Anti-Bullying Week 2020: United Against Bullying
I started writing a piece about how our online community looks after its members and where improvements are desperately needed, saying bullying should be called out at every opportunity. About half way through my third paragraph (bullies using the internet as a shield), when I found I needed to write about something I have never admitted in public before.
I have a bully.
Our community is blighted in a way rarely spoken of, particularly on social media. This Autistic community is made up (mostly) of vulnerable adults Yet too often, we see these personal attacks and hide to avoid being collateral damage. The bullies only see a self-satisfying, point scoring exercise in cancel culture and one-upmanship; whilst the silent majority remains that way out of fear. We all have enough problems IRL without some troll behind a keyboard doing their damnedest to destroy you, in order to satisfy their own twisted, selfish desires.
My bully thinks of themselves as a paragon of virtue, a person to be respected; a self-appointed Crusader who enjoys bullying through selective PMs suggesting inside knowledge, posing as a victim, posting slander, hints of wrongdoing without proof. Most advocates and activists find this this device to be anathema, but it is the mainstay of this bully’s armoury. I make no claim as a paragon of virtue. I’m Autistic. I’m as human as the rest of you, so I’ll not name my bully just yet, but you know who you are. Don’t you?
My bully came about when a group I was in tried to discipline them for bad behaviour. I wasn’t involved the second time, but it didn’t matter. With two others, I was targeted. The bully’s emails were accusations of damaging their reputation and engineering their expulsion over the informal warning they received from others. Complaints of how we had done this out of jealousy of their success. This became weeks of personal abuse, accusations and threats, usually many times in a day. They claimed innocence of all wrongdoing,, demanding full retractions of this and past ‘false’ complaints, demanding a public apology from us for suggesting they had behaved badly. The fact we could do nothing didn’t matter to them.
Think on that.
To prove their innocence, they relentlessly bullied 3 uninvolved persons for weeks, making baseless accusations and repeated, dire threats, to satisfy their Ego. Reminding them their accusations meant we could not deal with their complaint had no effect, those who gave the informal warning were ignored. Finally, we 3 made a bullying complaint and they resigned to avoid exposure. So started an online campaign of innuendo, hints of wrongdoing and insider information with no facts involved. Just constant, malicious gossip.
This continues to this day.
The effect on my health was stark. Some colleagues helped, some hid and pretended they ‘knew nothing about that’. I had MH problems, I became hyperalert and unable to avoid meltdown, suffered insomnia and inertia with 4 months off work this last year.
I’ve had enough of being a Troll’s victim. I thought “publish the emails, drag ‘em into the light”, so they can be exposed, removing their power. Then I thought, unannounced like that would be unkind. perhaps even bullying, so I keep to common decency. Something my bully lacks. Meanwhile, if anyone has ‘learned’ anything about me recently they want clarifying, just ask. I will answer honestly. My bully relies on my silence, which I now break.
Dear Bully, you are warned.
I’m fed up of being disparaged by this bully. I work bloody hard for our community and don’t get paid very much or often. This work, which mostly happens out of sight of social media, in the NHS and various Strategic Authorities, doesn’t make me special or important. I am only one of thousands who do this month after month across the UK. My work has finally got me to where I can do some lasting good; and the bully is back. For some reason, they need prove they’re ‘better’ than me; little more than Ego with a dash of narcissism. They can’t bear people they dislike having success, so they go about pulling those they perceive as competition down. A bully.
This stops now, as I will go public if they continue. I give fair warning. Got that, Bully?
I’m standing up to my bully and suggest others do, too. A bully’s power is nothing when they’re exposed. We all make mistakes. FFS we’re Auties, it’s in the job description! However, no-one deserves to be bullied for them. I prefer collaborative, constructive effort and the internal satisfaction good results brings. I don’t do this work for online celebrity and I certainly don’t do it for the money!
So; next time you are offered a PM or asked to join a private group to hear insider information or gossip about someone you may not know or have not met, that the PMer won’t discuss openly or include their victim in the conversation, think:
Am I helping a bully?
#antibullyingweek #AllAutistics #AutisticAuthor #ActuallyAutistic #ihaveabully #Bullying