Addressing the Reality of Cyberbullying

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Hello and welcome to AlterGeek and in this

episode I have joining me TF2 and Mike Mike's

the Birdman Dodge So in this episode we promised

we would be covering Cyberbullying or bullying

as a whole but that's kind of the newest iteration

since our last recording of this back in 2012

Five years ago A lot has happened and a lot has

changed. Exactly. There are now laws. Lawmakers

are more aware of it. Society as a whole is more,

I guess, aware and willing to deal with it. The

problem is unfortunately getting worse. And technology

doesn't seem to be helping all that much. In

fact, I almost wonder if it's making it worse.

It is making it worse. The last time we talked

about this in the show, like I said, was five

years ago. And in Canada, there was a case, a

woman or a girl, sorry, she was only 15 years

old. Her name was Amanda Todd, was cyber bullied

basically to death. And she chronicled everything

about how people were making fun of her and whatnot.

And eventually she just couldn't take it anymore.

And she unfortunately ended her life. And that's

not an unusual story to hear. At least once or

twice a month, you hear about it in the news

or someone was cyber bullied to death. In fact,

this past week, I know in the United States,

a bill went through your Senate, and I can't

remember the bill name, but it's basically called

David's Law. And it basically boils down to it

allows school districts to investigate cases

of cyber bullying outside of school, helps schools

cooperate with actual law enforcement to do things

about it. It also goes after the people that

are doing the bullying. So hopefully, you know,

if you are one of these unfortunate, well, there's

no other way to put it, assholes who's deciding

to go after somebody, you get what's coming to

you. And if you're the victim of this, hopefully

things are being done to protect you. So the

results are hopefully better than what happened

to Amanda Todd. Yeah. I've known in the last

couple of months, I've seen two or three stories

come out about it. One where I believe, and I

could be wrong about this, but there was a story

that I saw on Facebook about an eight -year -old

little girl that committed suicide because she

got bullied at school to the point where she

just couldn't take it anymore. And it's not a

good thing. I saw a video on Facebook, a security

cam video of a guy who Like me has cerebral palsy

walking out of a store and there's some guy that's

walking into the store That's making fun of the

guy and everything else guy goes the guy with

cerebral palsy goes to get in his car and the

other guy just hauls off and hits him and I'm

like you've got to be friggin kidding me. The

saddest thing about this is Somebody was walking

by them and did nothing didn't say obviously

you can't hear any audio in the in the video

I don't think but it's one of those things where

Just walked on by and it's like, are you kidding

me? Like as a kid I got bullied all the time

because I don't Okay with my cerebral palsy and

I've talked about this before It I found out

just before my mom passed that the doctor was

drunk. So it was not a birth defect. It was a

Major malfunction of the dumbass doctor that

delivered me. He botched the birth My cerebral

palsy affects me from the right side of my brain

all the way down to my right foot. My right hand

and foot are smaller than my left hand and foot,

which are fully functional, and they both turn

in slightly. There's more technical things to

it and all that crap, but I'm not going to get

into that. So I would walk funny. I didn't walk

straight. I didn't walk like everybody else.

So people would sit there and make fun of how

the way I walked or how the way I held my hand

or whatever. You know what I mean? And seeing

anybody with cerebral palsy dealing with this,

it just get, oh my God, it pisses me off so much.

It really, really does. But the bullying stuff

has just gotten worse. Whether it's name calling,

whether it's actually physically hurting somebody,

whether it's peer pressure into doing something,

you know, it's just crazy. And I don't know what

we as a society can do to fix any of it. Well,

one of the things that I myself have been bullied

pretty much, I'd say a good chunk of my life,

obviously being a fat guy and being one of the

only people of color in my particular school

most certainly didn't help. I decided to fight

back against my bullies and I fought back at

a time When fighting back could actually do something

we're fighting back now Seems to do more harm

than good and I'll get to what I mean by that

in just in just a second Um in the fourth grade

this kid named Tim kept bothering me one day

on the bus. I decided you know what I've had

enough Cranked him in the stomach as hard as

I could He would got off the bus and puked And

then another incident was in the fourth grade,

a couple of these grade eights were picking on

me, and I'm only in grade four at this time.

