Comments on: Bullying is not a growth experience

By: Michael Bussee

Michael Bussee — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:57:01 +0000

Of course, he’s not obligated to clarify. I would think that he would want to. I certainly would want to make my position clear, as you have done. But that’s up to him. Maybe he is tired of explaining. Maybe he is OK with leaving the impression that he supports bullying. That’s his right.

If he is not OK with giving that impression, he could simply say so. He wouldn’t even have to have good writing or communication skills. He could use yours. It would be as simple as typing “I agree”. How could that be trouble?

If he “lacks the skills to effectively communicate” and is “careless with his writing”, maybe he could take a class or something.

By: Joshua Johanson

Joshua Johanson — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:33:32 +0000

My point is that he shouldn’t have to say “I agree”. He is under no obligation to say anything.

He has responded to Warren in the past. Warren asked why a racist comment was posted on his blog and he responded that he did not post the comment but that a friend posted it. Warren then wrote “Making or allowing a friend to make a racist statement on your public blog is playing the race card”. He did this without verifying the circumstances under which the friend made the comment, nor without verifying how Michael felt about what the friend did. Guess what, friends sometimes do things that you don’t want them to do. Sometimes you let your guard down and they do something behind your back and pretend it was you. Michael might be careless with his writing, but Warren is careless in his accusations.

So Michael has tried to appease Warren in the past, but it doesn’t work. Warren has accused him of leaving comments up, so he took them down, and then Warren accused him of hiding his comments. Maybe he just got tired of trying to appease Warren, put up a blog post that he is tired of people twisting his words, and just left it at that. He has no obligation to respond to anyone, especially someone who constantly twists his words. That is just asking for trouble.

By: Michael Bussee

Michael Bussee — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:07:40 +0000

It takes great skill to be able to communicate clearly and efficiently.

Then you must have that skill. He could just say, “I agree”.

By: Joshua Johanson

Joshua Johanson — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:52:09 +0000

It takes great skill to be able to communicate clearly and efficiently. It doesn’t take much skill to twist someone’s words, point fingers, or bully someone else. Yes, I do think that he is being bullied. He said he thought Obama’s policies were insidious. His words were twisted to make it sound like he said anti-bullying policies were insidious. Whose fault is that? Should he have been able to predict that how his words were going to be twisted? He wasn’t even talking about bullying. Why would he even suspect that someone would interepret his post to be about bullying?

I do not think that just because someone lacks the skills to effectively communicate in such a way that will anticipate all of the possible ways that someone will ever be able to twist their words, gives anyone the right to twist their words and demonize him and hold his reputation hostage until he comes to them and proves his innocence. It is just not right.

By: Michael Bussee

Michael Bussee — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:27:51 +0000

Maybe he wouldn’t be sick of defending them if he made his words and motives clearer to begin with. Is he just being bullied and picked on? Are his critics entirely to blame? Maybe if he said something like:

Bullying is bad, regardless of the targeted group. I think we should do everything we can to stop bullying. I hope you haven’t taken any of my comments as a condoning of bullying or even an indication that bullying is anything less than a tragedy that should be adverted at all costs. I have tried to consistently say that bullying is a bad thing and should be stopped.

Now, that’s real clear.