Thoughts or Stories on Hazing?

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anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
16,666
31,244
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
Depends on the hazing, there is no black and white.
That.
Sticking the NFL Rookie lineman that just signed a 150 million dollar contract with the team dinner, perfectly acceptable.

Sodomizing the sophomore point guard on the harlem PS323135 basketball team, criminal. (i forget which school it was there but it happened).
If you want to get analytical hazing is an initiation. It is part of bonding with a group. We all suffered indignity to get here... That's good and bad. huge difference between joining a team and getting jumped into a gang (blood in blood out). That makes the shit frats do seem even more evil.
Or in other words details matter.
I think there is a story about Mark Twain getting hazed with a gift of a cheap knock off counterfeit Meer back when he was still Sam.
 

AJL67

Lifer
May 26, 2022
5,495
28,134
Florida - Space Coast
That.

If you want to get analytical hazing is an initiation. It is part of bonding with a group. We all suffered indignity to get here... That's good and bad. huge difference between joining a team and getting jumped into a gang (blood in blood out). That makes the shit frats do seem even more evil.
Or in other words details matter.
I think there is a story about Mark Twain getting hazed with a gift of a cheap knock off counterfeit Meer back when he was still Sam.
Yes there is "good fun comradery" that builds friendships and stories of "remember when we made the rookie pitchers wear dressing in the airport and Jones wore a miniskirt? Hilarious" and then there are things that are assault, true trauma, illegal".

I mean in basic training many moons ago, the Drills had this thing where they pulled us onto a large open area and one drill told us to sit on our duffles and wait for him and he walked around the corner, then another Drill came buy yelling at us to get up, what the hell were we doing sitting there, after dropping us for 20 pushups he left us standing and the original drill came back and yelled at us for standing there and dropped us for 20 more. Obviously something they do to every group of recruits their first day down range and to me falls under the good natured welcome to the team hazing.
 

ashdigger

Lifer
Jul 30, 2016
11,392
70,233
61
Vegas Baby!!!
Hazing is fine.

Two exceptions

1. Sexual Assault
2. Intoxicants

As an example of “normal hazing”. When I was in training to be a fire investigator my nickname was Happy Meal because that’s all my training, education and experience was worth.

Then I graduated to Fire Bitch.

These are two names I was actually introduced to other fire investigators as
 

madox07

Lifer
Dec 12, 2016
1,823
1,692
As a huntsman in Europe we have a few traditions that do not apply to our US counterparts, which may be called hazing. The most common is the "baptism" of green huntsmen. Whenever one shoots a type of bird, but mostly big game, for the first time in their lives they have to be baptised by a godfather of their choosing. This means that the huntsman needs to cut a branch with their own knives. After laying the game on the ground, the rifle on top of the game, they have to lay on all four above game and rifle. The godfather then holds a speech while beating the initiated with the branch over their behind for three times, as the senior huntsmen fire a salvo for each hit. The point is to remind the green guy that taking a life hurts, and one needs to be an ethical, non bloodthirsty huntsman. Ofcourse, when things get out of hand, some idiots slip rose branches instead of the one picked by inductees, or some green branch, to the point some guys couldn't seat on their arse the next day.

another form of hazing is duping the fresh huntsman to take their first shot fox over their shoulders for a picture. Ofcourse the fox is full of fleas, and as is it gets colder the fleas migrate to the next source of heat, I.e. the duffus. Let me tell you .. you ain't never seen a man strip to his bare breeches in -10 centigrade so fast.

They are fun to the limit of decency and tradition. Taking it too far .. oh well, it gets very grotesque. And it did happen a lot "back in the day", when drinking was tolerated by law among huntsmen.
 

WhiteCrown

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 29, 2023
176
520
Pac NW, USA
Good point and examples of it, @AJL67. Thnx.

I don't know if it still happens, but I recall the practice for newly promoted enlisted men having the new rank or "stripes," -- "pinned on."

Basically, for lower ranks, our platoon would form two lines and the newly promoted (lower ranks, E-1 - E3, USMC) would walk in between the lines. Each person would punch the bicep of the newly promoted as he walked the line.

Sometimes, it went too far. I recall one newly promoted L/Cpl who showed up the next morning with an arm in a cast. One of his muscles had separated from the bone. Nobody wanted to really hurt him, and all felt bad I think--he was a good guy and we had regrets.

mike
This is one of those "traditions" that, as telescopes and david said, started to go too far. "Tacking on" started as a good gesture by fellow shipmates each sewing a stitch on a newly promoted Sailor's rank insignia patch. This represented how every member of the crew relied on you in your new appointment just as you relied on them to achieve it. As with a lot of traditions, somewhere along the way it progressed in to Sailors and Leathernecks like yourself putting each other in casts.