So me and my buddy Quincy decided to corner these

grade eights in the hallway. And well, we pretty

much beat the ever living crap out of them. We're

lucky we walked away as well as we did. They

never bothered us again. But to do that nowadays,

you don't know where the kids are armed. Yeah,

that's the other thing. Yeah, like if you say,

oh, yeah, I'll beat the crap out of you. Oh,

yeah Well, I have to be packing a pistol or a

knife or something. You can't do that these days

and we always hear about violence or they get

a mob on you Yeah, exactly. I mean there is no

guarantee that if you stand up for yourself,

you're gonna be walking away the next day and

We've we are the generation specifically our

generation because our parents are baby boomers

had raised us with the mentality Oh, just stand

up to them and you'll be fine. No you do that.

You're gonna end up with a hole in your head

because The yeah, the other thing, you know what

what you're saying Mike is basically, you know

30 years ago Well, I grad I graduated high school

in 99, so that's almost 20 years. And I remember

when I graduated sixth grade, K through sixth

elementary school was 92. So let's just say 1992.

All right, most, for an example, elementary schools,

kindergarten to sixth grade, you have warning

signs all over the school, no weapons allowed,

no this, no that. And it was, for my school,

it was few and far between, and it was almost

a spectacle if anybody had any sort of weapon,

whether it be a knife or a gun or whatever. Nowadays,

schools have metal detectors, schools have police

officers. When I was in school, the only time

I saw a police officer was when the DARE officer

came in once a week to do his drug abuse resistance

education thing. But now, it's like I said, metal

detectors and police officers. all that stuff

it's like oh my god what kind of a society have

we become it's it's so weird because you figure

with because our like people our age now we're

starting to have kids and some of them are getting

to be in the later grades um like in high school

well when i was a kid i think the biggest weapon

i ever saw is i saw a knife once and i saw brass

knuckles once Mm -hmm. Um and that's about as

heavy hitting as I ever saw it But we saw it

as a sign of weakness if you brought a weapon

you're like, oh, you can't beat me with your

own two fists Then you know what? You're you

you suck But nowadays bringing a weapon is unfortunately

commonplace And you look at all the incidents

of school violence. I mean, we've had Columbine

in the 90s. We had Virginia Tech, and I think

I want to say 2007, I want to say was when that

was. And there's a school shooting at least every

couple of months. Yeah. Or there's some kind

of mass shooting. We had Sandy Hook a couple

of years ago, where unfortunately elementary

kids got caught. But that was some lone nut job.

point of the matter is violence is escalating

in societies and one of the things that's unfortunately

happening too just to kind of switch gears for

a second to go back to cyberbullying in particular

it even they're now bringing in sex crimes into

it because Amanda Todd was bullied for example

for posting nudes of herself or nudes of her

got out somehow if i'm not mistaken And now,

I just heard about this not too long ago, and

I'm surprised I didn't think about this sooner,

is teens these days, because they're young, they're

experimenting with their sexuality, right? So

with the advance of programs like Snapchat and

other apps for your phone, whatnot, people are

sending nudes of each other, right? Or they're

sexting, right? And think of that whatever. You

will if you're a 16 year old boy and your girlfriend's

willing to send you nudes. Are you really gonna

say no? So what's happening is sometimes people

are getting extorted. Like a young man, a young

boy may send a picture of his of his quote unquote

manhood to what he thinks is a girl. It could

be a dude on the other side. Look, I got a picture

of your dick. You either give me $500 or this

is getting out. And that's extortion. That's

scary. Think about that driving someone to suicide.

That's not unheard of. And it's not just, I mean,

yeah, you're right. It is the extortion stuff.

