Bully Brats

Message boards are weird little communities where most forms of human behavior seem to get distilled into a pure form. They are impossible to explain to someone who has never been there and quickly recognizable to anyone that has.

All Boards have Brats. There are the cute Brats, sexy Brats, pouty Brats, and, worst of all, Bully Brats. Bully Brats will invade another board because "I pay my membership fees. I can post wherever I want. You can't stop me." If you tell them they aren't wanted at the party they will say "Oh? I annoy you? That'll make staying fun."

Bully Brats try to push people's buttons to provoke a response and, with people who don't have a lot of experience with insane behavior, this works. Normal people aren't used to having people accuse them of wrongdoing, mental illness, doing things they know they didn't, and they respond. They try to defend themselves, prove they didn't do it, say it, are healthy. Which gives the Bully Brat attention, which gives them a sense of power, which gives them a reason for being? Maybe.

What's so funny is how trifling their ammunition is. I grew up in a family that made Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe look like friendly faculty festivities. No one can hurt you that doesn't know your weak underbelly.

I took one on recently (I got irritated at the sheer length of her inanity). I said exactly what I thought and I was done. So now I have the little mosquito buzzing around my head trying to provoke a response. Laughter is a response. Every word off of her fingers shows how irrational, illogial, immature, and sad she is.

What is there within a person that would make them seek out groups where they are disliked by most, tolerated by some, liked by a few? What need is there in someone that they go looking for that kind of rejection? Are they so incapable of healthy interaction that this is inevitable? Is this what their real life is like?