What you can do if you see someone being harassed


As more and more reports come in of people feeling emboldened to insult, threaten, and otherwise harass people who they perceive as not belonging in the US, it is good for us to think abut what we might do if we encounter a situation where we see this happening to someone else.

I believe that most people do not approve of random acts of intimidation aimed at people who are just going about their lives and will come to the aid of the victim. But it usually takes someone to make the first move and they may wonder what to do without inflaming an already volatile situation. This cartoon gives what I think is a helpful suggestion.

harassed

Comments

  1. Varun Kharwadkar says

    A nice pictorial, it would probably very often work as such harassers are blowhards and not usually physically violent.
    Now, how do you suggest one protect conservative students in academia when they are targetted and abused by their (invariably leftwing) professors or other students? What about someone unwise enough to reveal that they actually supported Trump? They would certainly be victimised.

  2. says

    Varun Kharwadkar:

    What about someone unwise enough to reveal that they actually supported Trump?

    :laughs: And just where have you seen Trumpidiots cowering in fear, afraid to say they supported him? Reports of harassment, intimidation, and assaults on people from Trump supporters continue to pour in, a great many of them happening in schools, students of all ages.

    If you’re going to troll, you really need to be better.

  3. Holms says

    Now, how do you suggest one protect conservative students in academia when they are targetted and abused by their (invariably leftwing) professors or other students?

    Fucking amazing.

  4. EigenSprocketUK says

    Varun, can’t you tell the difference between discussing opinions and thoughts which people may or may not hold, and verbally abusing someone for who they are? Their skin colour, their mode of dress, what gender they present, their disabilities? No? Don’t bother answering, just have a think about it. Baby steps, I guess.

  5. fentex says

    :laughs: And just where have you seen Trumpidiots cowering in fear, afraid to say they supported him?

    (invariably leftwing) professors or other students?
    Fucking amazing.

    Keep insulting and swearing at people, that’ll really solve the problem of them not voting the way you think they ought to and it surely won’t re-affirm their belief in your animosity towards them.

  6. Jake Harban says

    Now, how do you suggest one protect conservative students in academia when they are targetted and abused by their (invariably leftwing) professors or other students? What about someone unwise enough to reveal that they actually supported Trump? They would certainly be victimised.

    I think the best way to deal with that sort of abuse is to simply leave Bizarroworld and return to Planet Reality where that never happens.

  7. Bruce H says

    Abuse -- noun

    1. the act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything.
    2. the act of passing severe judgment; censure; faultfinding.
    3. the act or art of analyzing and evaluating or judging the quality of a literary or artistic work, musical performance, art exhibit, dramatic production, etc.
    4. a critical comment, article, or essay; critique.

    Wait, that’s criticism. My bad.

  8. Holms says

    Keep insulting and swearing at people, that’ll really solve the problem of them not voting the way you think they ought to and it surely won’t re-affirm their belief in your animosity towards them.

    What makes you think that was my intent with that reply? His pretense of leftwing hectoring in the classroom is ludicrous, and unlikely to be in good faith.

  9. Excluded Layman says

    [H]ow do you suggest one protect conservative students in acedemia from [abuse by leftwing students and faculty?]

    Wake up and tweet about the crazy dream you just had.

    Or, for bonus points, organize a dialogue between faculty and students about the university’s ethical standards for such matters. Authoritarian media lie constantly about this sort of thing, so addressing the resultant fear is the best way to help conservative students more comfortably participate in campus life.

    Talking to the (real or perceived) victims to make them feel included is the answer in both cases.

  10. deepak shetty says

    I would guess @1 is referring to P.Z. Myers calling people who voted for Trump racist or misogynist.
    If so
    a . Myers (or any prof , liberal or conservative) can say what they want on their blogs -- if you have any evidence of this being said say in a lecture or in a context where the professor had immediate power over those students than provide proof
    b. Myers is accurate in his assessment of the people who voted for Trump. they are either racist or sexist or they dont have a problem with a candidate who is and thats just as bad(atleast to prevent them from voting Trump)

  11. chigau (ever-elliptical) says

    deepak shetty #11
    What does PZ have to do with Mano’s blog?
    Varun Kharwadkar seems to think that the movie God’s Not Dead was a documentary.

  12. says

    I suppose picking up a fire extinguisher, walking over to them and looming over them and asking them “do you need a dose of sit the fuck down shut the fuck up?” is too aggro?

  13. says

    What I don’t get about these righty wingnuts is that they don’t understand that lefty wingnuts are just as comfortable uncorking a bottle of pain as they are. I’m not going to attack some brown person because they’re brown but some confederate flag-waving asshole might be fair game. The problem with authoritarians is that they don’t read their Kant, so they don’t understand that when they start abusing people and bullying people, they are choosing to live in a world where people get bullied and abused -- and the target may be them.

    Seriously, I just don’t fucking get why they think they’re the only people who can be tough. Shit, they peed down their legs when the black panthers came to town. All they’re asking for is war; they’re used to winning because they’ve had numbers on their side, but they’re fucking stupid. Ask the vietcong.

  14. Varun Kharwadkar says

    Caine is partly correct. My comment was an experiment, to see how people responded. Clearly words spoken do not equate to punches thrown. However, my mini-experiment does seem to support the hypothesis that there is total incomprehension on the part of people of the left of how people who do not share their political goals think and feel, plus a rejection of even their right to disagree with ‘self-evident truths’. You clearly are unaware of the bias and exclusion practised on US campuses against anyone of a conservative viewpoint. There is no ‘discussion’ permitted, as you seem to think. The ratio of ‘liberal’ to conservative’ faculty members is roughly 40 to 1, which might explain that. They are not all as open to disagreement as Mano Singham. Unless you acknowledge the right of others to disagree with your ideas, said ideas might as well be Holy Gospel and you the followers of a religion. To give a chess metaphor -- appropriate given the current match -- you might like to realise that ‘the other player also has a right to exist’, as Tartakower puts it.

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