Why Bullies are Such Good Liars: 9 Ways They Deceive

June 17, 2025June 18, 20257 Comments

‘Want to know why bullies are such good liars? Here are all the reasons they make their lies look like the truth and what you can do.

As any victim of bullying knows, bullies are expert liars. If you’re a target of bullying, have you ever wondered why? Moreover, have you ever wondered how they do it?

In this post, you will learn why bullies are such good liars. Also, you will learn exactly how they successfully deceive others so that you can call it out.

Once you learn all about this important information, you will know the exact ways bullies lie so successfully. Even better, you will be able to recognize it when they do it so that you can peg them on their BS and weaponize it to protect yourself.

This post is all about why bullies are such good liars so that you can have your bullies’ number and use it to bust them.

Why Bullies are Such Good Liars

The reason why bullies are pros at lying is because they rarely tell boldface lies. Instead, they embellish on the truth. They may also take away from the truth.

‘You see? Boldface lies are too easy to find out. Therefore, all bullies need is a tiny grain of truth. Then, they can make their lies more believable.

So, what do bullies do to make their lies so convincing?

1. They use Exaggerate the truth.

They’re the kinds of deception bullies love to practice. Bullies understand, perhaps more than anyone else, that a pure lie isn’t likely to be believed. It would only discredit them.

However, if they tell a half-truth, which is a lie that contains even a tiny grain of truth, people will more than likely believe it.

When a bully exaggerates facts, they blow them up and make it bigger than what it is. For example, a bully will provoke you and keep provoking you until you get fed up.

In a low but angry growl, you tell the bully to buzz off. The bully will then tell everyone else about the altercation, making sure to stretch the truth.

The bully will then exaggerate what happened by telling others that you screamed and cursed them out. Also, they’ll make sure to leave out the part where they kept provoking you until you got tired of their crap and told them to buzz off.

2. Why Bullies are Such Good Liars:

They Distort facts.

The bully may even distort the truth. They may do this by saying that you told them to f*** off when they know that you told them to buzz off.

Distortions are also perfect for bullies because, like exaggerations, there’s always a degree of truth to them.

Here’s another example. Your bully supervisor tells you to do a task. You haven’t yet completed the first task and you must finish it in the next thirty minutes to meet the deadline.

You tell the bully boss that you’ll get started on it as soon as you’re finished with the current task. The bully boss goes to management and distorts everything.

He exaggerates your response by telling management that you refused to do the task. Therefore, he tells them that you’re being insubordinate

Moreover, he conveniently leaves out that you told him that you would fulfill his request as soon as you got done with the task at hand. As a result, management reprimands you and gives you a write-up for insubordination, not knowing the whole story.

This is how exaggerations and distortions work.

Therefore, it’s important that you know how to name lies like this. Why? Because, when you can put a name on them, you sound so much better to your listener. You can better communicate what the bullies are doing without rambling.

3. Why Bullies are Such Good Liars:

They take things out of context.

Bullies are experts at taking things out of context. They can twist it and spin it to fit their narrative.

For example, an author writes a tell-all book about the abuse she suffered. One of her former abusers buys it and reads it.

The abuser comes to the part where two more of the author’s abusers die in a tragic accident. The other two happen to be the reader’s friends.

In the book, the author also admits that, when the two abusers died, she didn’t give a damn. And the author sees the deaths as two less monsters she’d have to deal with.

However, she does mention that her feelings about the deaths have changed in the years since the accident.

The reader is outraged at what she reads. So, she takes it out of context. Therefore, she tells the rest of her friends about the book, leaving out the part in the book where the author wrote that she no longer felt glad the two abusers were dead.

Instead, she tells everyone that the author still feels happy the two people are dead. In fact, she makes it sound as if the author celebrates it now.

And she tells them not to read the book because it will only upset them.

However, here’s the real reason she tells others not to read it. It’s because she’s afraid that if they read the book, they’ll figure out her lie.

Therefore, bullies love taking things out of context because, nine times out of ten, it works like a charm!

4. Why Bullies are Such Good Liars:

They Use Confabulations.

Many times, your bullies will blow up on you for absolutely no reason. Later, when others question them about the blow-up, they can’t remember why they lost their temper.

So, your bullies conveniently drum up fake memories to fill in the blanks. But, know the reason behind this. They do it in order to sound plausible instead of ridiculous.

When bullies confabulate, they do it to feel sane. And the way they feel sane is to insert these made-up stories. I’ve seen this happen many times.

In fact, many of my bullies justified themselves to others by using the same method. Here’s another thing about confabulations.

People can mistake them for real memories. Therefore, when bullies confabulate a justifiable reason for their appalling behavior, they believe themselves.

So, is it any wonder that most abusers appear to be telling the truth when they justify and rationalize away their abusive actions? When a person believes their own lies, others are more likely to believe them too. It’s a fact.

This is another reason bullies are talented liars.

5. Why Bullies are Such Good Liars:

Confirmation Bias.

People will believe what they want to believe. And no amount of solid evidence will convince them if they refuse to believe it.

Sadly, the only way confirmation bias has anything to do with truth is when it matches the belief. Therefore, if the truth doesn’t match the person’s beliefs, chances are they’ll only deny it.

Moreover, they’ll and elsewhere for evidence that contradicts it.

Your bullies will do the same when it comes to you. To justify and explain away their cruelty, they’ll find proof that supports their opinions of you.

For instance, bullies abuse you and they get caught. Later they have to stand tall before a member of authority to answer for their abuse.

Searching for information that fits

So, the bullies tell the person in authority that there’s a good reason why they beat you up. They make up some cockamamie excuse for their brutality.

In other words, they find ways to blame you. They may say that you instigated the fight by starting a rumor that could cost them their reputations. And they just had to teach you a lesson.

This is what confirmation bias is- it’s the tendency to recall, interpret, and favor information in a way that confirms a pre-existing belief.

Think about it. The media does this all the time. A witness may pull out their phone and film something terrible that is happening right before their eyes. They then send it to a news station to be broadcasted.

When the news media gets a hold of the film, they will edit out anything that doesn’t fit their beliefs. And they’ll only show the bits and pieces of the film that best fits the story they wish to put out.

If they get an audio recording, they will also edit it and create soundbites, only broadcasting fragments of the recording that best fits the story they want to tell the public.

It’s all the same.

6. Why Bullies are Such Good Liars:

They use Charm

We all know that bullies are cowards who hide behind a facade of charm and charisma. But what makes that facade?

What are the exact ingredients that make up the bully’s fake charm?

Understand that bullies are like peacocks. They like to strut around and fan out their tails, showing you their prettiest colors.

They do this to collect admirers, followers, and allies. That’s exactly what the bully’s fake charm means to do, draw others to them.

Also, this is how bullies dupe everyone into thinking that they’re perfect and can’t be touched. Only you know what’s behind the facades. Victims are always aware of the real people behind the masks bullies don.

7. They build carefully crafted images.

Impeccable Attire.

Most seasoned and well-practiced bullies dress in the best and latest fashions. These people love to be pleasing to the eyes. Why? Because they understand that most people are materialistic and beauty-obsessed, and everything is based on appearances.

So, they wear the fanciest clothes, the trendiest hairstyles, the best makeup, etc.

They show these things off to give the appearance that they’re rolling in money. Also, they want to give the impression that their life is perfect to impress others. Most of all, bullies also do it to one-up others!

And here’s something else! Many of my bullies didn’t have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out. Not that being poor makes a person bad, but!

