Bullying is not a joke. We joke about it, but it is a strategy. The key thing about it is that most internet bullying is done not to try to change the mind of the target, but to engage an audience and let those who disagree with a statement but don't have the confidence or knowledge to engage know that someone is on their side.

Additionally, there's the aspect of "is the bullying really bad when it's in response to an evil society?" Mark Twain put it better:

There were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.

And, lastly, here is a good writeup from a while back: TastySnack on bullying

Oh, meant to respond to Pluto, oops.