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!

dreamstime_xs_34973593

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.

28276865_10214945770454386_7607725468778557753_n

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.

28168774_10214945772214430_9175382268269364135_n

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.

28279456_10214945773334458_1824494686537029292_n

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.

bullies jealous envy envious

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…)