[quote name=\'TenPoundHammer\' post=\'180992\' date=\'Mar 11 2008, 09:15 PM\']
[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'180984\' date=\'Mar 11 2008, 09:01 PM\']The kids who picked on the outliers were harboring their own insecurities, and masked them through insults. But as an outlier I surely didn't do myself any favors either. It took me until 10th grade to figure that out.[/quote]
I had you up until the next to last sentence. You didn't do yourself any favors... how?
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The key is the phrase "as an outlier." When you behave differently from others, people will react to you differently. No one's making excuses for buillying, but if you act as though it's the job of everyone else to adjust to you, rather than the other way around, you're going out of your way to make it harder for yourself.
[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'180984\' date=\'Mar 11 2008, 09:01 PM\']...and I know that among my circle of good friends an insult is a jibe, not an actual condemnation. (Cliffs Notes version: Lighten up.)
Was it only friends who insulted you? I never, ever got insulted by a friend (at least not to my face).
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I won't speak for Travis, but in high school I got zinged both by those with malicious intent and those with humorous intent. And I knew the difference.
I have seen a roast or two. But that's different -- the point of a roast is to poke fun at them, not to crush their spirits like so many cigarette butts.
Actually, no, it's not substantively different. If you really believe that Anne Robinson and George Gray went on stage thinking to themselves "How can I make these guys feel like s**t for losing" rather than "How can I give them a laugh as they walk off stage," then you're seriously misreading things.