The definition of a Taunt being understood, if someone taunts somebody else I think the reaction to the taunt would be well deserved. I understand some, maybe most would say well certain responses will be going overboard (for example burning someone’s house down for a simple provoking comment), but if your going to provoke someone wouldn’t the greater response to the provocation be more successful?.
What? Are you asking if it’s a good idea to a respond to a taunt with escalating levels of intent to harm? Does that include a transition to violence?
Are you an only child? If you’d grown up with any brothers or sisters, surely you’d’ve learned that it’s Not Okay to hit them when they taunt you.
Let me guess: some kid teabagged you in MW3? You’re perfectly entitled to kill them back.
If they taunted Happy Fun Ball. The warnings were clear enough.
Is it okay for a man to rape a man if the latter flirts with him?
Someone implied that your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries?
Depends on what “the reaction” is. If A taunts B, and B replies “buzz off”, “go away, ugly person”, or with colorful metaphors, that’s ok. If B strikes A, that’s not ok. The only well-deserved reaction to speech is speech.
My advice is not to taunt tigers named Tatiana. Some dipwad did that in San Francisco a few years back and the only thing that saved him and his buddy from being turned to tiger shit was that cops shot the tiger to death before she could finish digesting them.
Just don’t.
despite the brevity of your statement, i believe in your conviction.
Well, it depends on the situation. Once I was in an advanced level game of grab-ass with my girlfriend, and thought I had her arms pinned. With the supreme confidence that only comes with outweighing your opponent by %50, I said “Ha! what you gonna do now?”
Her very next nerve impulse freed her right arm while elbowing me in my soft, completely vulnerable dangly parts.
Nope, can’t think of a reply my overconfident self deserved more.
ETA: On the other hand, if she had killed my whole family, burned their homes to the ground, and salted the earth; that’d be going a bit far.
I guess I’m in the minority. A taunter does it to get a reaction out of people and then everyone says it’s wrong (forget about legal for a second) to react like a normal human being and punch someone in the nose to stop the verbal harrassment.
Or let’s put it another way. Over the past few decades, we have focused more on parents emotionally abusing children. That’s right abuse without ever laying a finger on them. We are learning more and more about bullying and how words can drive children (even pre-teens) to suicide. Adults are abused by their managers in right-to-work states and I have seen the emotional and physical damage this can do. We need to move away from this sticks-and-stones mentality and realize that words can hurt and that taunting and bullying is a form of an attack that causes physical harm.
I had to confort my 9 year old niece who is taunted and bullied by a girl in school. The teacher told her to ignore it and you know what happened? The girl kept doing it making my neice cry. Are you telling me that there isn’t some physical reaction going on? Are you saying there is a difference if the girl had given her an indian burn until she cried?
Don’t get me wrong. I understand the difference between physically protecting yourself when faced with a physical threat and I’m not saying one instance of “You suck!” should lead to a punch to the face. What I am saying is if all the avenues of stopping the taunting is ineffectual like walking away (they follow you) or reporting them to someone in authority (“What do you want me to do about it?”) and it is ongoing and causing you physical distress, then by all means punch them in the face to get them to stop.
When you come back, could you tell us what type of retribution you are referring to?
I think the question is confusingly framed - if you taunt someone relentlessly and unreasonably, and they respond by punching you in the face, their response may be the wrong response, but still the response you deserved and should have expected.
Sometimes, you can make people do the wrong thing to you, and deserve it, even though it’s the wrong thing.
I’m with you on this one. If you call someone a “liar, a thief and a coward” like that dude did to Buzz Aldrin then you shouldn’t be the least surprised when he socks you in the jaw. Well I guess you might be surprised if you genuinely thought the other person was a coward. I don’t have much sympathy when someone shoots their mouth off and gets a knuckle sandwich for their efforts.
Any time you do something stupid, with an easily predictable result, yes, you deserve that result if it befalls you. If I throw gas on a fire, it’s easily predictable that I could wind up burning to death. If so, I deserve it. Same with taunting people. Goading them into violence is an easily predictable result, so, again, yes you deserve it. Even if they crossed a line in retaliating excessively.
They may be punished for crossing the line, but that, too, is an easily predictable result of their retaliatory action, and so, also deserved.
I think this thread, and some in it, are arguing that there SHOULD be no punishment.
I think you are in a minority and furthermore normal people don’t respond to taunts they receive with violence. I put aside legal issues for a second as per your request, but now they’re back again: I believe the law should be enforced.
In the adult world, constant taunting may run afoul of harassment statutes though. It’s wonderful being a middle class adult in the west: you can threaten people with lawsuits if their behavior is egregious. That said, I’ve never had occasion to do that in the OP’s context.
As for pre-18 interactions, I might concede that threats of violence might be appropriate under some circumstances, but not as a first or second resort. Generally speaking, it’s best to have a slow escalation strategy not a quick one: remember, if you don’t learn to control your temper as a teen or pre-teen, you are in for some difficulties down the road. Between “Appeal to authority” and “Fisticuffs” there remain a range of options.