cancel culture bullies have even gone after the target’s families and friends either when they couldn’t find the target, or after they were done with the target. This kind of cyber-bullying is especially terrifying because it puts people and their loved ones in grave danger!

It’s so sad that there are so many people nowadays with this much vileness and hate eating away at their souls. I’ve been on twitter and I’ve seen so much hate directed at a lot of innocent people- comments such as,

“You have such a punchable face,”

“People like you need to hurry up and die off,”

“I want to break into your house and rape your wife and daughter,”

“You don’t belong on our planet,”

And the worst comment I’ve ever seen, which was directed toward a CEO of a small company:

“We won’t stop at killing you, we’ll kill your family too and destroy your entire bloodline!”

I could actually feel the intense hatred in each comment as I read them. And the people that post this kind of stuff? You can tell that they’re in such a bad place- a horrible place! A place I never want to be in, and I kid you not, some of the vitriol on that platform will leave you speechless!

I’m no longer on Twitter. I deleted my account last year because it seemed that everywhere I looked, I saw a slush pile of hate. I didn’t have a lot of followers on Twitter, so I was just a little fish in a huge pond who nobody was interested in cyber-bullying. Lucky me- and I say it in all seriousness!

I’m so glad I got out of that cesspool when I did!

(Continued in Part 2…)