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DieRuhe: Couldn't down-repping be considered a form of bullying?
It could... which would prove the original point: you cannot outlaw all form of "bullying" without severely debilitating people's ability to communicate naturally.
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Parvateshwar: Every complex animal engages in systematic bullying over resources and reproductive rights. It's a big part how the natural world evolves and a major mechanic in natural selection. HOWEVER, there are 7 billion humans and we have long since realised that altruism and morality is the only way we are going to survive and not destroy each other. A bully is only trying to fulfil his/her base desires of amassing wealth or power, in many cases due to a lacking in another aspects of their life or simply from an attraction to masochistic tendencies.

Regardless, a person who systematically engages in behaviour that threatens, intimidates, or in anyway unjustly restricts others is a threat to social cohesion and deserves to be ostracised and disciplined until they can function in a manner that contributes to, or at the very least doesn't detract from, the communal well-being.
Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Humanity, as a social specie, has to some extent transcended classical views of natural selection and you cannot apply the natural selection at the individual level any more than you can apply it to individual organs in a human body.

Natural selection is applied in the context of a group and the ostracised victim tends to be a better fit to group dynamics than the bullies picking on him (who show an overabundance of aggressiveness combined with poor self-control which is not a good combination).

It is the bullies that have to adapt to our modern reality where we have to play nice to each other and work together toward common goals.

If we fail in this, then we will always be weak and dysfonctional as a group.

We need to cull out disruptive antisocial tendencies.

It is our duty to stand up to the bullies and force them to desist (with the carrot or the stick, it depends on the case).
Post edited October 26, 2012 by Magnitus
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Braussie: The media has been casting the people who commit suicide as modern day martyrs, placing them on a pedestal of innocence rather than the reality- murderer of a worthless person(themselves).
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Post edited October 26, 2012 by sauvignon1
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DieRuhe: Couldn't down-repping be considered a form of bullying? What is it, really, other than another form of saying "Boo, hiss, we don't like what you're saying, shut up, make this thread go away"? Just wondering.
Yes, I've seen that done here in the past GR was still being downrepped for no good reason well after he reformed his ways.

Fitocracy is a great example, because you get people leaving nasty notes in the text explaining the repping. And bitching posting negative rep when people call them out for abusing the system.

The main reason I don't go there any more is that the moderators there flat out don't care that the site is now a cesspool. Which is a shame because when I made the account it wasn't too bad. But they just didn't feel like enforcing any sort of reasonable civility, so I've taken my marbles and left. Bodyweightculture is a much better source of info and encouragement anyways.
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DieRuhe: Couldn't down-repping be considered a form of bullying?
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Vestin: It could... which would prove the original point: you cannot outlaw all form of "bullying" without severely debilitating people's ability to communicate naturally.
Well, that would prove that point had the original post not been so deliberately inflammatory and ill conceived. Posting that sort of flamebait on any forum is going to see that reaction regardless of how insightful it is. I know I have a tendency to dispense with civility more often than I should, and on the Internet you rapidly find you're reaching the limits of Poe's law if you're not at least including emoticons.
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PenutBrittle: I don't see a single problem with downrepping someone who applauds the idea that suicide is the murder of a worthless person.
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jefequeso: He may have just missed that part. Several people (including myself) missed it until Psyringe pointed it out.
I think it's because " look like * if you're not looking closely and the former means something completely different from the latter.
Post edited October 26, 2012 by hedwards