Why Bullies are Such Good Liars:

Many bullies go broke just to keep up appearances.

Most bullies will go flat broke buying fancy clothes and sporty cars to pimp around town in. And they’ll do it just to keep up a fake persona.

However, they’ll be up to their eyeballs in debt. Many of them have a hard time paying their bills. They’re the types who will run to mommy and daddy for bailouts and handouts.

And it’s all because they spend a fortune on clothes, hairstyles, manicures, pedicures, facials, cosmetic surgeries, you name it!

As a result, many workplace bullies who commit crimes such as theft, embezzlement, and forgery. Why? Because they live way beyond their means and got their butts in a crack they can’t get out of.

And they eventually get caught!

8. They put on a good show.

Seasoned bullies are also the best showmen. They put on an act to gain admiration, support, or sympathy. They make grand gestures.

They’re good at reading everyone else and finding out their likes and dislikes and how they react to certain stimuli. They make themselves aware of the people and moods around them, then adapt to them.

You’ll often find these bullies standing in the very center of the rooms they’re in. Moreover, they’re the types who despise being outshone, outsmarted, or outdone.

9. Why Bullies are Such Good Liars:

They’re master wordsmiths.

They use clichés, euphemisms, and loaded words to impress others with their speech. Moreover, they use big words to prove how smart they are when, in reality, they’re as incompetent as they come.

They also tell others what they want to hear. This is why they’re such convincing liars and why they’re so good at making you look like the bad guy.

But here’s something else you need to know.

Although seasoned bullies are very popular among people, they’re also hated and feared by rivals and enemies. And they do eventually get brought down. I’ve seen it happen many times.

Julius Caesar was one such example.

“Caesar had his Brutus and Charles I, his Cromwell…” – Patrick Henry.

In Closing

Bullies are fake. Period. Full stop! And, they have been for so long that they’ve become experts at fooling people. In fact, it’s how they gain power.

And it’s how they’re able to pass themselves off as fake friends to unsuspecting victims.

It’s also why they get away with much of their bullying.

Therefore, learn all the tools they use and you’ll be onto them. I promise you!

This post is all about why bullies are such good liars so that you can know how they do it and see behind the fake masks they wear.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. How Bullies Gain Power: 9 Astonishing Ways They Do It.

2. Why do Bullies Get Away with Bullying? 15 Must-Know Answers

3. Fake Friends: 13 Surefire Signs They Don’t Like You for You

Character vs Reputation: 4 Tactics Bullies Use to Smear You

May 24, 2025May 26, 20252 Comments

‘Want to know the differences of character vs reputation? If people have bullied you and unjustly ruined your reputation, know that your reputation doesn’t equal your character. Here, we discuss in detail how the two differ and the tactics bullies use to mar your good name.

“Your reputation is what others think of you; your character is what you truly are. Reputations can be manipulated; character can only be developed and maintained.”

~ Bohdi Sanders ~

All too often, when a person is bullied, their reputation takes a big hit due to the many ugly rumors and lies spread by their tormentors.

Therefore, in this post, you will learn character vs reputation and how they differ. Also, you will learn how bullies destroy the reputations of good people and how others come to believe the lies.

Once you learn all these bits of information, not only will you be able to see through the lies when they happen to yourself and others. But you will also learn what you must do to protect yourself against smear campaigns your bullies may launch against you.

This post is all about character vs reputation and what you can do to protect your good name.

Character vs reputation

Bullying is a campaign. Just as politicians go about kissing babies and shaking hands with people on the street, giving a spiel of why they’re the best person for the office they’re running for, bullies do the same.

They go from person to person spinning their yarn about why no one should associate with you and why you’re such a contemptible person.

Your bullies will engage everyone, even your friends and family, pulling false accusations out of thin air. Moreover, they make them sound so convincing that others find the lies difficult not to believe.

“Reputation is the cornerstone of power.” – Robert Greene

Bullies attack your reputation to strip you of power. Once your reputation is gone, you’re defenseless and extremely vulnerable to attack.

Therefore, bullies can freely attack you from all directions. Even worse, you’re at the mercy of virtually everyone around you.

You see? Bullies know that if they can poke holes in your reputation, they won’t have to work so hard to bring you down. Why? Because they’ll have public opinion on their side.

They can then stand back and watch with glee as widely held perceptions of you finish you off.

Why Bullies are successful in making people believe the lies.

1. The tiny grain of truth tactic.

Tormentors will use a tiny grain of truth about you. In other words, they may bring up a simple mistake you made in the past (possibly an error which anybody could have made at any time).

They then add their spin to it, making it worse and more significant to make the story even more believable.

2. Character vs Reputation:

The Baiting tactic.

Here’s a good example of the baiting tactic.

Harassers will use subtle provocations, taunts, and assaults to bait you into an emotional reaction. Once they get the reaction from you that they’re looking for, they’ll turn around and use your perfectly normal human response as further proof that you’re mentally imbalanced.

Moreover, even if you don’t give them the reaction they want, your bullies will only double down in their efforts to get you to snap. And sadly, after being attacked for so long, it’s too easy for you to become worn down.

And once you become exhausted, you’re likely to go the “eye for an eye” route and return the attacks (physically or verbally). Although defending yourself is a perfectly reasonable response, bullies will use it as confirmation that you’re the bad guy.

Therefore, you must be cautious in your counter-attacks. Also, you must carefully choose your battles. Why? Because, again, a well-experienced bully can easily use any reactions to validate any rumors lies about you.

Before long, even those who aren’t necessarily bullies will also shun and brutalize you. This is a sign that your bullies have tarnished your reputation and sadly, a ruined reputation can take years to repair.

3. the use of charm and allure.

You must realize that bullies are sociopathic. They have a wealth of superficial charm at their disposal. Therefore, they are masters in the arts of persuasion and influence.

Also, most superficially charming people are very skilled wordsmiths. This is why they can pull a complete fabrication out of their butts and make it smell sweet and sound plausible.

Because of this oozing charm that most seasoned bullies possess, they can encourage bystanders and sometimes authority (teachers, principals, monitors, etc.) to join in the torment.

4. Character vs Reputation:

Smear campaigns.

How do Smear Campaigns work?

It always starts subtly. Bullies begin the smear campaign by planting seeds of doubt about your character in the minds of others. Doubt is a powerful tool.

They may start rumors by dropping a suggestion. Moreover, all it takes is one little rumor- just one!

Next, the bullies use repetition. They repeat the same rumor over and over again until it sticks. And sadly, once enough people believe it, it will become the truth even if it is a bald-faced lie.

In fact, by then, people will want to believe it.

And there’s no getting away from public opinion no matter how false or unjustified it is.

In other words, bullies ruin targets by making things up, leaking info they hear, or spreading ideas. Next, they’ll fade into the background because they know that with everything put together, whatever lies they spread will stick.

They’ve done their part, and now they can sit back and let the rumor mill do the work for them. It’s that easy!

Stage 1 of the Smear Campaign.

The bullies provoke you. You blow them off for a while but the bullies are relentless. Therefore, they not only continue but escalate the harassment.

Finally, you get fed up with their crap and, out of exhaustion and emotion, tell them to go to hell in a hand basket. And there! The bullies get the reaction they’ve been waiting for.

Now, the smear campaign begins. Your bullies start by suggesting that you’d be better off if you got professional help, moved, etc . They will say that it’s for your own good to look as if they have genuine concern for you.

