Passive Responses to Cyber Bullying

Cyber bullying happens all the time.  It can be blatant, or it can be less obvious.  In both situations, assertive responses to them that stand up for what's right is rare--why?

People are either bystanders, and completely do not respond to cyberbullying, or do respond, but with a lack of assertion.  The rare times that people do take a stand are admired and respected, so why not do it more often?  For me personally, even when you are protected by a screen, standing up for yourself or for others is intimidating.  You yourself could become a target.  This culture of watching without advocating needs to change.  Why are we so concerned with being targeted that we do not defend others, or even ourselves, who are being cyber bullied?  What has created such an intense feeling of hesitation and reluctance within us?  The perpetuation of bullying, and giving into the satisfaction of the bullies only makes it worse.  The forms of media that are insulting and offensive are ridiculously common.  One of the biggest forms is memes.  These memes are often racist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.  It's so much easier to go along with it without standing up for those being vicitmized.  We tend to shrug it off, and passively respond.  This is what prolongs bullying.  Instead of sending a half-hearted "lol" or "haha" to the aggressor, we should be saying something along the lines that, "that's not cool".  We don't have to succumb to intimidation.  When we see something even mildly offensive, we should be defending each other, as humans, instead of letting it go.