I'm not entirely sure what to call this so let's just leave it at that and move on.

One thing I've noticed about life is that in every friend group, there always seems to be one person who gets picked on. Not in a mean way, sure, more of a casual insults way, but after a while it seems to get irritating, and hurtful.

Why is it that in every group, people have to have someone to insult, to steal things off, to punch (it's not supposed to be painful, sure, but it is), and other things. Why so people have this strange, inbuilt need to be horrible to someone?

One theory of mine is that most people don't like being mean, but they want to take out any negative feelings they have on someone. This someone often ends up being a friend because, of course, who else could you insult without offending them?
Once one person's been mean, and the victim has only reacted by laughing, other people in the group think it's acceptable. And if the victim doesn't tell the group that they don't like it, next time anyone has any negative feelings, they'll take it out on the same person, because they 'don't mind' because they haven't said anything.

Now, obviously, saying casually to your friend that they're an idiot once never really hurts them, or insults them, unless they're particularly sensitive. But having a larger group of people regularly saying things like this to you, coupled with them stealing your stuff, maybe hitting you every now and again, pretending to leave you out, can really affect someone.

You start believing that the insults are true, because so many people say them to you on a regular basis. You start actually being left out of stuff, because people take the 'joke' too far. You lose stuff, because they've taken it, and forgotten to give it back. You get marks on you where they've hit you multiple times and, although they haven't realised, it's bruised you.

I know this, because I seem to be the person who gets this, in practically every group I'm in. I have two friend groups, one quite large, another smaller, and in both of those groups, I'm the one who gets picked on. Admittedly, sometimes I do the same to others, and I know I shouldn't, but the thing I've noticed it, if I insult someone, nobody else does, and then the person I insulted retaliates, and everyone else copies.

It's not that they're deliberately being horrible, just that one person starts, everyone else copies, and I don't bother to tell them when they go too far because I'm too busy putting up a wall of laughter and hiding behind it.

Why do we need someone to insult? I don't know. I can't work that out. But, as humans, we do.

If you're the person who's the 'victim' in your friend group, then make sure you tell them if it's getting to you. And if you're one of the people insulting them, try not to always target one person. If you spread it around the group, and keep it to light hearted verbal joking, then people are less likely to take it to heart.

I know this seemed a bit random but that's the whole point of this book isn't it?

If you read all the way to the end, then congratulations. Have a cake.

♪♪♪♪♪ bye ♪♪♪♪♪