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(Gawker) Interesting "American Psycho" author feels terrible about bullying victims and wonders what can be done. Just kidding, he wants them to stop whining and man up: "You lose. Deal with it"   (gawker.com) divider line 270
More: Interesting, American Psycho, Just Kidding, bullying  
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5801 clicks; posted to Entertainment » on 05 Dec 2011 at 12:34 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



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2011-12-05 11:20:08 AM
What a great lesson to teach kids about life. "If someone wrongs you don't try and do anything about it; as a loser it's your place to be taken advantage of by your betters, so get used to it." If only I'd had moral guidance like that when I was a kid, I could have been a sniveling, bitter coward too.
 
2011-12-05 11:40:52 AM
He kind of has a point. Bullying is a part of life when you are a teenager, and when you are different -- because you are smart, or gay, or black, or the only Jew -- you pretty much have to deal with it. School is a jungle, and kids are animals.

However, that shouldn't excuse school officials who look the other way when it happens. He could have tempered his comments accordingly.

I got shiat in gym class freshman year because I was the only kid in my section in the gifted program, I had (and have) the athletic ability of your average grandmother, and everyone else in my section of gym class were a bunch of knuckle-dragging jock neanderthals. What pissed me off wasn't so much the idiot jock students, it was the idiot douchebag has-been jock coach who smugly watched them and let them bully me day after day, and then dropped a detention on me when I finally snapped and flipped them off.
 
2011-12-05 11:50:53 AM
gilgigamesh: He kind of has a point. Bullying is a part of life when you are a teenager, and when you are different -- because you are smart, or gay, or black, or the only Jew -- you pretty much have to deal with it. School is a jungle, and kids are animals.

However, that shouldn't excuse school officials who look the other way when it happens. He could have tempered his comments accordingly.

I got shiat in gym class freshman year because I was the only kid in my section in the gifted program, I had (and have) the athletic ability of your average grandmother, and everyone else in my section of gym class were a bunch of knuckle-dragging jock neanderthals. What pissed me off wasn't so much the idiot jock students, it was the idiot douchebag has-been jock coach who smugly watched them and let them bully me day after day, and then dropped a detention on me when I finally snapped and flipped them off.


Gym coaches are the worst of the worst.
 
2011-12-05 12:12:18 PM
gilgigamesh: and then dropped a detention on me when I finally snapped and flipped them off.

Shut up and serve your time. You're a loser and you always will be. Now hand over your lunch money, Pointdexter.
 
2011-12-05 12:30:00 PM
What kind of middle name is "Easton," anyway?
 
2011-12-05 12:35:24 PM
So, would Ellis agree that if someone is a s**ty writer who relies on predictable shock tactics and ham-handed emoting because he can't create a decent plot or believable characters, he should just man up, quit writing and do something you might actually be good at, like blowing hobos for crack money?
 
2011-12-05 12:38:21 PM
Petit_Merdeux: gilgigamesh: and then dropped a detention on me when I finally snapped and flipped them off.

Shut up and serve your time. You're a loser and you always will be. Now hand over your lunch money, Pointdexter.


Needs more spelling errors, and wedgies.
 
2011-12-05 12:41:54 PM
Completely agree with Ellis. Killing yourself doesn't solve anything. Stop whining and man-up

/Not being a troll, truly believe this
//Kids today are farkin soft
 
2011-12-05 12:42:59 PM
Why do we ask kids to man up and deal with things that would be dealt by an arrest for assault if they were adults ?

I mean, if somebody at work did to be what some people did to me in junior high, they'd leave the building in handcuffs. So why should the bullied kids have to fend for themselves ?
 
2011-12-05 12:43:07 PM
He penned American Psycho? That certainly explains a lot.
 
2011-12-05 12:45:15 PM
I'm not a tough guy. I'm not even a ITG.

But if I ever meet Bret face-to-face, I'll kick his ass. He's deserving of a major, like several-days-in-the-hospital-type beatdown. Smug brownshirt coont.
 
2011-12-05 12:46:25 PM
VikingQuestFan42: Completely agree with Ellis. Killing yourself doesn't solve anything. Stop whining and man-up

/Not being a troll, truly believe this
//Kids today are farkin soft


What do you consider "whining"? Does making complaints to school officials that bullying is happenining under the watch, and silent consent, of teachers count as whining?
 