Next, they may drop an offhand comment here and another there. Understand that bullies need to slowly and ever-so-gradually ramp up the smears. Why? So, that what they’re doing doesn’t appear so obvious.

Character vs Reputation

In the beginning, you may have friends. Others may like or even love you. Moreover, they may try to support you and speak on your behalf.

However, that’s when the bullies will tell them, “Oh, no. There’s more to it than what he told you.”

Or, the bullies may lie to your friends by telling them that sometime in the past, you criticized them or stabbed them in the back.

Smear Campaign Stage 2.

Now it’s time for the bullies to stand back and let the old rumor mill do its handiwork. And, sure enough, the lies become the truth. People begin reporting things to the bullies and higher-ups in the social hierarchy.

Moreover, they make false statements and accuse you of wrongs you never committed.

And as the rumors and lies spread from person to person, the bigger they grow until they sound so bizarre and outlandish they’d be fit for a horror movie.

You might say, “Aw, but they’re my friends. They’d never do that to me. They know I’m a good person, and I have a clean reputation. All I have to do is tell them my side of things, and this stuff will go away.”

However, you couldn’t be more wrong!

Character vs Reputation:

Smear Campaign stage 3.

Once the rumors get around, your friends will no longer believe you to be right. They’ll only think you’re a thorn in the side with a big mouth.

Therefore, by the time the open bullying is underway, you no longer have a clean reputation.

Character vs reputation:

The results of a successful smear campaign.

Now, everyone thinks you never deserved any respect or friendship. The people around you also feel that the reason you were so well-liked is that you conned your way into their hearts.

They’ll say that you put on a front, and you only weaseled your way into everyone’s good graces. The bullies and their followers may even accuse you of being a kiss-ass.

Moreover, others will make your past wins, accomplishments, successes, or accolades irrelevant. They will also maximize your mistakes and failures and add many more you didn’t make.

In other words, they will rewrite your history.

If you’re on your best behavior and others see it with their own eyes, they’ll only accuse you of being a con artist. Also, any hard evidence of your successes, friendships- anything positive, they’ll chalk it up to you being a smooth-talker who’s good at using charm to manipulate others.

And the friends that your bullies turn against you? They’ll claim that they never liked you from the start. Moreover, they’ll swear up and down that they were only kind to you because they felt sorry for you, or because you conned them.

Your so-called friends will tell others, “who you really are.” They’ll claim that the bullies you bitched about were only reacting to your sneaky provocations.

Also, they’ll say that they only agreed with you about your bullies because you fooled them into it.

Telling your side of things will do no good because they’ll never believe it anyway. Your embittered friends “may have fallen for it at first,” but now they claim to “know better.”

I want you to understand that once people’s minds are already made up, there’s no changing it.

Character vs Reputation: Smear Campaign Stage 4

Stage 4 is the late stage. Therefore, in the late stages of a smear campaign, all bystanders will become willing co-conspirators.

Gossip will be everywhere. And it brings scandal, which means to assassinate the target’s character, integrity, mental fitness, and worth as a student, worker, neighbor, and human being.

Moreover, anyone who questions or disbelieves the lies will immediately become an object of bullying as well. Nobody wants to be isolated, so this forces others to stay in line with the running narrative.

And if the target attempts to defend himself or speak out against the abuse, it will be used against him.

Unfortunately, at this stage, the only way for the target to ensure his safety and escape the abuse is to leave the toxic environment and go to a new place where he can start anew, establish new connections, and reinvent himself.

Here’s an example:

Remember the character, Chris Chambers, in the movie “Stand by Me.” Although he was a great kid, he was considered a rogue and a thief.

Moreover, during the scene where he was crying to his friend, Gordy, telling him about how he got his bad name and wishing he could go somewhere where no one knew him.

During the conversation, the character of Chris Chambers, played by River Phoenix, tearfully tells Gordy that a member of staff took the lunch money out of the teal. However, he got blamed for it solely because of his family name. It was heartbreaking to watch.

And sadly, that happens a lot. In a majority of cases, targets must leave the school, company, or community to heal and to rebuild their lives.

Therefore, it’s best just to find a way to get out of the environment altogether and never look back. Moreover, never have anything to do with any of these people again.

You owe it to yourself to kick them all to the curb.

Character vs Reputation:

Focus on your character and not your reputation.

Know that reputation does not equal character. In other words, your reputation is not who you are. Hold on to your self-love because these people do not know you nor do they deserve to.

Know that once you’re free of these people, you can start again, making new friends in your new area. Moreover, these new friends will see the awesome you that people in the old town missed out on. And you will live in peace and be surrounded by love once again.

It happened for me and it can happen for you too.

This post was all about character vs Reputation and the tactics bullies use to destroy your good name. Also, it was about the process and stages of the smear campaign and what you can do to escape it.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. The Cycle of Bullying: Psychological Injuries and Care of Victims

2. How to Spot a Bully: 13 Must-Know Body-Language Examples

3. What Not to Share at Work When You Suffer Workplace Bullying

4. Your First Line of Defense Against Bullying

5. The Horns Effect: Bully-Induced Bias Against Victims of Bullying

Confirmation Bias and Bullying

May 21, 2025May 16, 20252 Comments

‘Want to know how confirmation bias and bullying relate? They relate a lot more than most would think. Here are all the details you need to know.

Confirmation bias and bullying go hand in hand. When bullies spread rumors and lies to smear you, they have ways of making the lies look truthful. That’s what confirmation bias is, it’s when people go along with what makes lies look like the truth, even when they know it’s wrong.

Therefore, in this post, you will learn all about confirmation bias and bullying so that you can recognize it when you see it.

Once you learn all about this game-changing information, you will know what to look for and you will use what you learned to your advantage.

This post is all about confirmation bias and bullying so that you can use it as a weapon to defend yourself.

Confirmation bias and bullying

People will believe what they want to believe. Therefore, no amount of solid evidence will convince them if they refuse to believe it.

Sadly, the only way confirmation bias has anything to do with facts is when they match the belief. If cold, hard facts don’t match the person’s beliefs, chances are they’ll only deny it and look elsewhere for evidence that contradicts them.

Understand that your bullies do the same when it comes to you. They seek to justify and explain away their cruelty and abuse.

Moreover, they find arguments that support their opinions of you. And this only creates bigger problems for you.

What is confirmation bias?

It’s the tendency to recall, interpret, and favor information in a way that confirms a pre-existing belief.

In other words, if there’s evidence that debunks a person’s belief, that person is likely to reject it. Then they’ll search for evidence that confirms what they believe.

Therefore, there’s where the bias comes in. Hence, it is confirmation bias.

Bullies will find evidence to back up their lies, even if they must invent it themselves.

Any time bullies disregard information that contradicts their beliefs, they usually know what they’re doing. However, they don’t care.

All they care about is making you look bad to everyone else.

For instance, your bullies get caught beating the crap out of you. And later, they are standing tall before a member of authority.

They don’t want to face any accountability for abusing you. So, they tell the person in authority that there’s a good reason why they beat you up.

Therefore, they make up a cockamamie excuse for their brutality. They blame you, saying that you instigated the fight.

They tell the staff member that you started it by spreading a rumor that could cost them their reputations. So, they just had to teach you a lesson.

Confirmation Bias and Bullying:

CB is another tactic in the bully’s playbook.

Your bullies will have this type of bias when they desperately search for evidence that supports their pre-existing beliefs of you. They will be selective in their stories about you.

