Gossiping
Let me make this abundantly clear (and if I could pin posts on Tumblr I would totally do this one currently): negative gossiping is just as harmful as active bullying. While one at least has the courage to disrespect the person to their face, the other one uses cowardly attacks behind a person’s back because the coward knows that they are incapable of holding their own in an argument, perhaps because they have no argument. They utilize vague terms and references to describe the target of gossiping, they initiate a conversation and attempt to appeal to their audiences’ likes and dislikes, they implement circular logic in their conversation.
You know who else gave little arrogant speeches like this? All of the dictators in the world. The same hypocritical fools that turned masses to their beliefs, masses who were too stupid and too caught up in euphoria to actually analyze what these people were saying and their motives for saying that. In a way, gossipers behave like microdictators in our micro-socio-environment. So anyone who actually believes gossip without truly knowing the person who is being gossiped about is either an absolute idiot or a very loyal friend. Because how can anyone actually judge a person without knowing them personally? Negative gossip always has the motive to discredit a person and their beliefs, so therefore it is biased, therefore one should never listen to the bad things a person says about someone else unless you know the person in question extremely well. And by that I mean not that you THINK that you know a person, but you KNOW because that person TOLD you that you know them very well.
Personally I do not believe in negative gossip. There is a difference between negative gossip and just gossip. Negativity implies you’re attempting to ruin someone’s image...which is a completely illogical thing to do. Admittedly we have all been guilty of it but I pride myself on the fact that I no longer and have not for quite some time gossiped about someone in the negative light. Normal gossip is exchanging information about a person that would in no way harm their reputation. And yes, it is completely possible to do that.
I also pride myself on realizing that people who claim to want a better world but who constantly gossip, bully, engage in drama, or interfere in other people’s affairs are hypocrites. How can someone say they want a better world when they themselves are incapable of making the world around themselves a better and more peaceful place? Granted it is hard to do so in such environments but at the very least one should only take an eye for an eye, if someone hasn’t gossiped about you then you should not gossip about them, if someone hasn’t hit you then don’t hit them, etc.