2011-12-05 12:51:08 PM
Car_Ramrod: What do you consider "whining"? Does making complaints to school officials that bullying is happenining under the watch, and silent consent, of teachers count as whining?

Didn't you get the memo ? "Whining" is what you call complained about injustices other people agree too ?
 
2011-12-05 12:51:24 PM
VikingQuestFan42: Completely agree with Ellis. Killing yourself doesn't solve anything. Stop whining and man-up

/Not being a troll, truly believe this
//Kids today are farkin soft


Ayup. But, learn how to fight back, as it were. Not with fists or weapons, but with your brain. So much bullying these days comes over the interwebs: good opportunity for a battle of the wits, where everyone can get an opportunity to say, "Oh, snap!"
 
2011-12-05 12:51:34 PM
When reached for comment, Ellis stated that he had to return some videotapes.
 
2011-12-05 12:51:44 PM
SundaesChild: gilgigamesh: He kind of has a point. Bullying is a part of life when you are a teenager, and when you are different -- because you are smart, or gay, or black, or the only Jew -- you pretty much have to deal with it. School is a jungle, and kids are animals.

However, that shouldn't excuse school officials who look the other way when it happens. He could have tempered his comments accordingly.

I got shiat in gym class freshman year because I was the only kid in my section in the gifted program, I had (and have) the athletic ability of your average grandmother, and everyone else in my section of gym class were a bunch of knuckle-dragging jock neanderthals. What pissed me off wasn't so much the idiot jock students, it was the idiot douchebag has-been jock coach who smugly watched them and let them bully me day after day, and then dropped a detention on me when I finally snapped and flipped them off.

Gym coaches are the worst of the worst.


Not always, I had some good ones. Best one was in middle school, knew I was getting bullied, and when I finally busted the idiot's face into a locker he just said good job and don't do it again.
 
2011-12-05 12:52:55 PM
Can't understand how this guy is rated as a great American author. American Psycho is violence-porn and not even a great example of that. He certainly wouldn't be high on my list of people to take advice from.
 
2011-12-05 12:57:56 PM
I would agree in a sense if this was 20 years ago but bully nowadays is wayyyyy different.
 
2011-12-05 12:58:04 PM
It's pretty hard to read into a seemingly random tweet. But it wouldn't surprise me if this guy really was a preening dick.
 
2011-12-05 12:58:13 PM
The ones that take it and learn from it grow into better adults, and the ones that commit suicide thin out the herd.

/Teachers should stop it, however if they witness it.
 
2011-12-05 12:59:11 PM
Car_Ramrod: What do you consider "whining"? Does making complaints to school officials that bullying is happenining under the watch, and silent consent, of teachers count as whining?

It is whining to go to mamma teacher and daddy administrator because someone is not being nice to you. To be a real man you need to learn that you should con your bully's parents to sneak onto a ranch just so that you can make chilli from them to feed to your tormentor. Well either that or slowly kill off all of their friends and family until they are the only ones left.... and then just let them live with the understanding that they will be next.
 
2011-12-05 01:00:06 PM
TOTALLY AGREE... We are raising a generation of wimps who are quick to curl up and die in front of anything challenging

Granted there is extreme cases of bullying, but really: There is nothing wrong in teaching your kid to MAN UP AND STAND UP FOR THEMSELVES. It s a valuable lesson that is going to be helpful in the real dog eat dog world
 
kab
2011-12-05 01:00:35 PM
People that use Twatter have no place telling anyone else to 'man up' about anything.

But really, there's a simple solution. Get bullied, wait for the appropriate time, and hospitalize the kid doing it to you.

Your problems will likely stop after that.
 
2011-12-05 01:02:14 PM
evildwarf: Can't understand how this guy is rated as a great American author. American Psycho is violence-porn and not even a great example of that. He certainly wouldn't be high on my list of people to take advice from.

American Psycho, under the obvious surface, is an extremely well written book.

/True story
 
2011-12-05 01:02:40 PM
There's been a couple of times I can remember in elementary school and high school when I saw some bad bullying going on in the hallways or in classrooms and I would step in to put an end to it...

What I remember about it mostly is looking at the adults in the area who OBVIOUSLY knew what was going on and just chose not to get involved. In fact, I remember once being admonished by an adult (I'm pretty sure it was a teacher) for getting involved. I'm sorry, but I'm not just going to sit there and let a helpless kid get bullied. I never understood why those adults chose to look the other way at bullying.
 
