infuriatedAs one of the children who was always less well socialized than her peers in grade school and middle school, I was one of the ones who was singled out for taunting that a child who was less easily wound up would have ignored. I didn't know how to deal with this shit, and I got wound up about it and angrily tried to verbally defend myself, and I always came out the worse for it, unless I used words that the junior asshats didn't understand, and then I still came out the worse for it.
The only time I was ever physically bullied was when one kid punched me in the 6th grade (the local pathological liar, another common target of bullies and a bully himself), and I made myself get a cold the next day so I wouldn't have to face him on the bus.
Just because trolling by taunting the easily wound-up isn't face-to-face doesn't make it not bullying.
I'm trying very hard right now to not go on the offensive and try to tear trolls new ones, because that won't accomplish much of anything. I'm just sickened by people who get their entertainment from bullying the easily wound-up.
