There’s nothing I hate more than a bully. I was bullied while I was a student at a Catholic school in North Bergen, New Jersey back in the day. I came home with chunks of my hair pulled out and a big shiner on my head once. I listened to a girl with major blackheads tell me that I had a zit-face. (Huh?) I had my self-confidence beat down to the point that I really believed these miserable little twits when they said “you will never amount to anything”. I would go in the corner and cry. It wasn’t until I started fighting back in 7th grade (I knocked this little worm’s glasses off when he wrestled me to the ground and tried to stick my head in dog poop on the walk home from school one day and tapped the gal who pulled my hair out on the shoulder and slammed her hard with the back of my hand) that they knew I meant business and I was going to fight. From there on out, I had my guard up and took on a “don’t mess with me” attitude. And you know what? After that, they didn’t.

Over the past few months, my preteen son has been on the receiving end of the class bully. The constant pressures of going along with the mainstream of what “everyone else is doing” are there-be it innocent things like the clothing they wear, the hairstyles they sport onto darker things such as the world of social media. He’s had a good friend over the years become buddies with said class bully this year and he and this kid have since formed quite the clique. This friend does not stand up for my son when he is around this little thug and it sucks to watch it but I know it’s a fact of life. His friend is very much a follower and all about what the “popular” group is doing. I pray that he will wake up and learn a valuable lesson in all of this but in the meantime, I have been coaching my son to stand up to the bullies, hang with the guys who have his six and blaze his own path.

This is why I am enjoying the #IStandUpToBulliesBy hashtag on Twitter. Of course, some hashtags promote the “Resistance” and are anti-Trump in nature (big surprise)…but I am liking it that some individuals are using this opportunity to call the hypocrites out on the carpet and are taking ’em down…one by one:

If throwing bricks and setting fires to instill fear isn't bullying, I don't know what is. #IStandUpToBulliesBy #antifa

— Nathan A. Kreider (@LibertyNAK) February 24, 2017

#IStandUpToBulliesBy being a conservative. #CPAC2017 #CPAC @CPAC2017 #millennials @iwf @GenOpp @BoldGlobalMedia pic.twitter.com/zgJkCbW5Mp

— Patrice Lee Onwuka (@PatricePinkFile) February 24, 2017

#IStandUpToBulliesBy – recognizing that the pen will always be mightier than the sword. Never stoop to their level. pic.twitter.com/GHBIxUWepB

— Bizzeebobber ●●● (@Bizzeebobber) February 24, 2017

#IStandUpToBulliesBy bringing the truth bombs. pic.twitter.com/6oFH3d1BKZ

— California Roo (@charjorgensen13) February 24, 2017

#IStandUpToBulliesBy confronting what's wrong in the world and multiplying what's right.

— Matthew Kick (@MatthewKick) February 24, 2017

#IStandUpToBulliesBy calling their bluffs. pic.twitter.com/6SgoRvfVXK

— Furrystoat ن ~VETTED (@Furrystoat) February 24, 2017

#IStandUpToBulliesBy letting them get on their high pedestal and then kicking the weak leg off so they fall. 😉

— joel sabi (@joelsabi) February 24, 2017

#IStandUpToBulliesBy not voting for one. pic.twitter.com/iSsBwglQVp

— Trinity (@Gparis58) February 24, 2017

#IStandUpToBulliesBy not letting them force my daughter to share a bathroom with men

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 24, 2017

I’ve often thought about how our political landscape very much resembles the bullying tactics used by middle school-aged children. Everyone is doing it. This is what a popular person looks like. This is how a popular person talks, what he believes in, how he acts. The popular “kids” in America have the stage. They have the celebrity, the “likes” on Facebook, Instagram and the many followers on Twitter who worship the ground they walk on. This is the ultimate goal of most junior high-aged kids…to get followers which translates in their young minds as validation and approval. It’s no wonder our kids want to emulate these people and their philosophies. It’s no wonder our kids are afraid to speak up if they have a different point of view than the mainstream, that they feel defeated when expressing their opinions. It’s no wonder they feel like no one has their back and the give in to peer pressures out of fear of being an outcast or beat down by a bully.

Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.-Benjamin Disraeli

One of my goals in my life post grade school was to always STAND UP to the bully and go against the grain. #IStandUpToBullies by being the fire to the smoke. It’s time to cut through that smoke that so many people and their children are blinded by. Fire stings but fire also illuminates. (I’m not talking about fires whiny college liberals set to destroy property, though.) Smoke eventually clears but a fire needs to be extinguished and I don’t know about you but I will gladly light another match to keep it going to make those bullies freaken blind! Can I get an AMEN?