But the cyberbullying is not just that. It's

not just sharing pictures. It's going to. Various

chat rooms on various topics and getting into

arguments with people over the internet hell

even Facebook You know if you get into a Facebook

argument in the comments, you know somebody are

forever. Yep, you know, and it's one of those

things where You know, I'm in Kentucky. I could

be arguing with somebody that is either You know,

one state below me or two states over or five

miles down the road. You just don't know where

these people are. And I'm sure they're, I know

because it, you know, it is this day and age

technology and the internet, you can find out,

but why would you want to? But it's one of those

things where the internet is not just for people

coming together to share ideas anymore. People

are using the internet as a weapon. They've weaponized

it. Yep. I mean, it's not good. I mean, one of

the unfortunate advances of technology is people

are getting smarter. And with that, obviously,

knowledge is power, but knowledge can be weaponized

as well. And sometimes when people have a dissenting

opinion from the masses or an opinion that's

considered non -kosher, so to speak, they get

doxed. And what doxing means, you release their

personal or their private information out for

the world to see. A friend of mine actually was

a victim of this not too recently. He's a pretty

well -known YouTuber. I'm not going to mention

who they are. But they had a letter mailed to

their house, handwritten. And it was like an

eight -page manifesto. And I'm just thinking,

me and this person were talking back and forth

saying, Jesus Christ, this person knows where

we live. What's to say this couldn't escalate?

And it's really unfortunate because with the

advent of the internet and social media and people

being able to, as you said, share ideas and information,

we've been able to... get people talking about

politics, people are talking about social issues,

raise awareness, raise money, help save lives

via GoFundMe. Hell, I've been a person who's

been helped tremendously by GoFundMe. And you

look at all the good the internet can do, but

you also look at these cases, like I said, I

quote again, Amanda Todd, people that are getting

extorted for experimenting with their sexuality.

And now you have to bring in other cases. I mean,

I guess you could bring up stuff like gamer game.

I don't want to get too deep into that for fear

of what that'll happen. That's our thing, too.

Even having a conversation online, you have to

police what you say and who you're saying it

to. Yeah. And it's really unfortunate because

there's a lot of good to be said and there's

a lot of interesting ideas to be heard. But when

you have to be silenced for fear of reprisal,

That's just too far Yeah, and that's why I'm

hoping with these new laws that are coming into

effect in your country I know in Canada we're

digging them quite seriously and I know there's

been some prosecutions made of of it too That

I'm really hoping people will start to take this

more seriously because I know The older generation

doesn't necessarily get it. They're starting

to now and only because we've been shouting to

the heavens about it for years. Like, I sincerely

fear for the generation coming up now that will

have access to all the technology and it's instantaneous.

Like, once again, using my example of the picture

and the sexting or whatever, that's really bad.

And what I mean specifically by that is You're

at such an age where you're experimenting and

trying to figure who you are Where you belong

I mean where whether you're figuring out whether

you're straight gay or whatever Or if you happen

to like this girl and she likes you back and

you decide to be a little bit naughty you get

punished for that and Not that I'm encouraging

kids to do this. Let's get that right out of

the way. Yeah, but we know what happens We know

what happens anyhow And just the fact that that

can destroy you even going forward. I mean I'm

trying to think of other cases of cyberbullying

do or people who've been forced in the silence

them I wish I could remember the specifics of

this case. Did you guys remember a couple years

ago? Were those guys got that girl drunk at a

party? Yeah in Ohio and they're football players

and they were blaming the victim for all this

crap and yet they were the people like What the

hell? There's a, um, and I'm sure Steve has some

stuff to say here in a minute, but there's a,

there was a web, there was a series on investigation

discovery, uh, the investigation discovery channel

called web of lies. I think the series is still

going on, but it's, it's, you know, it's a seasonal

TV series. Each episode focuses on people crimes

on, on the internet kind of thing where you know

this girl met up with this guy and like you said

it turned it turned out to be a 60 year old man

or whatever and it's things like that but it's

like it just boggles my mind of some of the website

chat rooms and things that people find on the

internet i mean well now there's even like there

are services like chat roulette and omegle you

can run into some really weird stuff out there

too Yeah And another thing too, since people

have started to figure this out too, you can

screen cap things. So any conversation you have

online, you better be willing to say that to

that person's face because the odds are if they

want you to, if someone wants them to see it,

they'll find a way. But you mentioned Mike and

we'll open this up to Steve because you've been

quiet. How do we fix this? Or how do we start?

I don't know. I think we've gotten too mean.

Yeah. I mean, we really, really have. I mean,

I would like to think that all three of us were

each raised. Obviously, we have different values.