To the OP: I think there can be good in hazing, but if hazing is the only reason we have for people to buy-in and feel part of a team, our organization (whichever one) has something that needs to be fixed. That being said we shouldn't need hazing at all. Most people can't handle it anymore anyway, so we must adapt.
 
Jan 28, 2018
13,920
155,704
67
Sarasota, FL
There is a difference between hazing for the purposes of rite of passage and blatant cruelty. Unfortunately, more often than not, it turns cruel. When I was a freshman in college and people were rushing for a fraternity, one fraternity required the "rushers" to get up at 3 am and walk over to the fraternity house in the dead of winter. This was only for a few nights and no big deal. I thought it was stupid, but again, no big deal. New players to the team having to carry the established players gum bags. No big deal. But anything that turns to physical pain, injury or even horrendous embarrassment is bullshit.

I did not join a fraternity while in college, I felt confident enough socially to do without it. Possibly a mistake because there are numerous lifetime relationships formed. The one thing that got me the worse though was that all the fraternity brothers were supposed to be "brothers". There were at least a few in every fraternity I thought were blatant assholes and would never be my brother. So I decided no.
 

macaroni

Lifer
Oct 28, 2020
1,015
3,196
Texas
I wonder what the posts would have sounded like 20 years ago?

On another point, all the above posts remind me why I enjoy this website and you folks--you're a sensible bunch of people who enrich my life. Thank you.
 

trouttimes

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
6,068
24,538
Lake Martin, AL
When I was young and foolish in college, I pledged a frat. We had a hell month to endure to become brothers. When that month was over and it came time at the banquet to become full brothers, I marched on stage and spoke my mind. After what these brothers did to me and the other pledges and enjoyed it, I would not call any of them brothers. Some people have a real strange idea of brotherhood.
 

canucklehead

Lifer
Aug 1, 2018
2,862
15,355
Alberta
I still have lumpy scar tissue from being punched in the right shoulder so many times in Grade 9.

A little humorous hazing is ok, like sending the new guy in the restaurant kitchen to the non-existent basement to fetch a bucket of steam or a banana peeler, or the classic construction site ritual of sending the new kid to find the board stretcher.

Physical hazing always leads to some dillweed taking things way too far.
 
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peteguy

Lifer
Jan 19, 2012
1,531
916
I did the Greek thing in college during the early umm, well ya, awhile ago. Anyway, alcohol was allowed in those days and I have seen it all when it comes to Greek hazing. It should be and starts out to be harmless but, as with all things, people don't know when to stop. Sorry to hear of your experience trout. :cry:
 
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warren99

Lifer
Aug 16, 2010
2,386
27,980
California
I wonder what the posts would have sounded like 20 years ago?

On another point, all the above posts remind me why I enjoy this website and you folks--you're a sensible bunch of people who enrich my life. Thank you.
Interesting observation: a little over 20 years ago, I tried a case against a prominent LA civil rights attorney involving hazing at a teenage camp operated by a religious denomination that I was defending, along with the counselors and hazing campers. The Plaintiff, a 15 year-old boy, claimed he was emotionally scarred after having been subjected to a swirlie, a wedgie, and another relatively harmless prank, even though he had participated in similar hazing involving other boys. In speaking with the foreperson after the jury was discharged, he informed me that the jury was divided--half of the jurors didn't want to give the Plaintiff anything, while the others wanted to give him something nominal. Plaintiff's counsel asked the jury to award her client several hundred thousand dollars in damages. The verdict came in at around $10,000, with the jury finding some comparative fault on the part of the Plaintiff.

Given everything that's gone down in the last 20 years, I have concerns that the verdict would have been much higher if the trial had occurred today.
 

autumnfog

Lifer
Jul 22, 2018
1,218
2,660
Sweden
I'm against it.

Crowds of haphazardly gathered young immature people plus an abundance of alcohol?
It's designed to go wrong.

The Stanford prison experiment also comes to mind.
People in groups can turn into hyenas under the right circumstances.
 
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trouttimes

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
6,068
24,538
Lake Martin, AL
I did the Greek thing in college during the early umm, well ya, awhile ago. Anyway, alcohol was allowed in those days and I have seen it all when it comes to Greek hazing. It should be and starts out to be harmless but, as with all things, people don't know when to stop. Sorry to hear of your experience trout. :cry:
This was 50 years ago. It wasn’t that it was so physically hard. I passed with flying colors. I could handle the shit and did in service, it was that these assholes thought it was funny and brought me closer to them. I didn’t want to be a part of a group for people that clueless. They did it because it was done to them. None of them had the courage to stand up and say this is wrong. I’m sure lots of alcohol and pot was involved. After all, it was the 70’s.