People try to pinhole bullying into just simple schoolyard terms, like bigger or more popular people picking on smaller people in overt ways throughout life. That happens, and is terrible, but people also dont see all the other forms of bullying that permeate all of society.
Pretty much everyone bullies either consciously or unconsciously at points, or throughout their whole life.
One of the ways they do it, is through NUMBERS.
It can be just having your own group, and some dude not having anyone. Then even if you are all weak emotionally and physically, you can still pick on someone generally stronger than you because you have all these numbers on your side.
In the classroom, if an opinion isn`t liked, even in top Universities, and even if the opinion isn`t harmful or ignorant or anything in any way... If the numbers are against you, if the number of students who disagree is heavy enough, if someone feels like it they can absolutely crush most people and their opinions. The teachers can get the class to do this to you as well if they please. Sometimes people can be straight up correct, but a large enough number of people who believe in the wrong thing can send them packing.
People will look for any way to get numbers on their side and reap the rewards off of other people.
Their have been so many times I had to stick up for people who were being outnumbered in social or work environments. Sometimes people dont even need allies present to bully people with numbers, all they need is an audience, a crowd. If someone is a good talker, they can play the crowd and get the people to turn on you, even if they dont know those people.
One of the best things you can do in life to defend yourself is learn how to be a good trash-talker, who can keep it Politically Correct, and be good at the corporate e-mail game.
If you can take insults and throw them back into peoples faces, without you looking like an @$$, then you`ve got something. If you can do that while working the crowd, letting them know how much you just owned your opponent and why they should like you more then him, then you will be able to crush almost any verbal bullies in the workplace or social events.
That is of course if things wont get physical. If you are at school, or on the street, in a club, or at a party, people honestly usually cant handle a verbal smack-down, and will resort to violence. No matter what... you lose in these instances. There are many examples like this in bullying where the victims just cant win at that moment.
No matter what, if that person has a tight crew around them who wont turn on them, then the victims of bulliyng really have limited options. This can be anywhere from class, to work, to facebook, to internet forums. No matter what, you can still be painted to be, and believed to be the bad guy, and you will have to suffer from that because the people who want to punish you have numbers on their side, and there will be no justice.
The terms of what numbers can bully isnt just limited to attacking you either. They can bully your taste, bully your character, your ways of expressing yourself. If you like the wrong music, or talk in the wrong way, or get too much attention, people will use numbers to change that, or box you in, and put a glass ceiling on your growth, so that no matter how hard you try, no matter how high you reach, there will be no victory for you.
No matter where I look, there are numbers against people. I try to lead by example, and not bully people in any way, no matter how small, but I know there will always be somewhere close by that I can look to see 5-on-1, or 25-on-1, or even 25,000-1 as a whole arena boo`s someone and yells hateful things at them. All I can do then is try to be the extra 1 in 25,000-to-1, and make it 25,000-to-2. It`s not easy, but hopefully some people see what is right, and help even the odds.