Patrick Carlyon: ‘Bully’ label almost impossible to disprove

Labelling someone a “bully” is only as credible as the accuser’s evidence for it, and yet the label tends to stick whether it’s fair or not.

Consider the kid, and this is a true story, with a difficult childhood. He said the wrong things. He didn’t fit in. Questions were asked about his place in school.

He adjusted to the challenges with a cunning beyond his years. His approach is now being replicated in the highest offices in the land.

His problems were not his fault, he said. He was the victim. He said he was being “bullied”.

Bullies used to reign only in the playground. Now they lurk in every workplace. The term has a currency and credibility which defies its origins.

Apparently, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is a “bully”, as are those “mean girls” of the ALP.

With Morrison, a senator was disappointed by the internal processes of preselection. She may have had a point. Or she may have been upset about losing her spot.

Within a day, her “bully” claim was being supported by Senators Pauline Hanson and Jacqui Lambie.

“He’s a man where ‘you do it my way or there’s no way’, and it’s a shame,” Hanson said.

Morrison might be a bully. Or he might be strong and intolerant of fools.

How can we know? As with a misplaced label of alcoholism, or a false claim of harassment, it’s almost impossible to disprove that you are a bully.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was this week called a bully by a Liberal colleague. Picture: Gary Ramage

The label is built on vagueness and subjectivity. Its power as a weapon lies in its place in perception as much as fact. It’s only as credible as the accuser’s evidence for it. Yet the label tends to stick whether it’s fair or not.

Senator Penny Wong was accused of bullying after the sudden death of her ALP colleague Kimberley Kitching.

A legal letter surfaced in which Wong had warned a political opponent to stop writing posts that linked Wong to “misogynistic attacks” and “systematic abuse”.

The letter itself would be held up as further evidence of Wong’s “bullying”.

There’s a laziness to all this. There must be mechanisms for those who are oppressed or treated unfairly.

But the “bully” term has descended into a convenient go-to catch-all to be applied when things do not fall your preferred way. It’s playing for the free kick.

The senior colleague who insisted I write a much longer story than I wished to?

He “bullied” me.

The chemist who sold me the expensive pills when I wanted the generic ones?

She “bullied” me.

As for the kid? He resents the “bullying” he has endured in various jobs since he finished school. Happily, he has a bright future in politics.

Patrick Carlyon is a Herald Sun columnist

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