Tag: bullying

Hate Mob

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Today a post has been made online by Kelly Piquet, the girlfriend of Formula 1 driver and current champion Max Verstappen. It is in relation to the hatred, and rumours spread by many people on social media.

People have been spreading accusations about infidelity, photoshopped conversations, and more. Things, that can affect the lives of real people and their families. And it is awful, and as a formula 1 fan, I would like to believe that most people don’t want such bullies to be a part of the community.

It’s a thing that seems to be on the rise. People hide behind anonymous accounts spreading hatred and bullying people. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t anything new. I remember having to change Twitter accounts a few years back because I was getting dogpiled on, and every message was telling me to kill myself. Now, fortunately I was mentally capable at the time to close my account, and start again. There are times in my life, where such comments would have been enough to push me over the edge. Because one or two you can ignore, but when it’s hundreds of accounts, it’s horrific to try and deal with.

Now the problem is that a lot of well known people (sport stars, musicians, politicians, etc) and their families are being targeted. They get that hate that normal users do, and get the added issue of people using things like AI to generate fictional content. It has been warned about previously, with the rise of AI, but no one took it seriously. Now people are creating fiction where they allege known people are cheating on their spouses, sometimes with ‘fans’. They can make A-list stars say whatever they want. And it is very scary. Or I imagine it is for anyone with any kind of public image.

The truth is, as it always has been, that you never really know who you are talking to online. As as much as we can build true friendships online, some may act maliciously. Protect your online space. If you see negativity and ‘rage farming’ block the accounts doing so. If people react angrily and try to start a fight, block them. These people who are hateful online, usually hide behind anonymity, and are not worth your time. Report and block when you see abuse occurring, don’t turn a blind eye. Don’t engage, because these people, crave engagement. It all seems like a game because it is online.

Today I have been on TikTok and threads, and I honestly have never felt so detached from an online community. It’s been building over the last few months, in the formula 1 community. Last week I posted on Threads thatl wanted Lance Stroll to get points at his home race, and I had r*pe threats sent to my Instagram inbox, with others telling me to die. What kind of person does that? Obviously there were from ‘bob3482’ kind of bot accounts. It’s horrible. And every person who uses online environments to make friends and build communities should be in agreement.

Report abusers. Block haters. DO NOT ENGAGE. And most of all, support one another.

Bullies Never Prosper

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Everyone encounters someone who tries to beat them down. It is something that nobody should ever have to experience. That feeling that you are not worthy of any kind of affection because you have no self-confidence left. The feeling when you don’t want to go to work, school or even home, because you are so scared of what could happen. The worst part is, that most people that you speak to, have had a problem with a bully at some point.

I had some issues when I was at school. Petty name calling and being made fun of. Being short and on the tubby side, I was an easy target. Most of the people who tried to pick on me weren’t people I wanted to be friends with, so I just ignored them. It seemed so much easier to do back when I was younger. As I became a teenager in High School, the words became more hurtful. I never figured out if it was really the words that changed, or just that they were chipping away at me, without me really knowing. 

Many stories you hear of bullying, give you the impresson that things get better once you leave school. It didn’t for me. By the end of High School I had lost a lot of my self-confidence and I became a lot quieter. I started hating myself because I was fat and couldn’t seem to do anything to lose it. Not that I had the energy to try. Besides, when people saw me out running or walking, some would shout names. Names that hurt me. Names that made me want to sit at home and gorge on food. And it made me hate myself more.

I wish that I could say that a lot has changed over the years. Most of the people that made me hate myself have been cut out of my life now. I say most because some people I can’t cut out. Some people are a part of my life, whether I want them to be or not. Where I get demeaned for the smallest thing, but am still expected to act as if I owe them something. And that is hard. How can you move past something when you don’t get the time and distance to heal? So I continue to suck it up. Unable to move past the belief that I have recovered all this abuse because I am a bad person. 

And that’s what bullying does. It skews everything that you thought you knew. And despite never doing anything wrong, you blame yourself because of the actions of others. And the funniest thing is that the bullies never see the damage they cause. They will never see the self-hatred that was started by their ‘petty taunts’. But that’s why those of us that have been bullied need to speak up. People need to support one another.