Since the term "bullying" can refer to such a variety of behaviors, I've composed a definition, subject to change: Bullying is persistent offensive, abusive, intimidating, or insulting behaviour which is intended to make the recipient feel upset, threatened, humiliated, or vulnerable.

As long as it involves no physical aggression, bullying is not an ethical violation per the non-aggression principle. This means it does not merit violent self-defense, but by no means implies that it is not a problem. Too often people assume that if an action is consistent with the NAP, then a voluntaryist considers it fine and dandy, when in reality it's fucking despicable and we all know it. Bullying has direct psychological effects such as anxiety, depression, poor concentration, loss of motivation, insecurity, etc. and leads to physical illness and even suicide. But regardless of the effects, bullying is abusive in principle. From the perspective of the victim, the relationship with the bully is undesirable. The freedom to leave any unwanted relationship is a pillar of an archon-free community.

A lot of the material I have found that addresses bullying claims it is enabled by, or even the product of, a power imbalance. It's not always the case that bullying patterns follow the overt balance of power in a relationship. There are smaller children who bully bigger children, and employees who bully their managers. Instead, I find that bullying is consistently the province of those who crave to dominate others, regardless of whether they have attained a position of power. In fact, we've even had a few of reddit's bullies try to pull their shit here, despite having no power over us whatsoever.

Bullying is widely considered a children's issue, but it continues to be relevant in adult life both due to adult bullies and the unaddressed consequences of childhood bullying. Adults are expected to simply shrug off bullying because we have developed the emotional maturity to do so. This line of argument is simply repugnant; there is no degree of maturity one can achieve which makes abusive behavior okay. On top of that, plenty of adults who were successfully bullied as children continue to suffer from internalized hatred and learned helplessness.

So, are/were you bullied? How do you handle bullying in the present, and how have you recovered from the impact of childhood bullying?