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this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
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Children have been bullying children who are poorer than themselves for a long time now.
It's learned behaviour. Adults do it to adults as well.
I wonder if it's a learned behavior. We've never taught our kids this (bullying poor people), but it's there, they do it and we discourage it. In this particular case, I repeatedly tell them I hate microtransactions and try to convince them out of spending their money on them.
I don't think they get taught as in told to do it, I think they learn from observation. Their peers and the wider society. Sometimes teachers in school will subtly disparage aspects of poverty.
Look at how the wider society treats homeless people and refugees. That's normalised in most media.
I think it's the other way around and there's a natural urge for intelligent creatures to feel more important and entitled than others. Kids don't understand their brains much and while compassion is natural, too, it often has to be reinforced.
Not to mention in this case, kids are shielded from consequences and even the victim's true reaction. I "bullied" a kid once in like 3rd grade and watching his smile fade to a frown killed any desire to continue. If it was just over voice in a video game, I probably would have kept going
It's a self-esteem issue. If you don't feel self-worth, you create it artificially by bringing others down.
It's not just related to gaming. There's a lot of material out there about the effects of consumer culture on children, in case you're interested.
Just because you didn't teach them that behavior doesn't mean it's nor learned. They just learned it elsewhere, from friends or from their own bullies.