[Serious] Bullies of reddit whose victims committed suicide, how did it affect you?

But if you were mean only to mean people, then you're making yourself judge, jury and executioner. How do you know what hell they're going through that makes them act out in hurtful ways?

E.g. - many years ago my sister and I used to pile meanness onto our younger brother. He deserved it. Believe me. He'd push us and push us and say the cruelest things to my sister especially, and she'd give it right back to him in words and sometimes I'd join in.

Years passed and we all moved away from each other. I always knew my mom said he had learning disabilities, but she was always very non-specific about them so I always thought that just meant he wasn't good at school and thinking. I had no idea what any of that had to do with him being an asshole to us.

Then I got educated about lots of things. Child development, family dysfunction, I studied learning disabilities and special ed. briefly for a degree and then started working with a ton of special ed. kids, for brief periods of time, for one of my jobs.

I learned a lot about these kids' minds and struggles form working with their aides, and from reading, and slowly the light bulb turned on that these kids were just like my brother! They could also be terrible little jerks to each other because of all their messed up brain functions.

My mother never taught me any of this about my brother. I don't think she knew all of it.

Since then the idea that I have to give back to my brother what he dishes out to me, out of some sense of justice, has gone away. He's mean because he hasn't gotten enough help in life. He was horrid to us because he wasn't getting enough help in life.

I've also noticed that many people, including myself, are horrid to others when they aren't getting enough HELP in life.

And this is what is wrong with so many schools and school systems. They don't teach diversity and they don't teach empathy. Even our own mother didn't adequately teach us why our brother behaves the way he does, probably because she didn't have enough information.

No one can say, without knowing the person, that the mean people deserve it.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent