If a former bully of yours got cancer, would you be happy?

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Think about the person who tormented you the most at school. If you found that they had a painful cancer that would kill them in a few years, would you feel more pity or vindication?

Deep down, I'd wish to meet him, laugh at him as cruelly as I could, and make sure his last days are as miserable as possible. But, since I wouldn't have the balls to try it, I'd pretend not to give a damn.

No! I wouldn't be happy nor would I pity them.

Cancer is a terrible thing.

I'd be happy about an evil person soon ceasing to exist/suffering/feeling lots of pain/feeling depressed about not much time being left for him/her.

I'd be sad as I'm always sad about the life of any living organism ending, even of cockroaches or mice. Sad that nothing is permanent.

A visceral feeling of discomfort about the progress of the disease, whomever it's happening to.

It takes a certain kind of person to be a bully. To find joy in another person's misfortune.

I would be no better than the bully if I could enjoy watching someone suffer.

Of course not, I wouldn't wish that on anyone!
Well okay, maybe I have on terrorists or rapists, but not on people who don't really deserve it.

You're asking that 45-50 years later, I'd still be holding a big enough grudge against someone who was a kid at the time, to the point that I'd take pleasure in his dying a horribly painful death? Wouldn't that make me a stone cold sociopath, and basically, worse than he was?

I don't worry about that, because I was already much worse than he was back then. I must have been, because, if I hadn't deserved to be bullied, God, in His infinite wisdom, would have made me stronger than the bully so I could kick his ass.

This thread reminds me of this nice epitaph:

I would be neither happy nor unhappy. I just really wouldn't give a f**k as cancer is factually curable.
I also know enough from experience that people of that nature wouldn't listen to such things anyway.
Were they to actually want help from me to reverse their cancer I would not deny it either.
I would leave them to wallow in their own despair if they were still a bully in their behaviours.

Everybody has the capacity to change, but if they choose not to change for the better, not my problem.

"I would feel a mix of sadness and joy" - a.k.a., "Schadenfreude".

As a matter of fact, one of the worst bullies from my childhood developed brain cancer and died. His last weeks were in a state of delirium, where he did not even recognize his wife and kids.

He was the guy who used to call me "ret*d" in front of the teachers and administrators, and get away with it.

Ironic, eh?

Nope, wouldn't be happy. So I picked the first option at the top.

Since I cannot feel much empathy in the first place, I'd be indifferent about it.

We need an Ode to Schadenfreude. Hm, it almost feels worthwhile to start learning German in the hope of writing it some day.

I always thought bullies need to be suffered by long-term mental health problems at least worse than the bullied.

I'm physically strong enough to fold all my past bullies in half, I also have a better education and I sleep with a hotter girlfriend than them every night. That's revenge enough for me.