We grew up in different areas of the world. But

it's one of those things where I have a set of

values that It's called common sense. There are

certain things you can say, and there are certain

things you just do not say or do. I've always,

always stuck to that. If you go for a really,

really raunchy joke, fine. If it's amongst your

friends, your friends are going to get it, that

kind of thing. But you don't sit there and make

a public post about something really, really

negative. It just, it's not a good thing to do.

I kind of follow the holy commandment of thou

shalt not be a douchebag. And it's a general

rule that works for almost every situation. But

yeah, I mean, it's really weird looking at how

kids today, ourselves in the generation before

us, We seem to have this really weird mean streak

in us. Because you look at how vindictive we

get across social media. And our kids are picking

up on this too. Because we, us, our age group,

we're the people that started stuff like Anonymous.

We are the people who started stuff like 4chan.

We are that group that started things. And the

kids that have come after us, look who they're

learning from. The next generation of hackers,

the next generation of social media users, well,

we started it. We started the AOL chat room.

We started the texting thing. I mean, they had

to learn it from somewhere. And unfortunately,

I wonder if we're setting a bad example. I mean,

obviously we're trying to fix things now with

laws and coming out and talking about this very

open in public and whatnot. but There needs to

be a societal shift and I don't know if that's

gonna happen because even on my Facebook day

-to -day I want I just I read people and They're

either on from the far far left or it's ridiculous

or the far far right where it's insane because

neither side it because neither side is right

and Even the middle becomes a mix -up of ideas.

We're like, well, are you coming or going? And

I don't know where this conversation has to start.

Obviously, don't be mean to each other. But you

shouldn't have to roll over and have to take

it anyway. I mean, if somebody is attacking you

in any way, shape, or form, verbally, physically,

over the internet, you have a right to defend

yourself. But it's one of those things where...

Do you defend yourself? Yeah. Because, you know,

could you... Could you make it worse? Yeah. Essentially

could could you make it worse and could your

reaction? Be worse than the initial action and

then that make people turn on you. Yeah, exactly

I mean I can I can think of hundreds of Twitter

conversations or a person starts getting attacked

they defend themselves and then everybody ends

up looking like a sack of crap at the end of

the day because they didn't know when the stock

or Like you said, if you defend yourself, am

I going to make it worse? And that's a terrible

value to treat our children is do you roll over

and take it, wait for it to pass, or do you stand

up for yourself? Because once again, is it going

to get worse or is the bully going to run away?

You're literally playing Russian rule that you're

spitting the barrel because you don't know which

chamber the bullet's going to be in. And because

I know there are certain laws and things like

that that are either going into effect or have

been in effect over the last five years or so.

But it's one of those things where it's not like

you and I are at elementary school, Mike, and

you've come up and said, give me your lunch money

or I'm going to punch you right in the mouth.

We were taught, if that happens, go to a teacher,

go to an adult, go tell somebody. Online stuff,

you can't do that. Kids can tell their parents

and things like that, but there is nobody there

in that moment. Yeah, because even if you tell

the school boards and the administration, my

wife's a teacher, yeah, they have to take it

seriously, but they're so far behind the times,

they don't know how to deal with it yet. I mean,

even if you're cyber stalked or cyber harassed

right now, be it as a man or a woman, you tell

your local police department you're being harassed

online, nine times out of 10, unfortunately,

the police are gonna look at you confused and

say, well, can't you just get off the internet?

No, you really can't disconnect. The internet

is unfortunately, it's a part of everyone's life,

whether you like it or not. And it's too intertangle.

To leave no digital footprint, you would have

to be excruciatingly methodical in every interaction

you've had in the last couple of years, because

odds are your name's in a database somewhere

or someone has tagged you on Facebook. You yourself

may not have a Facebook account, but you don't

know what someone's written out there or tagged

you in. And it's so scary just to think about

now, like you said, Mike, people, who the hell

do you tell? Who do you stand up to? And that's

the thing. Look, everybody, and this is a thing

that's been around for decades, but it mainly

came up in the 90s. Oh, don't you snitch on me,

dog. Don't snitch, man. And it's like, look,

it's not snitching. If I see something going

on that's wrong, or that may cause harm to me.

You know, OK? And of course, if somebody can't

get there right away, they're just going to deny.

