Re-read week 103: Whispers and Silence 16 - What You Can't T

[Topic Starter Robot]

Whispers and Silence 16 17 18
What You Can't Teach 1 2 3

[Alice Macher]

It's too bad Melody didn't appear in a dream to Aggie earlier. "When I told you about defeating life's cruelties with a smile on your face, I didn't mean you should pick a random alpha girl and start picking on her."

[brasca]

It's too bad Melody didn't appear in a dream to Aggie earlier. "When I told you about defeating life's cruelties with a smile on your face, I didn't mean you should pick a random alpha girl and start picking on her."

True, but picking on the random alpha girl seemed to get results. I'm sure the idealists want to believe all their marches and demonstrations will defeat life's cruelties, but after awhile it doesn't seem like anything changes. Birds still die and wars still happen, but you can ruin the day of the school's queen bee by shaking up a can of soda before she unknowingly opens it.

While there is a certain wisdom in Karen's revelry over Penny's defeat she should've peaked. If she had she would've noticed Penny was angry, but not crushed. Overconfidence, the downfall of nearly every villain.

[LadyObvious23]

It's too bad Melody didn't appear in a dream to Aggie earlier. "When I told you about defeating life's cruelties with a smile on your face, I didn't mean you should pick a random alpha girl and start picking on her."

True, but picking on the random alpha girl seemed to get results. I'm sure the idealists want to believe all their marches and demonstrations will defeat life's cruelties, but after awhile it doesn't seem like anything changes. Birds still die and wars still happen, but you can ruin the day of the school's queen bee by shaking up a can of soda before she unknowingly opens it.

While there is a certain wisdom in Karen's revelry over Penny's defeat she should've peaked. If she had she would've noticed Penny was angry, but not crushed. Overconfidence, the downfall of nearly every villain.

She was being a bully because Penny was popular. Her Mom would have been DISGUSTED with her.

[Twitcher]

What Karen, Meg, and even Penny won't quite understand until the next arc is that social status is fleeting, and it can vanish in an instant even if you're morally upright, or when the next big starlet comes along. Though there's nothing moral about what Karen is doing, or Aggie: This isn't social justice, what they're doing stems from narcissism and hate.

[brasca]

It's too bad Melody didn't appear in a dream to Aggie earlier. "When I told you about defeating life's cruelties with a smile on your face, I didn't mean you should pick a random alpha girl and start picking on her."

True, but picking on the random alpha girl seemed to get results. I'm sure the idealists want to believe all their marches and demonstrations will defeat life's cruelties, but after awhile it doesn't seem like anything changes. Birds still die and wars still happen, but you can ruin the day of the school's queen bee by shaking up a can of soda before she unknowingly opens it.

While there is a certain wisdom in Karen's revelry over Penny's defeat she should've peaked. If she had she would've noticed Penny was angry, but not crushed. Overconfidence, the downfall of nearly every villain.

She was being a bully because Penny was popular. Her Mom would have been DISGUSTED with her.

Bullies use overwhelming force against a weaker opponent. Penny is the most popular girl in school and leads the alpha clique so she is hardly weak and defenseless. Aggie is an antagonist not a bully.

That being said her Mom would disapprove, but if she wasn't dead Aggie wouldn't have this misplaced anger to direct at someone who she sees as part of the problem.

[LadyObvious23]

Uhh. Absolute bullshit. She was being a fucking bully. Penny is popular but not to the extent that Aggie mystically believes.

Aggie literally thinks less of Penny because she wears make-up,has sex and is into more feminine things. Aggie LOOKS DOWN on Penny because she doesn't behave like her. Aggie THINKS Penny has the IQ of a peanut because they have completely different interests.

AND she's made them known on several occasions and nearly got her fired. How is that not being a bully?

[brasca]

Uhh. Absolute bullshit. She was being a fucking bully. Penny is popular but not to the extent that Aggie mystically believes.

Aggie literally thinks less of Penny because she wears make-up,has sex and is into more feminine things. Aggie LOOKS DOWN on Penny because she doesn't behave like her. Aggie THINKS Penny has the IQ of a peanut because they have completely different interests.

AND she's made them known on several occasions and nearly got her fired. How is that not being a bully?

She was a pest not a bully for the reasons I stated previously. Aggie never had a position of power when she attacked Penny except that one time she hassled her at work. One instance is hardly an indictment of her overall behavior.

And as previously stated Aggie had a lot of misplaced anger and was blind to that. However, Penny certainly played her part well so it is not as though Aggie completely imagined everything. Penny conducted herself with haughty materialistic arrogance as well as downplaying her own intelligence. Moreover, she did not use the power of her popularity to make a positive difference. Yes if Aggie actually got to know Penny she probably would see that they are not all that different and she was not as evil as she pretended, but when one is looking to focus their anger they cannot stop to make such careful examinations. The intensity will be lacking so it is better to see the enemy as everything one despises and attack ferociously than rebuke with easily ignored criticism.

[FlyingFish]

Uhh. Absolute bullshit. She was being a fucking bully. Penny is popular but not to the extent that Aggie mystically believes.

Aggie literally thinks less of Penny because she wears make-up,has sex and is into more feminine things. Aggie LOOKS DOWN on Penny because she doesn't behave like her. Aggie THINKS Penny has the IQ of a peanut because they have completely different interests.

AND she's made them known on several occasions and nearly got her fired. How is that not being a bully?

It's the difference between punching up and punching down. Penny IS (or was, as of when Aggie was shaking her soda cans) popular, rich, and white, therefore a fair target for pranks and even mildly malicious humor.

WITHIN REASON. That is, when they aren't anything she can't shrug off (loudly calling her a racist in the hall went beyond that; targeting her on some point where she WASN'T the top of the food chain, such as a misogynistic comment, would have qualified as "too far" as well). Also, when it doesn't hurt anyone else less able to take it (Karen's crime was not taking Penny down a peg, but turning Sara and Michelle into collateral damage in the process). The rest is personal motivation and conscience, which for both Aggie and Karen is between themselves and the Higher Authority of their choice.