Is it just me…

…or do all the most egregious examples of bullying on the web seem to come from the “anti-bullying” crowd? First, there was Dan Savage brow-beating kids half his age and calling them “pansy-asses” for not sitting still and taking it while he tried to publicly humiliate them. Then, I get this on my Facebook yesterday:

My reply: The stranger you Facebooked with the accusatory guilt-mongering note featuring the litany of crimes he did not commit is harried with a thousand other more important worries and responsibilities and now has to go to confession because you hectored him into anger out of your need to feel morally superior. I bet you won’t repost *that*, you member of the 99% of people who send these emotional blackmail notes to strangers. But repost it if you’re that 1% who are sick of guilt manipulation on Facebook.

To which Victor Lams added: That driver you cut off today? He went home and beat his wife. That penny you didn’t pick up off the sidewalk? Some kid swallowed it and died. That deep breath you just took right now? Some poor mother in Sudan can’t give that air to her malnourished child now, thanks to you.

Heh! But seriously, how un-self-aware can you get? The sentiment is a fine one: Be kind to every one you meet, for each person is fighting a great battle. True enough, and deeply moving when expressed well. But stuff like that FB post is just a blunt instrument for beating in the brains of strangers with moral superiority in its most toxic and obnoxious form. And it seems to come–an awful lot–from apostles of “anti-bullying”. Project much?