They’ll spin the story until it best fits what they want to believe. Therefore, there are good reasons why you should never try to prove yourself to bullies or anyone else. Don’t waste your time trying to clear up any rumors.

Instead, just let them think what they want because they’re going to do that anyway.

Bullies Rarely tell boldface Lies.

Bullies have been lying and telling half-truths for so long that they have it down to an art. Most bullies rarely tell blatant falsehoods. Why? Because the boldface lies are easiest to figure out.

Bullies deceive by telling half-truths and adding their own spin. Therefore, your bullies will deceive by either adding to or taking away from the truth. In other words, they use the “Tiny Grain of Truth Technique.”

This is what facilitates confirmation bias. Here’s how they do it.

Bullies use that tiny grain of truth as a starting point any time they decide to defame you to others. If you are a bully, the beauty of this is that others can mistake it for the whole truth.

With the smallest grain of truth to a rumor, the rumor can be spun, twisted, and completely taken out of context. This not only benefits your bullies, but it causes more damage to you.

Therefore, no matter how much a story has been changed and rearranged, that grain of truth is all your bullies need to make the story believable to others.

Confirmation Bias and Bullying:

No wonder bullies are such believable liars!

As I have said a million times before, bullies are very practiced and convincing liars. This is one of the ways they make their lies so convincing.

Again, they rarely tell straight up lies, they only take one tiny grain of truth and embellish on it. This is one of the bully’s most powerful deception tactics.

They Use Distortions and Exaggerations

It’s the same thing, really. Bullies either blow it up, water it down, or heavily distort facts. They conveniently take things out of context.

For example, your bullies begin to provoke you. They keep it up until you get fed up and, in a low but angry growl, tell them to buzz off.

Your bullies then tell everyone else about the altercation, making sure to blow it up, and make it bigger than it was.

They tell others that you started the confrontation. Therefore, they distort it. The truth is that there was a confrontation between you and your bullies.

However, they distort it by claiming that you started it when they were the ones who provoked you. They then exaggerate what happened by telling others that you yelled at them and cursed them out.

Also, they leave out the part where they kept provoking and pushing you and didn’t stop until you got tired of the bullshit and told them to buzz off.

Confirmation Bias and Bullying:

They cherry-pick different parts of the story.

Understand this right now. Bullies do this deliberately. They distort anything to shoehorn it and make it fit their narrative.

Bullies will even cherry-pick different parts of the truth. In other words, they select the parts that fit their beliefs and add their own spin to it.

Then, they’ll glue the pieces together to create their own version of the truth and make it sound believable. Therefore, it now fits the bullies’ existing beliefs.

This is the same thing the media does.

Think about it. The media does this all the time. For instance, a witness may pull out their phone and film something terrible that is happening right before their eyes. They then send it to a news station to be broadcasted.

When the new media gets a hold of the film, they will edit out anything that doesn’t fit their narrative. They’ll only show the bits and pieces of the film that best fits the story they wish to put out.

If they get an audio recording, they will also edit it and create soundbites. Therefore, they’ll only broadcast snippets of the recording that best fits the story they want to tell the public.

It’s all the same.

Confirmation Bias and Bullying:

Everyone is capable of confirmation bias.

Granted, each one of us looks at things from our own perspective, therefore, we all have a tiny bit of confirmation bias in us because everyone looks at the world differently.

However, bullies will take this to a whole different level. They will twist, distort, embellish, and lie to get the answers they desire.

And if it means denying solid evidence- any solid, concrete evidence which goes to your favor, then that is what they’ll do.

Understand that the reason bullies do this is to discredit you and skew the perspectives of others. This is all designed to create prejudicial and negative views of and attitudes about you.

It’s so important that you understand the mindsets of bullies, their tactics, and their intentions behind such tactics. Moreover, it’s also important that these tactics have names and that you know those names and how to describe them.

Only then will you be better able to speak out about them and be your own advocate.

People who believe the lies are showing you who you should cut out of your life.

Unfortunately, there will be many people who fall for your bullies’ lies. Some, may even be those you think are your friends.

However, look at it this way. These people are showing you their true colors. They’re showing you exactly who you should cut ties with.

The people who matter will believe you. The ones who don’t believe you don’t matter. Therefore, walk away from anyone who believes any lies and rumors about you. And don’t look back!

It’s the smartest way to handle fake friends who can’t wait to believe the worst of you.

This post is all about confirmation bias and bullying so that you can know what’s happening and call it out when it happens to you.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. Bullied for Being Smart? Here are 5 Positive Ways to Look at It

2. The Horns Effect: Bully-Induced Bias Against Victims of Bullying

Signs of a Smear Campaign: 3 Indicators of Relational Bullying

March 24, 2025March 23, 20254 Comments

‘Want to know the signs of a smear campaign? Here are the signs of relational bullying that you need to know about.

Smear campaigns have ruined the lives of many innocent people, especially targets of bullying.

Therefore, in this post, you will learn all about the signs of a smear campaign so that you’ll be able to recognize one and call it out.

Once you learn all about this important information, you will be prepared and better able to protect yourself against anyone who tries to smear your good name.

This post is all about the signs of a smear campaign to train you to recognize it and overcome any attempts to ruin your reputation.

Signs of a Smear Campaign

It always starts subtly. Bullies start rumors by dropping a suggestion. Therefore, all it takes is one little rumor- just one! Because people will want to believe it.

If enough people do, it will become the truth even if it is a bald-faced lie. Consequently, there’s no getting away from public opinion no matter how false or unjustified it is.

If you’re a target of bullies, expect them to try to ruin you by making things up, leaking info they hear, or spreading ideas. Next, the bullies will fade into the background because they know that with everything they carefully put together, the lie they spread will stick.

They’ve done their part, and now they can sit back and let the rumor mill do the work for them. It’s that easy!

The bullies start by suggesting that you would be better off if you got professional help, moved, etc . They will say that it’s for your own good.

Additionally, they may drop an offhand comment here and another there.

1. Gossip

Gossip is purely judgmental and includes hasty generalizations about your character and private life. Moreover, it has nothing to do with the school, community, or workplace.

Signs of a Smear Campaign:

Gossip has 6 purposes.

To control your social status by demoting you on the social hierarchy.
To justify any punishment others may give you.
Tightening group connections.
To give higher social status to those who are privy to the negative information.
To set expectations and norms in the group on how they should treat you.
Establish, maintain, or change the social infrastructure.

Gossip justifies bullying and abuse by promoting a collective view that you don’t deserve any humanity. Therefore, instead of giving you respect or dignity, others only inflict abuse and hostility.

And once people think you deserve abuse, others will always escalate it!

Through gossip, the group establishes, maintains, or changes social hierarchies. Moreover, gossip promotes unity and shared negative perceptions of you.

Therefore, with the use of it, the group will foster justification for hostility. No one in the group considers their actions as bullying. They will only say that you “deserve it” and that they were reacting to “an evil enemy.”

Therefore, realize that all the gossip serves to provide bullies reaffirmations. And those reaffirmations are that their perceptions of you are correct, that you deserve abuse.

People may tell others to keep it secret. However, they also ask them to inform the group of any new information and updates about you.

Signs of a smear campaign:

How Gossips Cover Their Behavior

Gossips will often cover their bad behavior with a slight confession of guilt by beginning their sentences with things like,

“I know I shouldn’t say this, but…”
“Poor thing…”
“Bless her heart…”

They will acknowledge that the target is a human being. However, they’ll only do it because this gives them the green light to go on talking. Moreover, it helps them to feel less like the creeps they are.

