That was my experience in school. I frequently got worse punishment than my bullies. Then the one day I actually fought back I got worse punishment again. But the next day I was ignored by the bullies.
I can just hear someone out there saying that’s what the school wanted to teach me but dude, it was not some reasoned, cool headed, defense of myself. It was a dirty emotional scrap where I used anything I had to hand. If I had possessed a weapon it would have been used. That’s not resilience training, that’s trauma and teaching kids they cannot trust authority. Because if you think the lesson was lost on anyone around me then you are a fool.
teaching kids they cannot trust authority
Which is still a valuable lesson
No, this isn’t, “don’t talk to the police”. This is, “don’t pay taxes, don’t vote, fight the police, fuck everything, the system is rigged and all government employees are complicit in a system of cruelty.”
One of those is a valuable lesson and the other is going to give us the next Unabomber.
Not saying your experience was a good thing by any stretch, but I do think especially in the U.S, we all run into that point at one time or another, when it really hits you that the “authorities” don’t really have much stake in your well-being, and so usually disregard it.
A lot of times this will be in school, yeah, with nonsense “zero tolerance policies.”
Other times it’s the “You can trust me and tell me anything” HR department that fires you for “performance reasons” conveniently after being a harassment victim.
Eventually something goes the wrong way and you realize “Help ain’t coming.” And it sucks.
Ourselves and each other are who we’ve really got in the end. Look out for each other. <3
The thing about taxes is it only works when you’re a big fish in a small pond. Amazon Fulfillment Center doesn’t have to pay taxes to the small Arkansas municipal government they functionally own. But you can be fucking sure that the extremely white sheriff and his Good’ole’Boy deputies won’t tolerate a tax payment showing up late when it’s the low-income black neighborhood Amazon Fulfillment Center workers who are on the hook.
That is, after all, the agreement between the city and the business. The city budget doesn’t come from the company coffers, it comes from the salaries of the employees’ paychecks. Rents are for Little People.
It teaches the younger and weaker kids that they cannot expect administrators to act in their interests.
It teaches the older and meaner kids that they can act with impunity, safe in the assumption that administrators will look the other way.
The lesson is two-fold, and the end result is a cycle of bullying as the younger kids grow up knowing they can punch down without consequences.