Last week I saw the “You Done Goofed Up” video and read about the 4Chan /b/hive’s attack on a combattive 11 year old female Youtuber.  It’s yet another upsetting incident of cyber-bullying, which seems to be one of the big hot topics of the moment following the suicides of Phoebe Prince in January and Alexis Pilkington in March, in addition to thousands of other cases across the country.  Cyber-bullying has proven to be a very serious and damaging problem, leaving adult onlookers puzzled as to its solution.

There has always been bullying in schools, and there probably always will be.  Cyber-bullying is different from old-fashioned bullying in a multitude of ways that I don’t need to enumerate.  The biggies seem to be that the Internet allows for a great deal of anonymity and that it’s the space where we live a big chunk of our lives.  I would also argue that because so much of our personal information is public and easily accessible, the Internet provides more bully ammo than was ever available before.  Thing is though, I am unconvinced that the “cyber” part of cyber-bullying is what’s changed the landscape of teenage cruelty.

Yesterday, to our country’s great delight, 24 year old Lindsay Lohan went to prison.  In case you didn’t know, Lohan has had a serious substance abuse problem for quite some time now.  Chances are you probably already knew that, either through word of mouth or unflattering paparazzi pictures or TV shows produced under the guise of concern.  I wonder how much money her self-destructive tendencies have made for other people.  I wonder how much Dr. Drew alone has benefited.

I don’t need to tell you that our culture’s obsession with the downfall of young, beautiful (usually white female) celebrities is kind of out of hand.  South Park pretty much covered it in their Britney Spears episode. The tabloids are mercilessly and unrelentingly invasive, hyper-critical and humiliating, and the Internet has given them more power than ever before.  The enjoyment we get out of Jennifer Love Hewitt’s cellulite, for example, is pure schoolyard malice.  Can you remember being cruel as a child?  Maybe just once?  Do you remember the feeling that came along with it?  The rush of power, the feeling of smug safety?  It’s the same feeling as the one you get from Britney’s crotch shot or Lindsay passed out on the cover of the New York Post because it’s the same thing.  Ours is a culture of bullying.

Honestly, I think it’s pretty preposterous that we act surprised when a group of kids bullies a white middle-class teenage girl to self-destruction, when bullying white teenage girls to self-destruction is a legitimate money-making industry and a substantial part of first-world culture.  The argument I usually hear is that since celebrities are public figures, they’re asking for it.  That’s victim blaming.  The only difference between Lindsay Lohan, whose problems are fun, and Shelly the 11th grader in Idaho, whose problems are tragic, is that we don’t have enough interest in Shelly to enjoy her downfall.

These kids who perform elaborate schemes of treachery and online humiliation aren’t doing it because of the Internet.  It’s a learned behavior and it’s everywhere.  Trust me, I love being bitchy as much as the next millennial feminist blogger, but I’m beginning to worry that the unrestrained pervasiveness of mean-spirited, humiliating, bullying humor in our culture might be much more damaging than we think.