You are wrong about them hitting harder if you are unable to actually beat their butts. If the bully is alone, not with a gang, then fighting back is what it takes to stop it. If you make him/her(yep, there are female bullies) pay a price sooner or later he/she will learn that picking on you is to costly and they will go off to seek easier prey. I know, I was the small guy when I was growing up, I attracted bullies like iron filings to a magnet, but I always fought back and usually only had to do it once to a bully.
If there is a gang of bullies the rules change and you probably need to seek help in the form of friends, or if that fails, a weapon of some sort.
> You are wrong about them hitting harder if you are unable to actually beat their butts. If the bully is alone, not with a gang, then fighting back is what it takes to stop it.
I used to be of a similar view, that fighting back was the only way to stop bullies, and that it would work 100% of the time.
Then I became privy to a situation where fighting back only made the problem worse for the poor kid who tried it. Instead of feeling empowered by fighting back, he felt even more pathetic and weak because the bully was able to overpower him so easily.
And, naturally, the bully has stepped up his onslaught.
Ever see the movie “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”? — it’s a situation not too different to that. Except there’s nobody there to do the John Wayne thing.
It’s certainly challenged a few of my paradigms.