Actually, this is actually really funny. This

actually happened a few hours before we recorded

this. I was going out of my apartment, my immediate

next door neighbor, because I'm on the end. So

I only have one neighbor to the right of me here,

or the left, whatever. I'm walking out the door

and I hear all kinds of noise of, oh, let me

in. Oh, you know, do this, do that. And just

so I went down and we have a security guard here

and I told him and I left the building because

I was going out to do something in this 90 degree

heat. You know, I come back and he said, oh,

when I get up there, it wasn't anything we could

do because they were gone or they denied it or

whatever. You know, so it's like there is no

instantaneous fix, which is really sad. I can't

say I'm surprised there is no instantaneous fix

But I'm surprised there aren't more tools readily

available for people to deal with it given a

situation Yeah Steve thoughts Well for me as

far as the bullying stuff like I think it's it's

it's stemming from a lack of respect and I think

that it started in the late 90s because we just

became this culture of we're not going to take

any crap for anybody and so therefore if anybody

says something we don't like we'll just tell

them so and then everybody's decided to gang

up on each other which has been detrimental to

everyone and then with the advent of social media

It's only spawned it to happen more and because

people have realized hey, I have a voice I can

say things And it gets spread around and everybody's

wanted this like internet famous status everybody

to a degree has either become a bully with their

voice or has had to put up with it from other

people and There's no fear of reprisal anymore.

People become too fearless. Famous or not, somebody's

trying to get a reaction out of somebody, or

you have some younger generation kid doing something

stupid that they don't realize is stupid at the

time. And then you also end up with the political

standpoint where everybody's against everybody

because I don't like your views. And it doesn't

matter what it is, there's no... respect and

no compromise with anybody or the ability to

agree to disagree and Kind of just remember that

everyone's a person instead of this anonymous

punching bag that we used to have Yeah, it's

It's such a paradox we know when We fear no one

we fear we fear everyone Do I fight back do I

not fight back? I don't respect you. I demand

respect Yeah, so I mean it's it's kind of it's

kind of that boat so I'm like I'm kind of It's

kind of a touchy situation in the sense that

you just don't really know what is the hot button

That everybody's pressing at this point Well,

it's like you said earlier Mike. I mean, you

know we all Not not everyone in the world is

a bully but bullying does happen everywhere in

this world I don't think you can go to any part

of this planet that it doesn't happen in some

way shape or form But it's like you said when

it comes to cyber bullying We're all people behind

keyboards. Yeah online. We're not you know, are

we really going to, you know, go say this to

somebody out, you know, in society in the world?

No, probably not. I think what it really boils

down to when it comes to cyberbullying versus

real life bullying is Some, like, maybe 5 % of

what common sense parents taught their children

kind of kicks in as like, yeah, no, I can't really

do this unless I'm behind a keyboard. I think

both can be equally as destructive. Oh, absolutely.

When you want to apply any sort of effort to

either, you can certainly do some damage to someone

somehow some way. I think the important thing

is... Being able to have that open dialogue with

our children to raise our children to be smart

enough young enough to recognize what you may

be participating in is wrong and Here are some

things you can do to help said process get better

for whoever Because obviously if you see someone

being bullied if you can help There's gonna be

a very real part of you that wants to and probably

should because no good deed Should go unnoticed

Yeah on the flip side of that coin. No good deed

ever goes unpunished Either I mean, I like to

believe in the best in people I genuinely do

alright, so we have the We have the suicide hotline,

which is a great, great resource. My question

is, and I'm hoping this reaches some sort of

psychologist, psychiatrist, whomever, is there

or are there a cyber bullying hotline or cyber

bullying chat rooms where people who have been

bullied online can go to talk to people about

what has happened to them? Well in Canada for

example, it's not so much cyberbullying it's

more a general helpline it's more meant for young

adults and it's called the the kids help phone

which I'm gonna get that number for you right

now just so people can have it if they happen

to be a Canadian listener of this show But what

it is, it's a resource 24 -7 completely staffed

by volunteers. I think And what it is, it's a

resource line that people can get to whenever

they have any sort of real issues that you don't

know what to kind of talk to you. You can also

access it online. Actually, I'm looking at it

right now on the website. There is a live chat

option. There's actually an option on bullying.