It’s true that reputation doesn’t equal character. However, it can effect your life.

Therefore, understand that the rumors may, in fact, be false. Also, there may be zero credible evidence to back them up. But if pure speculation best fits the bullies’ goals, that’s what they will go along with.

What happens in the late stages of gossip?

In the late stages of gossip, all bystanders will become willing co-conspirators. Gossip brings scandal. In other words, it assassinates your character, integrity, mental fitness, and worth as a human being.

Anyone who questions or disbelieves the lies will immediately become an object of bullying as well. Nobody wants to be isolated. Therefore, this forces others to stay in line with the running narrative.

And if you attempt to defend yourself or speak out against the abuse, everyone else will use it against you.

Unfortunately, at this stage, the only way for you to ensure safety and escape the abuse is to leave the toxic environment. Therefore, you must go to a new place where you can start anew and reinvent yourself.

Signs of a smear campaign:

The character, Chris Chambers in the movie, “Stand by Me.”

‘Remember the character, Chris Chambers, in the movie “Stand by Me?” Although he was a great kid, he was considered a rogue and a thief.

Do you remember the scene where he was crying to his friend, Gordy? He was telling him about how he got his bad name and wishing he could go somewhere where no one knew him.

And sadly, stuff like this happens a lot. In a majority of cases, targets must leave the school, company, or community to heal and to rebuild their lives.

2. Signs of a Smear Campaign:

Rumors

As rumors and lies circulate, details are included and added to the stories. Moreover, these details have ways of being inserted into people’s memories.

For example, there have been cases of burglaries where the homeowners “thought they saw” an unarmed burglar with a gun when, in fact, there was no gun. Understand that in these cases, people don’t lie on purpose.

They really and truly believe they saw a gun in the criminal’s hand or his pocket. In fact, they actually “remember” seeing it.

Moreover, the reason they remember it so plainly is that they’ve heard and talked about it so much their brains filled in the blanks with the details based on what they heard.

Signs of a Smear Campaign:

False Memories

Bullies ask questions such as,

“Did you see her do this?”
“Did you hear him say that?”

Realize that, when they ask these questions, they only suggest that she did do this, or he did say that. It’s the Power of Suggestion at work.

Therefore, it’s so easy to influence people’s memories by presenting something in a particular way. Also, the memory will adjust itself according to a person’s stereotypes and expectations. People see what they expect to see.

Too often, people’s memories depend on social expectations- what they expect the target to do and not what he is actually doing.

Understand that memories are mistakable and can be falsified. Sure. And whether accurate or make-believe, once it becomes a memory, there’s no way to tell the difference.

If you’re a target of bullying, I want you to realize that this does happen and that you must make preparations accordingly to protect yourself better.

3. People may suddenly begin avoiding you or bullying you.

In the beginning, you may have friends and be very well-liked. Moreover, these friends may try to support you and speak on your behalf.

However, that’s when the bullies will tell them, “Oh, no. There’s more to it than what they told you.” Or, the bullies may lie to your friends by telling them that sometime in the past, you criticized them or stabbed them in the back.

Also, as the rumors and lies spread from person to person, the bigger they get until they sound so bizarre and outlandish they’d be fit for a horror movie.

However, you couldn’t be any more wrong!

Signs of a Smear Campaign:

Even your friends may turn their backs on you.

Once the rumors get around, your friends will no longer believe you to be right. They’ll only think you’re a thorn in the side with a big mouth. By the time bullying is underway, your reputation is no longer clean.

Now, everyone thinks you never deserved any respect or friendship. The people around you may also feel that the reason you were so well-liked is that you conned your way into their hearts.

Moreover, they’ll say that you put on a front. They’ll tell others that you only weaseled your way into everyone’s good graces. The bullies and their followers may even accuse you of being a kiss-ass.

People will make your past accomplishments, successes, or accolades irrelevant. On the other hand, they will maximize your mistakes and failures. They’ll even add on many more mistakes you didn’t make.

In short, they’ll begin rewriting your history.

Even if others see with their own eyes evidence of your successes, friendships- anything positive, they won’t believe it. They’ll only react by claiming that you’re only a smooth-talker who’s darn good at using fake charm to manipulate others.

After your friends turn against you, they’ll deny they ever liked you to begin with.

And the friends that your bullies turn against you? Your former friends will claim that they never liked you from the start. Moreover, they’ll swear that they were only kind to you because they were afraid of you.

They can tell others they felt sorry for you, or that you smooth-talked and conned them.

Also, your former friends will tell others, “who you really are.” Also, they’ll claim that the bullies you bitched about were only reacting to your sneaky provocations.

If they ever agreed with you about your bullies, they only did so because you fooled them into it.

Telling your side of things will do no good because they’ll never believe it anyway. In other words, your embittered friends “may have fallen for it at first,” but now they’ll claim to “know better.”

I want you to understand that once they’ve made up their minds, there’s no changing them.

In cases like these, it’s best just to find a way to get out of the environment altogether. Moreover, it’s best that you never look back. You don’t want to ever have anything to do with any of these people again.

Therefore, you owe it to yourself to kick them all to the curb.

This post was all about signs of a smear campaign so that you can recognize it and be better prepared.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1.Bullying Tactics: 9 Subtle Moves Bullies Use to Avoid Detection

2. Smear Campaigns: 4 Tactics Bullies Use to Sully Your Reputation

3. What Constitutes Bullying and What Doesn’t

4. Social Bullying Examples: 7 Reasons Bullies Destroy Relationships

5. Why do Schools Ignore Bullying? 7 Reasons Schools Do Nothing

Relational Aggression: 12 Must-Know Reasons Bullies Use It

February 11, 2025February 10, 202519 Comments

‘Want to know what relational aggression is and how bullies use it to destroy you? Here are all the details about it, what it can do, and how you can protect yourself.

“Don’t Associate With Her!”

It’s bad enough when bullies mistreat you themselves. However, when they set out to prevent you from becoming friends with others besides them, that’s even worse.

Therefore, in this post, you will learn what relational aggression is, what it consists of, and why bullies use it against you.

Once you learn all about these bullying tactics and the harm they’re meant to cause, you will have a whole new understanding of it and how you can protect yourself against it.

This post is all about relational aggression and all that comes with it so that you can more effectively defend yourself against it.

Relational Aggression

Social and relational bullies are like obsessive exes who won’t allow you to move on from the hurt. You know the type- an ex who claims they don’t want you but doesn’t want anyone else to have you either.

Therefore, they deliberately try to isolate you to wield power over you. Moreover, they want to make you believe that you need their approval to have friends who love you. In that, they want you to believe that you need their say so to live a happy life.

Here are the reasons bullies use this type of aggression.

1. To isolate you

Again, bullies want to isolate you from others. Why? To induce feelings of loneliness and alienation in you.

Moreover, they want to lessen any chances that you might get support and protection from others. Bullies know that if they succeed at this, they can bully you any time they feel like it.

Put another way, isolating you means that they can more safely continue, even escalate their attacks. If the bullies can turn everyone against you, then, again, you’re least likely to get support, and others will less likely hold them responsible for their behavior.

2. To instill shame in you

Another goal of these type of bullying is to instill shame in you. ‘You see? If bullies can cause you to feel shame, they can then make you believe you somehow deserve for them to bully you.

Therefore, you have less chance of fighting back or reporting them to authority.

