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While I agree with your sentiment.

I'd also say we are wrong to condemn young cyber-bullies. There are things in life that create adversity, then there are ways of dealing with adversity. I think conflating the two, makes it difficult to discuss.

That said, clearly the two are related, but it is correlative, not causative.

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I agree: plenty of people here have been bullied and came out relatively unscathed. Often the bullying survived was worse than what drives others to suicide. It's messy, because you can't tell in advance the likelihood of your "being a dick" turning into "instigated a suicide," because something minor for some people--nasty rumors on Facebook or a felony charge--might be life-rending for others.

But just because something is uncertain doesn't mean you have to treat the worst case as equivalent to the typical or median case. We treat drunk driving much more leniently than vehicular manslaughter while drunk. That's the lens I view the government's role through.

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