Hey there!
I just wanted to make a serious discussion about Harassment. I really want to share a video with you about this and feel free to reply down below if you want to share anything..
NB! Video Language is Norwegian, but it should have English Subtitle.
Maybe want to try to answer some question just to get the start on the discussion?
- Is this a world-wide problem?
- Is there something we can do about it?
- What would you do if you were in this position?
- Have you every experienced this before? Victim or witness?
Harassment is a worldwide problem. Unfortunately, though there are ways to handle harassment, most of the legal options to solve the issue are largely ineffective. This has a lot to do with changes in social norms and behavior over the years, leading to less and less direct confrontation of such a problem. This has mainly been replaced with victim blaming.
Case in point: With many cases of sexual assault and harassment coming out of Hollywood and US Politics, there has been a trend of "well she asked for it..." or even "why did she wait so long if it REALLY happen."
I've been a victim of both sexual assault and harassment in my lifetime. It took me years to even think about speaking on the former issue. The latter issue I typically confront the way I was raised, through voice and/or physical confrontation where applicable.
When I witness harassment, it sets off repressed memories and it's a miracle that no one has been seriously hurt. Part of the reason for my instability has to do with a lack of support chains when I was younger, leading me to develop my own method of coping with the situations. Psychology (college level) has taught me a lot on this and related issues. While there isn't a "cure" to the damage nor the problem, both have been identified.
Harassment, like many other forms of abusive behavior, is a learned behavior. That is to say, no one is born and genetically coded to perform this action. The reason such a problem exists stems from many things. When I was a kid, it was prank phone calls that were glorified. When I was in my twenties, memes and trolling became a thing, as the internet became a common resource for everyone. Now it's to the point where the victims are viewed as the problem because they should do "insert excuse" instead of allowing it. Typically, people who use that method are usually a part of the activity, or were at one point, on the giving end.
Basically, until society makes "being decent without incentive" popular again, it will only fester and get worse.
In America, the first major instance of a school shooting (Colombine) was mainly because the kids involved were repeatedly outcasted and harassed by their peers. This led them to follow guidance from the man that provided them with everything they needed to pull it off. He actually didn't go to jail nor did anything happen to him. He's still alive and out there, with the claim that they "stole" the stuff, even though it's clear that he was in contact with them frequently prior to the event.
Since things are the way they are, and even in this community people victim blame and harass rather then engage the person performing the activity, the only remaining option is for the victim to lash back, which only leads to more blame and harassment. Where on a forum, you think it's funny, I promise you won't think it's funny when someone rolls up on you in real life with a gun, intending on ending you and your family, over words on the internet. Regardless of what the excuse, harassment and isolating a person whom feels like they are being made a victim in one way or another, is bad and can lead to deadly results. Weather it be that the person harms or kills others, or themselves, isn't the real problem. The real problem is that people find a way to justify that they aren't the bad guy in the situation when they do what they do that leads people to "the end of the line," or "flipping out."
Near as I can tell, there isn't any way to point out to people that they are the bad person in the situation, as they will fall into denial, trying to flip the argument to "win." When you have to push others down to make yourself feel better, you are a piece of shit and I hope you flap gums to the wrong person asap. A few broken bones or having a gun shoved in your face might not be socially acceptable behavior, but neither is shitting all over your fellow human for whatever reason you choose to do so.
Harassment in any form shouldn't exist, but it does. Same as war. Same as many other things. Regardless of what the excuse, the denial, the belief that the victim "asked for it", eventually you'll have to explain this to your maker, whichever you might believe in. Even Satanism doesn't accept this kind of behavior. Not that I am a Satanist, as I don't have a formal religion, but I have read the book equivalent to their "bible." It's an interesting read as literature. So I hope whatever maker you believe in, is just as bad as you are, else you are pretty much screwed.