2011-12-05 01:04:28 PM
HappyHarryHardOn: TOTALLY AGREE... We are raising a generation of wimps who are quick to curl up and die in front of anything challenging

Granted there is extreme cases of bullying, but really: There is nothing wrong in teaching your kid to MAN UP AND STAND UP FOR THEMSELVES. It s a valuable lesson that is going to be helpful in the real dog eat dog world


Manning up as an adult gets you thrown in jail for assault. And the way zero tolerance is in some schools, it'll get your kid thrown in juvie.
 
2011-12-05 01:04:31 PM
padraig: Why do we ask kids to man up and deal with things that would be dealt by an arrest for assault if they were adults ?

I mean, if somebody at work did to be what some people did to me in junior high, they'd leave the building in handcuffs. So why should the bullied kids have to fend for themselves ?


Doesn't it depend on the bullying? If it doesn't progress beyond name calling or facebook insults I don't think that is an arrestable offense.
 
2011-12-05 01:06:11 PM
HappyHarryHardOn: TOTALLY AGREE... We are raising a generation of wimps who are quick to curl up and die in front of anything challenging

Granted there is extreme cases of bullying, but really: There is nothing wrong in teaching your kid to MAN UP AND STAND UP FOR THEMSELVES. It s a valuable lesson that is going to be helpful in the real dog eat dog world


If someone carjacks you, I expect you'll just learn your lesson and move on. Only a wimp would call the cops. Man up; it's a valuable lesson.
 
2011-12-05 01:06:52 PM
The reason you want people to address bullying is because there are enough instances where, like a mousy little kid at my high school did, the one being bullied eventually decides they've had enough and retaliate in a surprisingly violent way. A few of the jocks at my high school had their football careers ended before they really even started thanks to that mousy little kid and the knife he brought to school.
 
2011-12-05 01:07:27 PM
Carth: padraig: Why do we ask kids to man up and deal with things that would be dealt by an arrest for assault if they were adults ?

I mean, if somebody at work did to be what some people did to me in junior high, they'd leave the building in handcuffs. So why should the bullied kids have to fend for themselves ?

Doesn't it depend on the bullying? If it doesn't progress beyond name calling or facebook insults I don't think that is an arrestable offense.


Continuing the adult parallel, if someone at work was name calling for hurling Facebook insults and making someone else miserable, the work place would be forced to take action or be held accountable for fostering a hostile work environment. That can have some pretty expensive civil consequences.

Why we are holding children to a higher standard than adults is beyond me.
 
2011-12-05 01:08:02 PM
fuhfuhfuh: The reason you want people to address bullying is because there are enough instances where, like a mousy little kid at my high school did, the one being bullied eventually decides they've had enough and retaliate in a surprisingly violent way. A few of the jocks at my high school had their football careers ended before they really even started thanks to that mousy little kid and the knife he brought to school.

You go to school with Ender Wiggin?
 
2011-12-05 01:08:07 PM
23.media.tumblr.com

(NEVER) SURE IF BRET EASTON ELLIS SERIOUS
 
2011-12-05 01:08:28 PM
Christy, get down on your knees so Sabrina can see your asshole.

Of course, he doesn't give a fark about bullying. The man is a bully himself.
 
2011-12-05 01:09:19 PM
Carth: Doesn't it depend on the bullying? If it doesn't progress beyond name calling or facebook insults I don't think that is an arrestable offense

I wonder if stophittingyourself would be considered assault in the adult world.
 
2011-12-05 01:09:29 PM
padraig: Why do we ask kids to man up and deal with things that would be dealt by an arrest for assault if they were adults ? I mean, if somebody at work did to be what some people did to me in junior high, they'd leave the building in handcuffs. So why should the bullied kids have to fend for themselves ?

Goddam THIS.
 
2011-12-05 01:11:18 PM
MightyPez: Carth: padraig: Why do we ask kids to man up and deal with things that would be dealt by an arrest for assault if they were adults ?

I mean, if somebody at work did to be what some people did to me in junior high, they'd leave the building in handcuffs. So why should the bullied kids have to fend for themselves ?

Doesn't it depend on the bullying? If it doesn't progress beyond name calling or facebook insults I don't think that is an arrestable offense.

