Bullies Rationalize Their Behavior

by Dividio
(PA)

This story took place about 20 years ago. I was working as a bus boy at a catering hall. It involved a fellow teenager named Gary who had a weird sense of humor, the eccentricities of which allowed me to attempt to ignore the bullying aspects. There was a tool which we used in the kitchen to extract butter from the large containers purchased by the catering hall. The tool happened to look very much as a device used to swat a fly (a plastic stick with a flap on the end.) I took it upon myself to comment "The first time I saw this, I thought it was a fly swatter."

After hearing this, Gary said to me "Come here." and then "Bend over." After I unwittingly followed these instructions, Gary hit me on the head with a pan and then said "That's what people around here get for saying something stupid." And I did not even retaliate to this asshole-like so-called rationalization.