3. Why Bullies Use Relational Aggression:

To get back at you for a real or perceived slight

Many times, bullies use relational aggression to get revenge on you. Bullies have fragile egos and are too easily offended.

Therefore, whether you meant the offense or not, your bullies will turn others against you to punish you for offending them.

4. They’re jealous of your good relationships with others.

Bullies always feel the need to compete with you (and everyone else). Therefore, if you have lots of friends and allies, they may be jealous that you have more friends than they do.

Moreover, they may also be jealous of your confidence, charm and charisma. Therefore, they have an intense desire to knock you down a peg or two.

5. For gratification and satisfaction

Lots of times, bullies do it just for the satisfaction of seeing you under stress or alienated from everyone. In fact, they get gratification in seeing you suffer. Period!

To some, this may sound a little far-fetched. However, there are a lot of sadistic people in the world and bullies can be the most sadistic.

6. Bullies Use Relational Aggression To Silence You

Think about this. If bullies can use relational aggression and turn everyone against you, the least likely others are to believe you when you report bullying.

Therefore, if no one believes you after you’ve spoken out a few time, the more likely you are to just give up, clam up, and not say another word about it.

And you’ll think, “what’s the point in speaking when no one listens to anything I have to say?” Therefore, you’ll soon feel you have no other choice than to stay quiet.

Bullies instinctively know this and you’d better believe it’s exactly what they’re counting on.

7. To have the freedom to bully you anytime they want

Again, if your bullies can use relational aggression and turn everyone against you, then they can succeed in isolating you. And once they isolated you, then they can bullying you at will. Why?

Because no one will help you and might even get enjoyment out of watching your bullies drag you through the mud. Therefore, who are you going to speak out to about what’s happening to you?

Therefore, there will be nothing to stop them.

8. For protection

If your bullies can turn people against you, then they have protection from any accountability. Moreover, if you try to defend yourself and stand up to them, others will more than likely take the bullies’ side and protect them.

9. Bullies Use Relational Aggression For Confirmation that you’re worthless

Your isolation would serve as confirmation that you really are a terrible person and completely worthless. Remember that bullies want to be right about you. Therefore, they can’t handle any proof that they just might be wrong about you.

10. to get favor from others

In turning others against you, bullies have more of a change of garnering favor from them… against you. Therefore, these people will serve as just another tool for them.

11. immunity from consequences

If everyone hates you, chances are that they’ll enjoy seeing you get bullied. Therefore, they won’t hold anyone who bullies you accountable.

12. power and domination over you

Once bullies succeed with their relational aggression and turn others against you, you are powerless. Therefore, your bullies have all the power to dominate you. And what can you do about it?

Therefore, these dozen reasons are the rewards your bullies reap from the use of social and relational aggression.

What are the tools of relational aggression?

1. Gossip

Gossip is purely judgmental and includes hasty generalizations about your character and private life. Moreover, it has nothing to do with the school, community, or workplace.

The purpose of gossip is to control your social status by demoting you on the social hierarchy. Another purpose of gossip is to justify any punishment you suffer.

And they justify it by promoting a collective view that you don’t deserve respect, dignity, or humanity, but only abuse and hostility.

Consequently, once you’re deemed to deserve abuse, others will always escalate it!

2. Rumors

Rumors are only stories about you without proof of fact. However, they pack a mighty punch because, if people want to believe it, it will be taken as truth.

Unlike gossip, which is shared between two people, rumors are spread over a town, company, school, or organization.

Rumors can either be made up, or they can start from a tiny grain of truth and grow bigger.

Therefore, rumors are another tool in the relational bully’s toolbox.

3. Another tool in Relational Aggression:

Smear Campaigns

Smear campaigns have a goal. They are deliberate attempts to damage your reputation and public image by spreading lies and malicious tales about you to defame you.

Also, during a smear campaign, bullies recruit many others to keep it going. Thus, the smear campaign is the most potent weapon in the relational bully’s arsenal.

Relational aggression goes through stages. Here’s the process:

1. First, your bullies watch you closely.

Relational bullies start by carefully observing you. They keep track of you to find out who you associate with, who you date, even who your family members are. Moreover, they dig up information about your life.

2. Once your bullies find out who you associate with, they cozy up to them and begin Telling them bad things about you.

When they find out who your friends are, they then drop subtle suggestions to them about you. They may tell your friends little white lies about you.

However, they may also take a more obvious approach and threaten them with harm for having any more to do with you. Bullies will also mistreat your partner and even go after your family.

Remember that bullies thrive on fear, and their goal is to isolate you and make you more vulnerable. Therefore, they do this by cutting you off from any possible sources protection or assistance.

3. During the third stage of relational aggression, They watch and wait as, one by one, friends slowly begin turning against you.

Once the rumor mill begins to do your bullies’ dirty work for them, they will watch and wait while gradually escalating the bullying.

However, they may make sure to keep things moving along by telling your friends that you’re saying terrible things about them behind their backs. Moreover, they may bait you into altercations.

Also, they may slyly instigate an altercation between you and a few of your former friends.

4. Once your bullies have succeeded in alienating you from everyone, they bully you freely and with impunity.

In other words, your bullies can bully you without limitations. Bullies can also keep you silent about the abuse. Moreover, you no longer have anyone to confide in about the abuse.

Therefore, you’ll likely suffer in silence. Why? Because you won’t be able to talk about the bullying without getting rebuffed or ridiculed.

Knowledge is power. Therefore, get wise to your bullies and relational aggression. It’s the first step in protecting yourself.

This post is all about relational aggression so that you can recognize it when it happens and take steps to protect yourself.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. Social Bullying Examples: 7 Reasons Bullies Destroy Relationships

2. Bullying on Social Media: 5 Reasons Why People Do It

3. How Bullies Gain Power: 9 Astonishing Ways They Do It.

4. A Bully’s Perspective: What Your Bullies Want to Say to You

5. Smear Campaigns: 4 Tactics Bullies Use to Sully Your Reputation

Cancel Culture is Bullying

January 16, 2025May 26, 20254 Comments

‘Want to know why and how cancel culture is bullying? Here is what makes it so to give you a better understanding of it and to help you to better make the connection.

During the last ten years or so, there’s been a ton of cancel culture going on not only in this country, but around the globe. Moreover, cancel culture seeks to do many things- to instill fear in people, silence them, and tear them down. Therefore, cancel culture is bullying.

In this post, you will learn exactly what makes cancel culture another form of bullying and why we all should look at it as such.

Once you learn all the connections and associations, you will be able to better and more clearly call it out and shed some light on it.

Cancel Culture Is Bullying

Though, it’s disguised as a means to expose wrongdoing, abuses of power, and atrocities committed by those in power, it is, in fact, used by powerful people to subdue the less powerful.

Moreover, they use it as a means to strike fear in, silence and oppress everyday people who are brave enough to call them out for their bullying and evil deeds.

Cancel culture is different from calling people out.

Therefore, cancel culture and bullying are no different. Why? Because there’s an imbalance of power, an intent to do harm, and to keep the victims of it in fear and hardship.

Double standards

When it happens in school or the workplace, we call it bullying. When it happens on a political or government level, we call it cancel culture. Therefore, again, understand that cancel culture and bullying are one and the same.

Cancel culture enforces a double-standard and holds targeted people to standards that no one outside the targeted group lives up to. Bullying does the same with it’s victims.

