Why is Mobbing so common?
I’ve seen it happen at every workplace. It usually starts with one person aggressively slandering and badmouthing the target. And a bunch of other insecure people use this as an excuse to join the hate-campaign. It provides them with an instant ego boost, a feeling or superiority, and hours of drama and gossip.
Mobbing seems to be part of human nature. It occurs every season of reality shows like the bachelor/ big brother / Americas next top model.
A gang of people start to target one person (usually someone who is independent, vulnerable, threatening, or who the group feels is undeserving). Anything the target does is a problem. The group will actively sabotage them, manufacture grievances, call kindness “fake” or “manipulative” and spend hours gossiping & hate-bonding. I think it gives the group anxiety relief, a sense of belonging, a feeling or superiority (etc).
The last time I worked a job was almost two years ago. My mental health was destroyed by months of targeted bullying by a woman almost twice my age. I also faced sexual harassment (and subsequent retaliation) from a man decades older than me. The older woman would refuse to train me, slander me, spread lies about me, steal credit from me, and twist any kind action (like me bringing in cupcakes) as me being fake or manipulative.
I’ve noticed this happens with celebrities too. Someone can go from being ultra famous and defended to being a total pariah overnight.
I don’t know if people think it’s trendy or “acceptable” to attack Sydney Sweeney. But she is constantly torn apart online, publicly called ugly over & over again (even by other people in Hollywood and prominent voices online), and the comment section is just FULL of thousands of people joining the mob and tearing her down. It’s like one person gets the ball rolling, and suddenly all the lemmings think they have “permission” to be cruel too. Or they justify it by claiming Sydney is a privileged blonde woman. Or they use her politics as an excuse to justify their cruelty. I don’t understand what she did to deserve it. Because I’ve never seen other female celebrities called ugly this much and this aggressively. But she is NOT ugly to me at all. And I can’t imagine how hurt she would be if she saw all the comments made about her. I believe she previously cried on twitter when “Sydney Sweeney ugly” was trending.