“Why do most kids follow the bully instead of the victim?”
Maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome. The thing is, in the fifties, sixties, and seventies and eighties bullying was dealt with. For some reason these kids are getting more feral, demonic.
It’s not just name calling, exclusion, or maybe a schoolyard fight. It’s systematic and after one is sepcifically targeted, they show no mercy.
I actually read that Phoebe had dated a popular high school jock and the girls decided that Phoebe didn’t know ‘her place’ in the pecking order of the school. So it’s not like this is about lunch money being stolen. This is about some demented idea of ‘remembering your place’ that is insane.
Somehow in this culture we’ve accepted this feral behavior and we need to start treating them like out of control animals.
Worked in a large corporation lately? This tendency to obey the (often self-appointed) tribal chief is Human Psychology 101, and everyone from Peter Drucker to Ayn Rand has commented on it. It's the default state of unenlightened humanity, and school teachers thirty years ago were more aware of the need to rein it in because today's administrators belong to a very similar tribe of their own - the NEA.
Talk about jealousy right there! Sounds like these bullies have serious issues of jealousy and insecurity.