I’ve been thinking about one of my biases, and how it undoubtedly influences my view of current events.<\/p>\n
My entire school career, from about 3rd<\/sup> grade until I left school, I was the designated safe target for bullies.<\/p>\n My experience of trying to get help was that it leads to teachers telling you that you should not to make up stories, because those boys came from good families and would never do such things. It’s of teachers punishing me if I dared to fight back, and never protecting me or punishing my tormentors.<\/p>\n Nine or ten straight years of being called faggot, nerd, loser. Having my homework stolen and destroyed, having food thrown at me as I got off the bus, of being beaten repeatedly, of hiding during recess, of having drinks poured over me, of being told I was entirely worthless.<\/p>\n I’ve had an absolutely great life since I left school. Amazing adventures, the craziest jobs (and finally finding my niche), great friends. I no longer suspect that I’m worthless, and I don’t hang around with people who don’t value me.<\/p>\n But I still twitch in reaction when I hear people shouting mean things; I assume they’re targeting me, I guess, at some deep level.<\/p>\n When I recently learned the word “gaslighting,” I understood it\u00a0\u2014 and its implications \u2014 right away. I was told for years that, essentially, the bullying was my fault. Or that I was just imagining it. Or that I was just weak and should let it roll off my back. It has taken me a long time to stop believing that.<\/p>\n I’m not writing this to get sympathy. That whole thing ended 38 years ago. A guy I knew in the Navy talked me down from the last serious bad reaction I had. Done.<\/p>\n I’m writing because when I see stories of bullying, this is why I’m more primed to believe the victim’s stories and disbelieve you when you say “that was staged” or “this is just people being too sensitive.”<\/p>\n So there’s my bias. I freely admit to being on the side of the underdog, not the side of the bully, the big man on campus, the Good Boy from a Good Family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"