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Comment by Entlin | Hacker News Reader

That's the best post in this entire thread. People don't get bullied in adulthood because there is a working police and judicial entity. People get bullied as kids because there isn't one.

Currently kids grow up for 18 years in a everyone-for-himself, in-order-to-be-successfull-you-need-physical-strength-and-iron-will world, and just then they switch to the much better and fairer world where being sucessful is not dependant on being able to defend your own flesh.

That adult system of self-fulfillment while not having to mind fighting bad guys all the time is the basis of our scientific and economic progress of the past 200 years. The big question: why do we put our kids into a different, unnecessery, dangerous and toxic environment for their first 18 years?

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"People don't get bullied in adulthood because there is a working police and judicial entity."

Unfortunately while adults may be largely free from the physical violence, workplace bullying does occur. Usually it is more subtle than the outright taunting and physical violence of schoolyard bullies, which means its harder to retaliate against but it can be very stressful - and HR is not on your side.

"Currently kids grow up for 18 years in a everyone-for-himself, in-order-to-be-successfull-you-need-physical-strength-and-iron-will world,.."

Sadly, the only other system I can think of that shares these traits is one called "prison".

> HR is not on your side.

Given the regulations in the United States that's hardly a surprise.

I'm not in HR but have I heard/read things from a few sources. You have to deal with people using HR to harass their victims, lack of evidence and the list just continues. And when it's management above HR doing harasment, they don't have the authority to stop it. It's a rather thankless job.

Bogus. Forget HR, if you're bullied your options are 1) switch department 2) file a police report 3) sue 4) switch company 5) move to a different town.

If you're a kid, there is no option to switch 1) class 2) file a police a police report 3) sue 4) switch school or 5) move to a different town if your parents don't cooperate. You're completely dependent on them.

If you don't get the difference between being a free agent in state governed by rule of law, and being a dependent person in a defacto unpoliced area, you should reconsider your way of thinking.

I'm not saying that there are no options to workplace bullying, I am saying that it happens.

"People don't get bullied in adulthood because there is a working police and judicial entity. People get bullied as kids because there isn't one."

People do get bullied in adulthood .. there are many stories and reports involving bullying in the workplace.

Not all bullying situations are necessarily toxic or dangerous. Consider hazing and boot camp, both of which are essentially sanctioned bullying. I suspect a good number of people actually enjoy hazing (joining a fraternity) and others believe military training builds character, etc.

Likewise, try entertaining the idea that childhood bullying (within reason) might serve a social purpose. I've heard multiple first hand accounts of former targets overcoming bullies to become protectors, for one. Perhaps bullying creates a social order, a sense of empathy for victims, etc? I'm not arguing that all bullying is constructive, but I'm not also willing to say it's all destructive either.

The difference is that your first paragraph involves consent, and the second paragraph doesn't.

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