Continuing the adult parallel, if someone at work was name calling for hurling Facebook insults and making someone else miserable, the work place would be forced to take action or be held accountable for fostering a hostile work environment. That can have some pretty expensive civil consequences.

Why we are holding children to a higher standard than adults is beyond me.


I'm not sure they would be. If an employee is insulting you on facebook HR wouldn't be able to do much about it except blocking access to the site.

Depending on the insults made in person you could definitely be held liable for creating a hostile work environment if you're insulting a protected class of workers but it still wouldn't be an arrestable offense.
 
2011-12-05 01:11:35 PM
Carth: fuhfuhfuh: The reason you want people to address bullying is because there are enough instances where, like a mousy little kid at my high school did, the one being bullied eventually decides they've had enough and retaliate in a surprisingly violent way. A few of the jocks at my high school had their football careers ended before they really even started thanks to that mousy little kid and the knife he brought to school.

You go to school with Ender Wiggin?


No, just a kid that had enough shiat dumped on him and got the drop on a few of his tormenters. He literally walked up behind them at lunch and just stabbed them in the back. It was a good thing the kid wasn't a professional, otherwise the jocks would be dead and not just have muscle damage.
 
2011-12-05 01:13:16 PM
Saiga410: Car_Ramrod: What do you consider "whining"? Does making complaints to school officials that bullying is happenining under the watch, and silent consent, of teachers count as whining?

It is whining to go to mamma teacher and daddy administrator because someone is not being nice to you. To be a real man you need to learn that you should con your bully's parents to sneak onto a ranch just so that you can make chilli from them to feed to your tormentor. Well either that or slowly kill off all of their friends and family until they are the only ones left.... and then just let them live with the understanding that they will be next.


Best. Episode. Ever.
 
2011-12-05 01:13:27 PM
Lollipop165: What I remember about it mostly is looking at the adults in the area who OBVIOUSLY knew what was going on and just chose not to get involved. In fact, I remember once being admonished by an adult (I'm pretty sure it was a teacher) for getting involved. I'm sorry, but I'm not just going to sit there and let a helpless kid get bullied. I never understood why those adults chose to look the other way at bullying.

I feel like most of the bullies had some manner of "powerful" parents -- either money and influence or were simply bullies themselves, so the teachers looked the other way so as not to rock the boat for the wealthy/powerful and end up in trouble with the administration, or simply to not have to deal with the bully parents themselves.

When I think back to some of the things I went through in school... well, it's no wonder I'm so screwed up as an adult.

All the adults who looked the other way and essentially implied consent for what was going on? Thanks for that.
 
2011-12-05 01:14:03 PM
SundaesChild: Gym coaches are the worst of the worst.

When I was in 8th grade, I was 4'10", and I had a bully who had about six inches and 50 pounds on me (he had repeated a grade at least once). The coach watching over our gym class saw everything, and did absolutely nothing to stop it. Beyond the normal taunting and stuff (which I was accustomed to and shrugged off), the following happened on his watch:

1) The bully tackled me in flag football because I caught a punt he apparently wanted to catch. The tackle was comprised of him grabbing me from behind by my neck and driving my face into the turf. The coach punished him so severely for the infraction that his arms were kind of tired after all 25 of those push-ups he had to do. I got a trip to the doctor's for a sprained neck.

2) The bully was apparently upset that he had to do push-ups because I had the audacity to get injured from his attack, so when I was cleared to participate again (and we had moved on to street hockey), he came running up behind me and swiped at my head with a farking goalie stick. I'm very, very lucky I heard him running at me, and that my reflexes have always been almost absurdly fast. Again, the coach saw him... and so he bawled me out for bringing this on myself. Apparently, "walking to the asphalt tennis court" is a provocative act, and anyway a thirteen-year-old should take a principled stand against a psychopath wielding a weapon. That said, the coach put him on a team I wasn't playing for or against to keep us separate. What a gentleman. But...

3) The bully's toady was on the team I was playing against. During the game, he tackled me to the asphalt, and--funny thing--it turns out that human heads aren't designed to collide with pavement in an accelerated manner. I don't know how long I was knocked out, but the concussion was a lot of fun, I assure you.

The school administration finally got clued in when my parents went screaming to them, and the school moved the bully out of my section. That was the extent of the punishment, and so far as I know the coach was never disciplined for not doing anything himself to stop the psychotic shiatstain who was doing all this to me.

