Bully pulpit from the liberterrain...
Everyone knows what bullying is.
It's physically pushing someone around or intimidating someone with threats of bodily violence.
But what is cyber bullying?
Cyber means online, and online bullying can only be accomplished with threats of violence since nobody can actually punch you through a computer screen.
But the common concept of cyber bullying extends to non-threats and non-physical violence that includes mockery, ridicule, scorn, contempt and nasty name-calling.
Since libertarians believe in the Zero Aggression Principle, which repudiates the initiation of force, the threat of assault and the use of fraud, where does cyber bullying fall within these ZAP parameters?
There's no doubt that bullying, cyber and otherwise, causes tremendous emotional and psychological distress to its victims. Teenagers have even committed suicide as a result of malicious, unrelenting bullying.
The issue has been a deeply troubling and persistent problem in America's public schools.
The Southwest Healthy Choices for Youth Conference, coming to Dallas June 20-22, will feature Dr. Russell A. Sabella's keynote address that includes "cyber bullying and hate."
So here's the conundrum for libertarians: suppose your sensitive thirteen-year-old daughter is the target of relentlessly malevolent cyber bullying that is devastatingly cruel but never crosses the non-aggression line. No threats are made, nothing fraudulent is said, and no follow-up coercion or intimidation occurs.
It's all free speech opinionizing, like "I think you're a skank" or "you're a slut in my opinion."
By libertarian standards, this is a victimless crime. A hate crime is a thought crime, not a real crime.
Yet for a young developing personality it can truly be said, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names can emotionally hurt me."
Here are some possible solutions that fall within libertarian principles.
The bullying mentality is not a rational mentally. Sooner or later, and almost certainly sooner, the bully will step across the line into explicit threats. And that's when you sock the thug with a lawsuit.
Since all schools in a libertarian society will be non-taxpayer funded (likely solving 90% of all bullying problems right there) you can tell your school's principle and teachers – whose salaries you help pay directly – that your child will be recording all verbal abusers with streaming video. Anyone who threatens or attacks her will be identified and prosecuted.
Libertarians, like everyone else, need to deal with bullies, but within their own principles.
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