Jacques Rousseau has a good post on The Bumblebee Affair and assigning blame and when bullying is what’s called for. (Spoiler: never.)
The takeaway:
No matter how you assign blame for past actions, or what your character judgements are in relation to all the players in this soap opera, we should all remember to include ourselves in those character judgements also, and try to be objective when thinking of our roles in causing or facilitating harm to others. In this instance, Ms Bumblebee has no defence – in the knowledge that Jen McCreight has been jeered off the stage, and had a long-standing depression triggered, she doesn’t take the option of silence (never mind sympathy). Instead, she broadens the net of victims to members of Jen’s family (and of course carries on with ridiculing Jen while doing so). That’s all “on her”, as the Americans like to say, no matter what sins you think Jen might have committed in the past.
Might be a handy insight for a workshop on bullying.
I liked Jacques’s comment:
Bullying is evil. Wooly Bumblebee, who is supposedly an expert on bullying, is supposed to know this. So why does she take such pride in her bullying?
I’ve never heard of this Bumblebee person before this (no relation, trust me). Holy fucking shit, what a ridiculous stunted loser.
So why does she take such pride in her bullying?
I think because she’s good at it, she’s solid, she’s articulate, and above all she can win support. It’s power. She can, so she does.