A more nuanced and manipulative form of bullying.

As a preface for the racist leftists who may read this, the following anecdote includes another white guy. This wasn't a conversation that I had with a bonafided, oppressed Palestinian refugee like Bella Hadid.

The Isreali war with Hamas is always a hell of a subject to stumble into. It's particularly weird in person. Let's face it, especially after the unspecified virus of unknown origins, most clashes happen online.

Nonetheless, somehow the subject got brought up in person. The person with whom I was speaking, surprise surprise, is a leftist who, surprise surprise, doesn't like Israel. Still of course, he's a leftist who, surprise surprise, considers himself to be compassionate and empathetic.

He's also a person who knows full damn well that I have Jewish friends in Israel who experienced October 7th first hand.

Still, he decided to accuse Israel of genocide. My response was to say, "Well, you're just wrong."

At that point, he chose to play the standard radical leftist card and claim to be too offended to continue with the conversation.

But, seriously, who do you think was actually more offended?

I've known this guy for two years. If he's personally close to any so-called Palestinians, he's never mentioned it. Even if he does have friends in the Gaza (which seems unlikely), I still refrained from correctly using the word "genocide" to describe what Hamas did.

The most offensive thing that I knowingly and intentionally said to him was that he was wrong. The most offensive thing that he knowingly and intentionally said to me was that some of the most important people in my life are guilty of genocide, supportive of genocide, or, at the very least, complicit in genocide.

The thing is, it's occurring to me more and more that radical leftists stumbled upon the weaponization of weakness a long time ago, and we're only just discovering it now.

Really, not so surprisingly, it's the tactic of Hamas on a smaller scale -- hit hard in the most hurtful way that you can with a plan to fall back with tears in your eyes to call for help the moment that anything resembling an appropriate response is threatened.

The difference between radical leftists and many of their opponents isn't that radical leftists are more sensitive and caring, and therfore more susceptible to offense, while the rest of us are all stoic and uncaring and therefore unphased.

We're susceptible to offense. We're all susceptible to emotional pain. It's just that some of us managed to become adults and learn how to process offense and at least attempt to have a constructive conversation. Those who don't manage to become adults turn into radical leftists or Donald Trump.

The reality is that bullying takes several forms.

The form of bullying that's most easily seen manifests itself in the form of displays of superior physical strength or an ability to use greater social status to intimidate opponents.

There is a form of bullying through displays of weakness. The people who get good at it manage to be effective glass cannons. They throw the punches and then cry weakness effectively enough that the opponent comes off as the bad guy if he or she challenges. It's a more nuanced and manipulative form of bullying; but, it's effective nonetheless.