Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
But who gets to define "feel bad"? I feel bad whenever I'm criticized. I feel bad when it's pointed out that I am wrong, or I made a mistake. But that is not bullying. How something makes someone else "feel" is immaterial. "Feel" is a strictly subjective term. There's no way you can legislated based on what someone else "feels".
Unfortunately, I don't think that's enough to stop politicians trying to do exactly that - and doing damage in the process. Indeed, existing laws refer to things like making you feel threatened.

Not necessarily. There are some laws which mandate the severity of punishment for certain crimes, like the three strike laws. A guy who steals a loaf of bread to feed his children will, if convicted of his third felony, be sentenced to life in prison because of such laws. There's no allowance for circumstances.
There's usually an exception for "exceptional circumstances", or indeed much broader discretion, for exactly that reason - and of course stealing a loaf of bread wouldn't be a felony anyway: there's usually a threshold like $500 for that. There's a widely-repeated tale of "life for stealing a slice of pizza" which doesn't actually fit the facts (the repeat offender in question actually got a much lesser sentence, and has gone on to commit several subsequent felonies and violate probation, which would have been prevented had he really been jailed for life).