Karma did catch up with him, though. It turns out the coach was fired later in the year for stealing from the department's petty cash. I have no idea what became of the bully, though I wouldn't be surprised if he was currently serving in San Quentin.

/Apparently, I should have "manned up" and stood up for myself against a psychopath who had no compunctions with trying, literally, to kill me with a blunt object.
 
2011-12-05 01:15:42 PM
HappyHarryHardOn: TOTALLY AGREE... We are raising a generation of wimps who are quick to curl up and die in front of anything challenging

Granted there is extreme cases of bullying, but really: There is nothing wrong in teaching your kid to MAN UP AND STAND UP FOR THEMSELVES. It s a valuable lesson that is going to be helpful in the real dog eat dog world


What if it's a girl who is being bullied? Are you telling her to "MAN UP!!!!!eleven!"?

What does "manning up" mean? Resorting to physical violence? Yes, let's teach our kids that violence solves everything.

Not dropping to the same level as obnoxious assholes is also a valuable lesson in life.
 
2011-12-05 01:15:50 PM
You can't stop other people from being mean and/or insensitive.

But you can stop from letting others get to you.
 
2011-12-05 01:16:21 PM
That needed the "HERO" tag!!
 
2011-12-05 01:17:44 PM
MAN UP.

fc03.deviantart.net
 
2011-12-05 01:18:12 PM
Carth: Depending on the insults made in person you could definitely be held liable for creating a hostile work environment if you're insulting a protected class of workers but it still wouldn't be an arrestable offense.

Which is why I said civil consequences. Is the compromise we allow children to sue the piss out of school districts every time they get bullied? We won't have too many schools open if that is the case.

The pragmatic solution would be to mandate publicly funded schools start enforcing policies they claim to have. That means providing the kids with a safe learning environment free from harassment.

And I completely disagree about the Facebook (or any online) situation. If a coworker went on Facebook and started badmouthing me to the entire company, it certainly becomes an issue for the company. At the very least, people get fired for dragging their work into Facebook (new window). Now that doesn't necessarily mean expell the kid doing online harassment. But there are punitive measures to take.
 
2011-12-05 01:19:03 PM
Car_Ramrod: HappyHarryHardOn: TOTALLY AGREE... We are raising a generation of wimps who are quick to curl up and die in front of anything challenging

Granted there is extreme cases of bullying, but really: There is nothing wrong in teaching your kid to MAN UP AND STAND UP FOR THEMSELVES. It s a valuable lesson that is going to be helpful in the real dog eat dog world

What if it's a girl who is being bullied? Are you telling her to "MAN UP!!!!!eleven!"?

What does "manning up" mean? Resorting to physical violence? Yes, let's teach our kids that violence solves everything.

Not dropping to the same level as obnoxious assholes is also a valuable lesson in life.


Why can't "manning up" mean forcing someone in authority to deal with what is going on instead of meekly accepting your fate.
 
2011-12-05 01:20:02 PM
tgregory: You can't stop other people from being mean and/or insensitive.

But you can stop from letting others get to you.


If someone hits you with a baseball bat, just don't let it get to you; if you weren't so sensitive, you could just brush it off.
 
2011-12-05 01:20:28 PM
Ellis is spot on, bullying makes you be able to deal with problems, and later in life you will have much bigger problems the bullies.
 
2011-12-05 01:21:13 PM
I would think that his advice would be to cry to yourself then write a book where the Mary Sue does unpleasant things to all the people in your life that ever dun you wrong.
 
2011-12-05 01:22:35 PM
Carth: Car_Ramrod: HappyHarryHardOn: TOTALLY AGREE... We are raising a generation of wimps who are quick to curl up and die in front of anything challenging

Granted there is extreme cases of bullying, but really: There is nothing wrong in teaching your kid to MAN UP AND STAND UP FOR THEMSELVES. It s a valuable lesson that is going to be helpful in the real dog eat dog world

What if it's a girl who is being bullied? Are you telling her to "MAN UP!!!!!eleven!"?

What does "manning up" mean? Resorting to physical violence? Yes, let's teach our kids that violence solves everything.

Not dropping to the same level as obnoxious assholes is also a valuable lesson in life.

Why can't "manning up" mean forcing someone in authority to deal with what is going on instead of meekly accepting your fate.


According to some, that's considered "whining" and isn't part of the proper "manning up" philosophy.
 
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