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Old 09-26-2010, 08:41 PM   #7 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru
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Location: East-central Canada
Many teenagers are confused, frightened, and generally angry. This often manifests into things like these: vandalism, offensive language, violent posturing, etc. They're acting out based on their own damaged sense of self-worth.

Most people grow out of it once they find self-worth and become less selfish and outwardly/inwardly destructive.

I would expect more responsible and balanced adults to not respond to this sort of thing in kind. I would hope that many would understand that these types of teenagers are often those with problems deeper than "I like to wreck stuff and threaten people."

It's anti-social behaviour, yes, but I'm not sure how common it is or how long it tends to go on in most people into adulthood. I think a lot of it takes different, more nuanced forms. They become the people you have difficulty with in the workplace and in traffic, etc.
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