It's not a word that can, or should be, "reclaimed".
Dunking on chuds/libs/etc. is awesome, but it doesn't need that specific framing.
It's not a word that can, or should be, "reclaimed".
Dunking on chuds/libs/etc. is awesome, but it doesn't need that specific framing.
Bullying bad people who deserve it and have shitty beliefs to be bullied out of is good. Bullying innocent children for things they cannot control is bad. Context matters.
I can see a line of argument where a 4th grader shouldn't be bullied even for things they can control. They'd hardly know better because of their mushy, young, little mind. In that sense, the bullying is only the harmful part of getting the message across. Therefore there'd be a desire to separate the connotations of bullying from the good work of rattling the chains of people who are responsible for harm.
I think this is where the problem is. You can't bully someone into having better beliefs. You can bully them into shutting up and being scared to say their shitty opinions out loud. There's a lot of people where achieving that would be great, and for them "bullying works". But believing that "bullying works" to actually change people for the better leads to some awful behavior, and it's an issue that a lot of people on this site accept it.
You absolutely can bully people out of shitty beliefs and it's way more effective than saying "let's try to figure out why you believe you're a superior race"
"Bullying" is literally what made it unacceptable for white people to call black people the n word in public.
You’re talking about opposing racist pieces of shit. For that, absolutely, use bullying, punches, bullets, whatever works. But there you’re not trying to make them better people, the goal is to stop them from saying and doing racist shit.
My issue is when this gets applied to trying to get an okay to change their beliefs. It’s not going to work, and you can talk yourself into doing some fucked up stuff that way.
Not bullying someone doesn’t mean being nice and holding their hand, it means not trying to make their life hell. You can still be harsh, blunt, and forceful when calling things out. That’s different from bullying.
I think we should be aware of when it’s an appropriate tool to use, and not treat any criticism of bullying like it’s a call to give a klansman a hug.