What is wrong for a each person in the targeted group is right for those in the in-group. What’s celebrated for one person or group is loathed in another. What’s deemed illegal for one person or group is legal, even heroism in another.

Therefore, does this sound familiar? It should.

This is bullying on a grand scale. Because one group has the right to commit crimes, hurt, and kill people. However, the “other” group doesn’t even have the right to defend themselves or their families and homes against the same criminals who are given carte blanche to harm them.

The message cancel culture send is, “We can, you can’t,” “Do as I say, not as I do,” “Rules for thee and not for me,” and dissenting opinions need not apply.”

Cancel Culture is bullying:

It destroys lives.

Many people have lost their jobs, livelihoods, homes, even families to cancel culture. Therefore, cancel culture is bullying. Moreover, it isn’t right to refuse someone else’s right to speak, think, work, flourish, and exist.

And this goes even if they have different opinions, beliefs, and perspectives than you. We must realize that everyone is different. In other words, we all have diverse beliefs, opinions, perspectives, convictions, and ways of thinking.

Moreover, different aspects of our lives shape them.

So, what shapes our opinions, beliefs, and perspectives?

Several things:

The family we’re born into
The environment we grew up in
Personal experiences
Education
Culture

It isn’t just defamation and smear campaigns. No! It goes much further.

It includes doxing the victim. In other words, if you’re that victim, online enemies will dig up information about you and your family. Then, they’ll use it to cause harm to you and your loved ones.

Cancel culture seeks to take away your good name and standing in society. Moreover, it also seeks to remove your rights to earn a living and feed your family. At it’s most dangerous, cancel culture usurps also yours and your family’s rights to physical safety.

Cancel culture is bullying because It is evil and malicious.

No matter what side of the aisle you’re on, cancel culture is wrong and it has to stop!

Everyone has a divine, God-given right to their own opinions, to be neutral, or to stay silent. These are Human rights, and again, no matter what side of the aisle we’re on, we each have those rights!

However, right before our very eyes, evil forces are conditioning people not to defend their most precious rights. Moreover, innocent citizens are being programmed not to believe what they see happening, nor to listen to their God-given gut instincts.

This is concerning!

Nowadays, it’s too easy to destroy someone’s life and take everything from them. We’re talking about everything they’ve worked hard their whole lives for.

Sadly, if a bully wants to destroy you, they don’t need evidence of any wrongdoing on your part to back them up. In other words, they don’t need any sort of proof to do it.

All it takes is an accusation, an allegation, or suggestion. Or, it can be a screenshot or any online post from twenty years ago.

That’s right! If bullies can’t find anything on you, they’ll dig up anything from your distant past.

All it takes is one harmless joke from way back when that’s now deemed offensive. Bullies can also use a picture of you from the seventies or eighties. And you could be wearing a Halloween costume that is seen as politically incorrect today.

Bullies can also dig up something from years ago, a high school photo. They could find an old photo of you when you were a wet-behind-the-ears teenager and wipe you out! There’s no forgiveness or redemption on the internet!

Cancel Culture is Bullying:

It doesn’t matter that kids eventually grow up.

Cancel Culture doesn’t take into consideration that people grow up. In other words, it doesn’t care about the fact that people change as they get older. It doesn’t care whether you learn from your mistakes.

In short, maturity doesn’t sway it. Cancel culture has no concern that we all do and say ignorant things when we’re kids. It doesn’t care that we’re all human beings capable of making errors.

Therefore, understand that if bullies cannot pin anything on you, they will claim that you’re mentally imbalanced. And, if that doesn’t stick, they will dig up something, anything from your past that puts you in a bad light.

Cancel culture is bullying of the highest order. It’s also stalking and it’s dangerous. It puts our very lives at risk.

In fact, people have had to flee their own homes due to doxxing and having their lives and family threatened. Some have gone into hiding. There are even a few who have had to go underground.

It is my hope that people wake up and see the craziness and obsessiveness of cancel culture. Each and every one of us should take a stand against this madness.

Cancel Culture is Bullying and it Breeds Cyber-Bullies Who Are Twice as Dangerous

Cancel Culture is the new cyber-bullying. People say that it was intended for the purpose of shaming celebrities and other people in power for bad behavior.

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 this form of cyberbullying.

However, what it really does is give cyber-bullies a green light to bully anyone they deem unworthy of existing.

Therefore, it 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. They have built nest eggs of tens of millions of dollars to fall back on, if cyberbullies decide to target them for cancellation.

Therefore, cancel culture won’t affect them like it would a normal, everyday person with a job, bills, and a family to feed.

However, common people suffer the most when bullies target them for cancelling. Interestingly, cyber-bullies love to target commoners because they haven’t built a financial cushion to rest on.

Therefore, cyber-bullies will come after them before they will those who are already set.

Bullies want want their attacks to have the maximum negative effect. Therefore, they’ll pick those who don’t have the wherewithal to protect themselves, their families, and their assets.

Cancel Culture is Bullying:

Here’s The Best Alternative.

Cancel culture doesn’t only take away the rights of creators, it also removes the rights of consumers as well. Therefore, here’s my message to those who encourage this kind of bullying.

If you don’t like something, fine. You have a right not to like it and you have a right not to have anything to do with it. What you don’t have a right to do is take away my choice to buy it, judge for myself, and like it.

This kind of bullying violates the personal rights and boundaries of everyone! It seeks to tell you what it thinks you should do. It tells you what to read, watch, eat, use, and who to associate with

. In short, cancel culture strips us all of our God-given rights to self-determination.

But isn’t that what all bullies do, strip their victims (and everyone else) of their right to choose? Their right to have an opinion? The right to speak and to have dignity? Their rights to self-determination?

The alternative to cancel culture is using common sense. In other words, if you don’t like someone, don’t associate with the person. However, don’t take away my right to decide that I want to associate with them.

If you see an item for sale in a store and you don’t like it, then don’t buy it. But, don’t take away my right to like it, choose it, and buy it.

If you don’t like the brand or, more appropriately, if the brand “offends” you, don’t buy it.

Does the show offend you? Then don’t watch it.

Does the business offend you? There’s a simple solution. Don’t patronize it.

If you don’t like the book, don’t read it.

Do you see how this works? It’s that simple.

This post was all about the reasons cancel culture is bullying So that you can call it out like it is.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. The Effects of Bullying: 17 Negative Results on Victims

2. Bullying on Social Media: 5 Reasons Why People Do It

3. Social Bullying Examples: 7 Reasons Bullies Destroy Relationships

4. Bullying Culture: When Bullying is the Status Quo

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

Smear Campaigns: 4 Tactics Bullies Use to Sully Your Reputation

December 4, 2024June 18, 20256 Comments

‘Want to know the purpose of smear campaigns and the stealthy techniques bullies use to ruin your good name? Here is a detailed description of the process and why these evil tactics work so well.

Smear campaigns are destructive to your reputation and can even ruin your life.

Therefore, in this post, you will learn the detailed tactics bullies employ in their smear campaigns so that you can better guard yourself against them.

Once you learn this very important information, you will will better able to defend yourself against them and save your good name.

This post is all about smear campaigns, the tactics bullies use to launch them, and what you can do to successfully defend yourself against them.

Smear Campaigns and the importance of reputation

“Reputation is the cornerstone of power.” – Robert Greene

So, why do bullies attack your reputation?

Simply put, they do it to strip you of power. Bullies know that, once your reputation is gone, you’re defenseless and extremely vulnerable to attack. In other words, they know that if they can poke holes in your reputation, they won’t have to work so hard to bring you down.