So if you want to find out more about that, it's

kidshelpphone .ca. You can talk to a counselor

at 1 -800 -668 -6868, and there's always someone

there listening, which I think is a wonderful

resource. Now, I imagine there's probably an

American counterpart to this, but I'm not 100

% sure of that. Maybe it differs from state to

state, but I know this is nationwide and I think

it's Canadian government funded But yeah, I mean

like having access to resources like this is

good Especially if you're not comfortable with

going to say the school counselor But that's

always an option to a lot of people don't think

about that That you can talk to people you can

talk to a teacher or an adult you trust Yeah,

exactly. And they can and will help you. I know

we do have some younger listeners out there,

some people that are in their high school right

now. They're going through college or whatnot.

Don't be afraid to talk to guidance counselors

or the mental health services that will be available

to you. Just because you're talking to a counselor

doesn't mean you're crazy or weak. Well, the

funny thing is, is before I graduated, they sent

out a survey. asking and it wasn't just even

about it was Because a lot of times what happens

is either people that are depressed Do reach

out, but they don't do it in the positive light

that they should Yeah and So What I'm wondering

is is because like a lot of colleges now are

starting to have these questionnaires go through

where they're kind of asking people to try and

kind of, I guess, curb it in a sense. And kind

of trying to find out those that may need the

help that don't know they need the help. And

so they have them fill out these surveys when

they're exiting school now. I'm very glad when

I went through college. When I went through grad

school for PR, I'm very glad I connected with

their mental health department because that was

probably about a year or two before I was diagnosed

by bipolar. They were surprisingly very useful

in just me coming and talking with someone every

week. And it's a resource not a lot of people

think about because you'd be surprised what can

stress you out and that can. lead to you lashing

out in public so you never know i mean mental

health and bullying are usually there there's

something there either you're you're you're lashing

out for a reason something's going on in your

life frankly or maybe you're just a prick who

knows um but there's something underlying causing

you to act this way and if you're willing to

recognize it maybe you need help That's the first

step in being a good person again Is realizing

okay, I'm being a douchebag, but maybe I can

fix this Maybe I don't need to pick on so -and

-so or make fun of so -and -so and ultimately

to go back to what Blanchard said a while ago.

It comes back to values and common sense No one

likes to make to be felt like they're like a

centimeter tall. No one likes to be made fun

of It's okay to joke but it's there's also the

line and everybody knows where the line is nine

times out of ten When it becomes uncomfortable

for the room, you should probably stop If you

think you're being too hard on someone you probably

are Yeah, I mean obviously if they need to talk

and to give it to them, but it's discretionary

at best I Mean, I really wish I had the the answers

for this to say how do we stop bullying and unfortunately

There is no simple answer. It's individual case

by case but it starts with with conversation

starts with being cognizant of realizing You

can be part of the problem or you can be part

of the solution and we're not so far gone with

our internet keyboard warriors That we can't

turn this train around Is it going to come to

a screeching halt and many people are going to

get hurt in the process? Unfortunately. See,

I don't necessarily agree with that. I don't

think the train is going to come to a screeching

halt. I think it's going to take it a while to

stop. It may come to a halt, but not before it's

hanging off of a cliff. I think there's going

to be some big moment. I think something big

like, do you remember how when America, when

the world changed after Columbine, there was

a moment where things changed. There was a change.

I think you're going to see another big moment

in bullying and it's going to change people.

I mean, a moment I can think of, and this goes

back to the My Little Pony fandom, there was

a little boy who killed himself. because he was

bullied so much because he liked My Little Pony.

He tried to... I think he drank bleach or he

did something with a gun or something. Either

way, I think he passed away. And that was a moment.

And that community came together. I think there's

gonna be some big moment where either some big

celebrity's gonna come out or some cultural icon's

gonna come out and say, look, guys, enough's

enough. And I think there's going to be a change,

and it might actually get out to enough people

that some people might say, all right, guys,

you know what? I'm done being a douche. I'm done.

Maybe I can become part of the solution now.

