"You're all bastards!!! waaaaaaaaahhhh!!!"

[Rageaholic]

I've been reading a few random posts and tumblrs on the Amanda Todd situation. Now for the most part, people are supportive of her and her family, but with the internet, there's always the assholes who think it's her fault.

But this isn't about those people, this is about those people on the other side of the spectrum who shame everyone else for not caring enough. They assume that everyone else is just giving lip service to the situation while not really caring, and that they should be ashamed for not trying to befriend the unpopular kid. And that in the end, everyone else is not that different from the bullies.

First of all, it's a huge assumption to say that no one cares about something. Just because people post stuff online doesn't mean that they aren't contributing in other ways.

More importantly, to even imply that everyday people just going about their lives are just as guilty as those who have actively bullied someone is wrong on so many levels. By that same logic, I must be a terrorist since I haven't done anything to stop the terrorists.

Everytime there's a tragedy or controversy that brings people together, someone has to come and be holier than thou. What they are really being are fucking drama queens.

[siead_lietrathua]

i WISH people would go about their lives. a few not-here sites i'm on have posters ranting about it. the only post i made was about how it hadn't even been a week (at the time). can we at least wait till the kid is buried before making her internet hate machine fuel?

[Lace Neil Singer]

The thing is, in a case of bullying, there's always those who aren't guilty of bullying but who instead chose to go along with it, ie ignore the weird kid and side with the bullies, for the simple reason that they didn't want the bullies to pick on them for standing up for the weird kid.

One girl I knew at school who I could have gotten on with well there (we're friends now) used to laugh along with the bullies. I remember telling her once that the bullies could very well turn on her if I wasn't there, and that turned out to be true; after I left the school, they did indeed turn on her and she ended up attempting suicide as a result.

It's counter productive to blame the silent majority; yes, they should have stuck up for the bullied kid at the time but it takes a lot of bravery to go against the bullies and a lot of teens simply don't have the courage to do so.