About Bullies, Part II

In Jean Shepherd's very popular and funny movie A Christmas Story, depicting an northern Indiana boy's school and holiday ups and down, there is a vicious character, a older boy named Scud Farkus who picks on all the other kids (including his toady sidekick).  In that story, the bully is a social outcast and the other children are more or less united in fearing and loathing him.  But that's a story...in real life bullies are encouraged and affirmed by the bulk of the people surrounding them, while the victims are often, if not usually, isolated and ostracized.  Bullies usually justify their aggression to others by claiming that the victim did or was something offensive and had to be taught a lesson.  This was certainly the case in my youth, as the most popular kids on campus were often the most hateful, mean bullies around.  And it wasn't just the kids who sucked up to them...teachers often bent over backwards to befriend them, too.

I bring all this up as a follow-up to yesterday's article about the Miami Dolphin player who bullied a teammate to the point where he left the team.  In reaction to the story, incredibly (or is it really) teammates and other players (like Mike Wallace and Rickie Williams) have publicly come out in support of the accused, trivializing the threatened violence and racism of his behavior while making it seem as if the victim brought it all on to himself  by his own attitude.  Even coaches and sports analysts are rushing up to side with the aggressor by claiming that he might have been put up to it by his coaches or that other teammates were to blame because they didn't stop him.  As if this individual wasn't responsible for his own behavior!

I don't know who is worse: the bully exhibiting the behavior or the people who affirm that behavior and seek to make him out as a victim while the true victim is painted as the bad guy...