We just did an interview with a guy at my oxford house (sober living), and while he did get accepted, we asked him to wait outside.
and everyone starting making fun of him for being autistic and talking about how ‘weird’ he was. Even my own brother.
the house president was like “its been said hes an autistic”
Me and one other dude were like, lets give him a chance man. He did get accepted, but man i hate that shit
Why are people like this?
Bullying and hazing are contagious. Most of the people like that experienced some degree of it before, either by being born in the “correct” conditions and watching others being bullied/hazed, or more likely by being bullied/hazed.
Ultimately, the contagion spreads upon the promise of getting a little rush of power from dishing out abuse on the next person targeted and reinforcing the infected with a sense of stability and security in the established norms.
To my infinite shame, I used to be like this. I was bullied a lot, and I internalized that to mean I was an inferior and unworthy person. The flipside of that was that, on the rare occasions I could be one of the bullies, I jumped at the chance because (in my mind) it proved that I wasn’t entirely without value.
The fact that you acknowledge that, feel regret for it, and I can only assume you have sought atonement for it means a whole lot.
I’ve known childhood bullies that never changed and in fact looked back at the “good old days” where “boys could be boys.”