William Barr: his past, redux. A “sick, sadistic bully” since childhood, shaped by his father: Vanity Fair. June 1 was just another case of bully meets victim in alley.

This guy is a real piece of work.  A piece written by Jimmy Lohman in 1991 in the Florida Flambeau (a student newspaper for Florida State University) (sorry no link– see above .jpg file) described how he tormented Jimmy.  It seems that, as a child, Billy was a classic bully and a conservative extremist.  There’s a piece in Vanity Fair from December 2019 that goes into considerable detail about the father-son relationship that made Billy Barr what he is today: an apologist, bully-boy, and defender for the president.

The Washington Post in an opinion piece titled “So that’s why Billy Barr is such a bully” describes how Barr runs the Justice Department as a “thugocracy.”  Barr was in private practice when the president elevated him to the head of the Justice Department; since then, he has amassed tremendous power.  Billy’s bullying temperament is similar to that of he-who-must-not-be-named, just without the publicity hound part.

It is sad how people are warped as children.  They never change throughout life.  Certain people, as children, are formed into bullies.  They pick out the different, defenseless, weak, and minorities, and mercilessly abuse them in every way imaginable.  They submit other children as well as animals to whatever cruelties they can get away with.  The bully seeks and uses power and the only thing that can stop him is equal power.

These bullies recruit bystanders who are similar to them and use them to gang up on individuals or small groups.  Their tactics do not change as adults.   They seek out positions of power and use them to force their underlings to participate in attacks on those who displease them by being different and weak.  Bullies in government use government power to do their dirty work.

I was deeply scarred by bullies in grade school, and to a lesser extent, in high school, until I got to be big enough to fight back (physically fighting back is the only thing that will stop a bully.)  A few people, even as adults, still abuse and torment those who are different, those who protest, those who stick out.  It is in this light that we should understand the events of June 1 at Lafayette Park in front of the White House.

William Barr saw the opportunity and seized it.  He had a group of people in front of him who were disfavored by society (at least white majority society) and he had the power and the excuse to use his authority.  He ordered the attack on peaceful demonstrators (after he was told by a National Guardsman, per this Salon article June 8, that they represented no threat) and he relished the opportunity to gas and beat and shoot (with rubber bullets, somewhat less lethal than rifle bullets.)

That is how we should understand what happened on the evening of June 1.  It was a classic case of bully meets victim.  I know.  I recognize this behavior from childhood because it was done to me.