Why? Because now, they have public opinion on their side. They can then stand back and watch with glee as widely held perceptions finish you off.

Moreover, after they trash your good name, bullies can freely attack you from all directions. Even worse, you’re at the mercy of virtually everyone around you.

How do Smear Campaigns work?

It always starts subtly.

So, Where do they begin?

1. They start by planting seeds of doubt about your character in the minds of others.

They may cast doubt on you by doing something as subtle as dropping a suggestion. Doubt is a powerful tool. It sets the stage for the next stages of the smear.

2. Smear Campaigns:

They spread rumors and lies.

All it takes is one little rumor- just one!

Bullies are proof that offense is the best defense. Drawing first blood is always best because the target can only respond in either one of two ways.

1. He could deny the rumors, even produce evidence that proves his innocence of the accusations.

2. He could ignore the lies and blow his accusers off with a “whatever” and walk away laughing.

However, either way, people will still look at the target with suspicion. If the target defends himself and produces evidence to the contrary, the prevailing thought will be,

“There must be some truth to the rumors, otherwise he wouldn’t be defending himself so vehemently.”

If he ignores the lies and waves his accusers away with a laugh, others will be even more suspicious of him because they’ll think that he has something to hide and is only playing it cool.

Bullies know that if they instigate rumors the right way, there’s a possibility that they can get the target so enraged and rattled that while defending himself, he ends up making a truckload of mistakes.

Also, if this happens and the target hasn’t yet established a reputation, the smear campaign will work all the more in the bullies’ favor.

Bullies spread lies and rumors by making things up, leaking info they hear, or spreading ideas. Next, they’ll fade into the background because they know that with everything put together, whatever lies they spread will stick.

3. They’ll Repeat the same lies.

In other words, the bullies use repetition. They repeat the same rumor over and over again until it sticks. And sadly, once repeated enough times, more and more people will believe it and it will become the truth even if it is a bald-faced lie.

In fact, by then, others will want to believe it.

And, once the bullies have done their part, they can sit back and let the rumor mill do the work for them. It’s that easy! There’s no getting away from public opinion no matter how false or unjustified it is.

4. Bullies will provoke you to trick you into living up to the rumors.

If bullies spread a rumor that you’re mentally imbalanced, they may provoke some kind of emotional reaction from you. They may do this by taunting you.

Moreover, they may also provoke you by hitting you first, hoping you’ll hit them back so they can use it as proof that you really are unhinged.

Smear Campaigns: What happens when Your Reputation takes a hit?

1. People will negatively judge any talents, actions, or contributions, good or bad.

Here’s how this works.

Two different people can do the exact same thing the exact same way. However, each person’s reputation will decide whether the action is brilliant or terrible.

In other words, it’s not what you do. It’s who you are when you do it. It’s not the action itself, but who the person is that does it.

A person who’s well-liked and has a stellar reputation can write an essay, and others will deem it a brilliant piece.

However, let a person everyone despises write the exact same essay, and others will only view it as a worthless piece of garbage that isn’t even worth reading.

Thank God for pseudonyms!

This brings me to the final conclusion:

Reputation can affect all areas of your life. It can be the difference between having success or failure- in everything!

The Character, Chris Chambers in the movie, “Stand by Me”

Remember the character, Chris Chambers, in the movie “Stand by Me.” Although he was a great kid, he was considered a rogue and a thief.

Moreover, during the scene where he was crying to his friend, Gordy, Chris told him about how he got his bad name and wished he could go somewhere where no one knew him.

And sadly, that happens a lot. In a majority of cases, targets must leave the school, company, or community to heal and to rebuild their lives.

Smear campaigns have stages.

Stage 1:

The bullies will cast doubt on your character and drop suggestions. Also, they’ll spread lies and rumors. They will then provoke you. You blow them off for a while but the bullies are relentless. Therefore, they not only continue but escalate the harassment.

Finally, you get fed up with their crap and, out of exhaustion and emotion, tell them to go to hell in a hand basket. And there! The bullies get the reaction they’ve been waiting for.

Demonization always starts out subtle.

Character vs Reputation

In the beginning, you may have friends. Others may like or even love you. Moreover, they may try to support you and speak on your behalf.

However, that’s when the bullies will tell them, “Oh, no. There’s more to it than what he told you.”

Or, the bullies may lie to your friends by telling them that sometime in the past, you criticized them or stabbed them in the back.

Smear Campaigns Stage 2.

Moreover, they make false statements and accuse you of wrongs you never committed.

And as the rumors and lies spread from person to person, the bigger they grow until they sound so bizarre and outlandish they’d be fit for a horror movie.

However, you couldn’t be more wrong!

stage 3.

Once the rumors get around, your friends will no longer believe you to be right. They’ll only think you’re a thorn in the side with a big mouth.

Therefore, by the time the open bullying is underway, you no longer have a clean reputation.

The results of successful smear campaigns.

Now, everyone thinks you never deserved any respect or friendship. The people around you also feel that the reason you were so well-liked is that you conned your way into their hearts.

They’ll say that you put on a front, and you only weaseled your way into everyone’s good graces. The bullies and their followers may even accuse you of being a kiss-ass.

Moreover, others will make your past wins, accomplishments, successes, or accolades irrelevant. They will also maximize your mistakes and failures and add many more you didn’t make.

In other words, they will rewrite your history.

Your so-called friends will tell others, “who you really are.” They’ll claim that the bullies you bitched about were only reacting to your sneaky provocations.

Also, they’ll say that they only agreed with you about your bullies because you fooled them into it.

Telling your side of things will do no good because they’ll never believe it anyway. Your embittered friends “may have fallen for it at first,” but now they claim to “know better.”

I want you to understand that once people’s minds are already made up, there’s no changing it.

Smear Campaigns Stage 4

Stage 4 is the late stage. Therefore, in the late stages of a smear campaign, all bystanders will become willing co-conspirators.

Gossip will be everywhere. And it brings scandal, which means to assassinate the target’s character, integrity, mental fitness, and worth as a student, worker, neighbor, and human being.

And if the target attempts to defend himself or speak out against the abuse, it will be used against him.

In Conclusion:

There’s still hope. Although extremely difficult, you can still salvage your reputation and change your life for the better. Here’s how.

1. If you’re a victim of vicious smear campaigns, Move to a different area.

Sometimes you must go somewhere else and start over again. It may be difficult to leave your family behind, but if you stay in the town where people judge you unfavorably, you’ll never have the chance to move forward and will always be stuck right where you are.

Why not pack your things and head for greener pastures.

2. Find a good cause to fight for and that you’re passionate about.

Any time you fight for a good cause, you will meet like-minded people who are fighting for the same purpose. Moreover, the cause could be “The Victim’s Rights Movement,” or even “The Anti-Bullying Movement.”

Whatever the cause, you will attract those who are fighting for the same things. Also, you’ll easily make positive connections with them and become life-long friends.

Although many doors get slammed shut and locked, there’s always a window to crawl through if you look for it. I guarantee it!

This post is all about smear campaigns so that you can recognize all the tactics and stages. Moreover, it will give you time to act to protect yourself.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. The 4 Stages of Bullying

2. Bullying Culture: When Bullying is the Status Quo

3. The Cycle of Bullying: Psychological Injuries and Care of Victims

4. What Not to Share at Work When You Suffer Workplace Bullying

5. School Choice: Why it’s a Godsend for Bullied Kids!