If you want, I can definitely go back in and tag you. The main reason I didn't was because it wasn't in regard to a specific piece you'd written (the way Rachel's, Ines's, Bonnie's, and Victoria's were) -- so I didn't know how anonymous you wanted to remain (in terms of your surname being invoked).

I would argue that, even though you view YOURSELF as an arrogant prick, does everyone else necessarily view you that way? I certainly don't. In my view, you are equally as deserving of respect and camaraderie as all of the humble/shy people out there who are more reserved in their personalities. I completely own my "Nasty Gentleman" moniker -- and many people would agree with it, for better or for worse -- but my friend Jenn (whom I mentioned in this article; she isn't on Medium) along with our mutual friend Zoe get confused whenever I refer to myself that way. They see me as a nice guy and don't understand how anyone could peg me as "nasty."

Your premise that my bullies apparently didn't have the "emotional capacity" to realize what they were doing to me feels like a callback to the "I didn't mean it that way" sidestep that Bonnie Joy invokes in her linked article. They knew damn well what they were doing to me! Otherwise, they wouldn't have been doing it so repeatedly and pathologically. Granted, they might not have fully realized the breadth of IMPACT it had on me individually. But would they have really cared, if they had known? Maybe some would have, maybe some wouldn't have. Some went on to mature (based on my subsequent interactions with them), as we moved through school together; others didn't (one of them even sexually assaulted me, two years later -- which I will write about in the near future). Most of them, I've lost contact with...so I may never know.

"Who cares?" you ask. I care. Because if they were doing it to me, and *if* they haven't changed, then they're going to do it to other people in the future. In the grander scheme of things, it's less about what *I* went through as an individual...and more about what we, as a society, allow people to inflict upon each other. When I was in K-12, I never developed the agency and empowerment, that you ultimately found, to defend myself against my aggressors. There were many factors contributing to that -- but one of them was the disproportionate administration of disclipline (or, in many cases, the LACK THEREOF) that went on in my school district. And if it was happening in my school district, we can bet that it was happening in many others.

You may view that as me holding myself hostage to "mental shackles." I view it as me holding society (and individuals) accountable for bad behavior.