> Practically every story in this thread, notably including your own, was unprovoked.
I read this and see that you believe that they were unprovoked, not that every human would see them as unprovoked and therefore are objectively unprovoked. Maybe you don't think there's a difference between the two, but for me, I strongly believe not everyone would see these as completely unprovoked. I have a friend whose husband threatened to kill her and she left him and her kids behind to flee for her life. When she was telling me how they'd fight, she'd tell me he would get angry at her and then she'd go quiet and then he would shout and then she would avoid him for a few days, giving the silent treatment. She didn't seem to think that her silent treatment was provoking him at all, she just focused on how his anger was the violence.
> If I beat you up for looking at me funny and I say it's justified because you provoked me with your glance, that's unreasonable nonsense and claiming subjectivity doesn't suddenly make me sympathetic.
I'm not saying I justify their behavior, it's more about whether I want it to stop in the future.
> The legal world of adults actually has teeth in penalizing violence which doesn't really apply to the world of children.
I'm not sure that's true. Kids, especially teens in the US, have definitely been charged for assault and other crimes of physical violence in schools. Now, I may agree that it's less likely they'll be charged than two adults hitting each other in a bar, but I don't think they're completely exempt from such laws, at least in most parts of the US.
> I can't even honestly characterize your anecdote as bullying, at no point was harm threatened or even implied.
Perhaps for me bullying includes teasing and verbal attacks that cut someone down, and for you you're more focused on the physical assault part of bullying. So yes, then what I described did not involve a threat of physical violence and wouldn't fit in your definition of bullying and may be why we disagree on this.
> When a group of teen classmates corner you and threaten to beat you up if you don't give them your lunch money, do you honestly believe a confident remark about mutual respect can be a solution there?
I believe a confident remark about mutual respect could prevent the situation from escalating to that level of physical threat. Now, do I believe that sometimes the situation has escalated too far? Yes. Do I think that if someone is throwing a punch at my face that I'll stop it with words? No. I'll probably do my best to block the punch and grab his arm and twist it behind his back or something of the like. But then I may try to talk about how I don't want to fight and I'm confused why he keeps picking on me and maybe he's having a rough day and I'd prefer if we talked about what was going on so neither of us gets more hurt.