But that's probably the inner optimist in me

hoping. Because gradual change to me works too

slow. And I know that's a contradiction into

how I usually think. But I'm hoping there'll

be that moment. Yeah, and I hope there will be

that moment as well, but my The opposite of that

thinking is what kind of devastating event has

to happen for that It's kind of like order and

chaos Sometimes you need chaos for there to become

order And that's not a good damn thing. It is

not good at all What instruction breach? creation

and unfortunately The way out of this is Already

pays with blood. There's entirely too many bodies

on this road to hell Mm -hmm. Well, and the thing

is is there are states all over the place popping

up these anti -bullying or anti cyber bullying

laws Michigan passed one Because that one that

you referenced earlier dad that one was for Texas

specifically. Yeah this Yeah, there's a a law

called, I believe it's Matt's law, or something

like that, that's in Michigan, which is the one

that I thought you were referring to, and then

I dug into it. It's Matt's Safe School Law. This

one specifically, because it was somebody that

was in Michigan that... you know, took his own

life because of cyberbullying and says the law

defines cyberbullying as any electronic communication

intended to harm one or more students by interfering

with education opportunities adversely affecting

a student's ability to participate in school

or district education programs, etc. But yeah,

they've taken a lot of steps in a lot of states

and I just see this becoming something that's

nationally done. There really shouldn't be any

of it. And the thing is, is you would think that

with social media, they would have some kind

of an algorithm that it would be like, slap on

the hand, you're a douche, slap on the hand two,

and then slap on the hand three, your IP address

is blocked. But how do you differentiate cyber

bullying from free speech? Because it is my right

to think you suck. But it's not your right to

sit there and consistently flood their inbox

or bedroom. That's true. That's very true. So

there's a difference between saying, I think

Comcast sucks, and saying, blowing up their Twitter

feed with Comcast sucks. Who thinks Comcast sucks?

Comcast sucks. You guys are lame. You guys blah

blah blah. There's a difference between the two.

Yeah, and that's what I'm saying because that's

something for unfortunately the lawyers to figure

out is Where do you draw that line? Well, if

you're referring to lawyers, they're gonna always

draw the line wherever it makes them the most

money So you can't always go with the law But

the laws are there to protect so they say so

they say look at our current Well look at it

look at today and the current political system

I'm not even trying to I'm not even gonna get

specific I'm just saying look at how much bullying

there's going on between people because they

don't believe what one person says and another

person says Yeah, and everybody's attacking each

other because they're either on one side of the

fence or both or one side of the fence or the

other and If you're on either side of the fence

like for instance And I'm again not getting into

specifics. I got blocked by somebody on Twitter

earlier And that's why I wondered This was no

I was following Mark Hughes films. I don't even

care if I say his name because I just the guys

Dead to me now And when I say that it's like

the the shark tank phrase of Kevin O 'Leary,

you're dead to me. But no, he he literally blocked

me earlier and I was following him because a

local Flint, Michigan podcast that covers Batman

related stuff like they're only Batman. That's

all they cover on this podcast from Flint, which

is literally 10 miles from me. Yeah. And they

were interviewing this Mark Hughes guy. Who says,

you know, he's a screenwriter Forbes contributor

co -host of superhero news comic book You know

occasionally rates for Huffington Post and slate

and excited, you know, whatever so he was gonna

do some kind of information on you know, the

future of DC films that he got a scoop of and

Right after I followed him Because of this, you

know, I'm just like, okay, I'm interested He

blocked me after he followed me first And the

only thing I can think is because he saw who

I work for And then I went to look at his feed

and it tells me you were blocked from viewing

so I just went incognito mode on Chrome and I

can see his page anyway, so it's It's it's the

most retarded thing in the world like oh, yeah,

I'm gonna block you and then it's like oh, yeah

I can still get to your page loser Because I

took I put on their G got blocked by Mark Hughes

films for no reason after following must be his

politics I wanted to read his superhero content

I says then I noticed that mark Hughes films

actually has little on his feet, but politics

So guessing I'm not missing much and I said,

you know, there's this thing called incognito

mode In Chrome that allows one to see said block

profile and again, I was Not attacking him personally

But I was attacking the fact that he's so insecure

about his political spectrum that he had to block

me. At least that's what I'm inferring based

on the fact that the last 12 hours has been nothing

but politics on his page. And even though the

top pin thing was, you know, superhero stuff,

which was the only reason really I was following

him in the first place. I didn't care less about

his political stuff. I just ignored that part.

