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Comment by opportune | Hacker News Reader

Yeah. It’s the bullying feedback loop - there would be no point in bullying someone if you didn’t get a reaction out of them. If you reliably freak out in a grandiose way you’re just reinforcing yourself as a good bullying target by providing entertainment for your bullies.

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And if you do not defend yourself, you are just an easy victim.

Can we please just stop victim blaming here?

There is a subtle difference between "victim blaming" and pointing out the (unpleasant yet real) mutual behavioral effects in such a situation.

Everyone has the right to defend themselves, but however they act can have potentially unintended effects beyond their control on the other party.

The main takeaway here is that it might be beneficial to consider these social mechanisms in ones reaction, independent of the fairness aspect.

The charitable take is that it's advice on how a victim could react in such a situation to minimize further harm. Similar to how police typically recommend that victims of armed robbery not attempt to resist. Of course it is not the victim's fault they are in that situation. Perhaps GP could have phrased it better...

As I've said, I cannot excuse the swatters or police for this behavior. It's clearly unacceptable. I'm merely trying to explain why someone would be targeted like this to begin with - because they provide a consistent source of entertainment for the swatters. It's not solely because of a random comment on Twitter.

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