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[percival]

I will not stand for this

Everyone Feels This Pain
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I wouldn't advise people to follow the link and give the originator of this hate thread more attention. Instead, think long and hard about the issue.

Here's a personal story:

I was bullied at school (mainly by being excluded and ridiculed), and when I went to university, and finally became part of my own little ingroup, I was in heaven. There were four people in this group: my ex-boyfriend, two of his friends, and me. All three studying "double honours" maths and physics, me at the time still studying "single honours" phonetics. However, there was a girl who also wanted to be friends with us, and who kept contacting the others in the group with requests for advice and kept talking to them on the phone for hours. She eventually became the subject of much ingroup ridicule.

After I split up with my boyfriend, I spotted that girl in the cafeteria one day. I went up to her and apologised for being unkind to her behind her back. She hadn't had a clue that this had been going on, and I don't know how she took it.

I'm still ashamed of this episode. But it's served as a useful reminder of how easy it is to switch sides.