Which that always seems to be a topic that people

feel they're justified in bullying someone So

he bullied me in a sense by blocking me. Yeah,

and I was like Okay, like I just won't follow

anything that's related to you or your establishment

like I mean, okay, that's Your right not to follow

me and it's my right to just ignore and disregard

anything related to your name. So I just, I found

it kind of interesting that I'm like really just

and that's the kind of like stupid crap that's

on social media like I'm not even trying to like

be a dick about it and point it out but it's

things like that that you can tell the type of

people that you're dealing with on the internet.

So what do we think that could be done to correct

it? We have to keep talking. The conversation

cannot stop. It has to be recognizing there are

faults on both sides. And bullying goes so much

deeper than a political spectrum. It's like Blanchett

said, it comes down to common decency. Do you

want to be a good person or not? And you should

stand up for yourself. You actually should not

be someone's punching bag. But you should also

realize there are risks that come with that.

And maybe that's just a part of being human,

is realizing when you stand up for yourself,

something bad might happen. But you also may

do something good, because maybe you standing

up for yourself might inspire someone else. Yeah,

never mind. I personally believe the risk is

worth the reward Depending on the situation.

I mean if buddy's got a gun in your face and

you're like, I'm not gonna blah blah blah like,

okay, then that's street but Yeah situation by

situation. Yeah Yeah, there are good people out

there but again, you know the whole thing of

the cyber bullying is You see You seem to see,

like, I would love to know what the statistics

are. You know how they say, what is it? One murder

happens every four and a half minutes or something

like that. Like, I would love to see an actual

statistic of somebody being cyberbullied. Oh,

I'm pretty sure you can refresh Twitter and see

it every 10 seconds. Well, yeah, I understand

that. But I'm saying, like, I want to see an

actual, like, graph and chart and, you know,

actual numbers of statistics of this happening.

I'm not saying that, obviously, it does happen.

I want to see how much it happens because it's

everywhere, like we've already said in this podcast.

You just can't escape it. And the solution, like

you said, Mike, we all have to continue to talk.

But there are some out there that get bullied

that won't say anything because they're too scared

to. And I just want to say to everybody, if somebody's

bullied you, speak up. Someone is always listening.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, like I said, in Canada,

and it's not like they could trace where you're

from, I guess. There are resources like the kids

help phone and you can talk to a counselor 24

seven that number again 1 -800 -668 -6868 kids

help phone dot CA. Check your local and state

resources. I'm sure there are an American or

there is an American equivalent to this. There

has to be. All right now we. We've been talking

about this, and you've asked about an American

equivalent. The only thing I can remember, and

I'm pretty sure it's still going on, was ads

on Cartoon Network. Stop bullying. Speak up.

Stop bullying. Stop bullying. Speak up. So there

are things here in America. I don't know. I'm

just looking at what's on Cartoon Network's page

here, but I'm not exactly sure. What? What or

how it works, but there is something at least

I think. But yeah, no, we. Can we all just get

along? It would be nice, but if it was that simple,

there would be no war. Yep. So I think that about

wraps this conversation up So what are you guys's

thoughts on it in the comments and on the emails

and? Twitter's Facebook everything else be sure

to let us know Yeah, because We always want to

hear from you. We always want to if we can help

you we definitely will I mean I've gotten emails

about this kind of stuff before so If you feel

like you can trust us we want to talk to us.

Yeah, definitely I mean I think we'd all be down

for that. Yep. So. So yeah, I guess, too, I wonder

if this would be something that we might be able

to, I don't know, create something for in the

future? Potentially. Something if we got the

right people talking with us and got the right

conversation started we could certainly create

something we We could create something and something

is better than nothing true. Yep, so Until next

time you can get all to get geeky with us on

the social media I am at SCP 21 and you are Michael

Dodd I am at Birdman Dodd across all social media

including Facebook Twitter and Instagram I'm

on Twitter at dfg on Mike So until next time

like I said get altered get geeky with the alter

geeks and let us know what you guys thought