The Culture of Victimhood

Victimhood has now become a protected class in our society, a trend fed by well-intended, but potentially harmful, therapists, activists and daytime talk shows.
In our culture of victimhood, victims can be excused for victimizing others, taking away the rights, freedoms and autonomy of others, in service to their victimization.
Why would people loudly and publicly proclaim themselves as victims? Perhaps a better question, based upon the level of secondary gain, attention, protection and support received by these people, is why wouldn’t they? With all of the attention on the issue, why are we surprised when people are exaggerating, using, or downright lying, about victimization? Of course, when we attach benefits to identification as a victim, we will hear from more victims, both real and exaggerated.

To continue with the way we are idealizing and rewarding victimhood, creates more and more incentive for people to desire to be seen as victims. We must instead encourage people in a way that supports their ability to move forward in their lives, without needing emotional bodyguards to protect them from the unpreventable pains of life. To do less is disrespectful of them, and it discounts the strength they have within. It treats victims as though they are less than, less than capable, less than independent, and less than whole. It treats victims as though their victimization is the most important thing about them.

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They argue that grievance-based conflicts have led to large-scale moral change in which an emergent victimhood culture is clashing with and replacing older honor and dignity cultures. Campbell and Mason describe three paradigms of moral culture that have shaped the American society in succession, calling them honour culture, dignity culture and victimhood culture.

A dignity culture, according to Campbell and Manning, has moral values and behavioral norms that promote the value of every human life, encouraging achievement in its children while teaching that sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me.

Because victimhood culture now confers the highest moral status on victims, Campbell and Manning argue that it “increases the incentive to publicize grievances.” Injured and offended parties who might once have thrown a punch or filed a law suit, now appeal for support on social media.

Manning and Campbell also argue that victimhood culture dominates university campuses where academic freedom is endangered by paramount concerns about “safety” and “sensitivity.”

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One of the interesting things about the moral changes in modern America — especially those involving the package of ideals, grievances, and techniques of social control that we call victimhood culture — is the continual creation of new offenses. That is, the number of words and deeds that are considered wrongs — wrongs severe enough to be worth institutional attention and other collective action — is growing. This involves the creation of entirley new categories of offense, such as cultural appropriation, microaggression, heteronormativity, or deadnaming. It also includes recognizing as offensive things that were previously unobjectionable, and are still unobjectionable the large majority of people.

More interesting is that this appears to be part of a larger pattern. The creation of new categories of offense, or redefinition as wrong of things that virtually no one objected to before, suggests an ever-increasing sensitivity to slight. But it’s not a sensitivity that’s equally applied: The new moral categories coming out of contemporary universities are all concerned with offenses against social groups that have historically had lower status or are otherwise seen as victims. It is they alone who should not be offended, and the bar for offending them is getting lower. It might even be that if someone in an official position to police these things just imagines something might offend such people, that makes it offensive.

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RabidAlpaca said:

This is hilariously ironic considering you go into full emotional self-victimization mode every time an atheist expresses his opinion in your presence. Tell us about how the atheists hate you for your faith again and how hard it is to be a believer in 2019 America. :lamo

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Angel said:

Are you delusional, or what?
Do you have anything to say on the topic, or are you only trolling by?

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RabidAlpaca said:

...How many times on this forum have you whined and cried about how hard it is to be a believer in modern America and how all the big bad atheists are out to get you?...

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Angel said:

Not once. That's why I asked if you're delusional. You must be confusing me with someone else. Or else you're just confused.
Take a few deep breaths and leave off derailing this thread, yes?

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KevinKohler said:

Careful.
That alpaca is rabid.

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RabidAlpaca said:

Derailing would be trying to redirect the topic to something else. The topic is self-victimization, so I'd like to talk about your self-victimization complex. Did I trigger you? Day after day after day you spam this forum with threads whining about atheists and how they hurt your feelings. What is it that drives you to constantly whine and self-victimize?
...

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How many times on this forum have you whined and cried about how hard it is to be a believer in modern America and how all the big bad atheists are out to get you?

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Angel said:

You're either a liar or you're confused. Now you claim I've "spammed" the forum with self-victimization posts. So point to one -- ONE, mind you. Just one post by Angel to wit:
Put up or shut up, in other words.

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Angel said:

Tell your atheist allies that. All my "attacks" are counter-attacks. Dawkins and company started this war fifteen years ago. Overtures for armistice must come from the aggressor.

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RabidAlpaca said:

Only one? Is that all? Sure, I can just fish one out of the thousands of self-victimization whine posts you spam us with.



Atheists "started a war" against you, and all your attacks on the evil atheist aggressors are "counter-attacks" because you've been so heavily victimized. You'll notice few atheists start threads calling you or theists out in general, but you spam this forum with threads where you actively **** on and verbally attack atheists, then when the counter-arguments come you curl up into a ball of self-victimization. You're a pathetic and fitting example of the topic in the OP.

So the real question is why is one of the most egregious self-victimizers on DP is starting a thread against self-victimization. The irony is palpable.

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Tell your atheist allies that. All my "attacks" are counter-attacks. Dawkins and company started this war fifteen years ago. Overtures for armistice must come from the aggressor.

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how hard it is to be a believer in modern America and how all the big bad atheists are out to get you

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Angel said:

You clearly are confused, my man.

You read this:
And you hear this:
You don't understand the concept of victimhood AND you can't read discerningly at all.
Now get out of my face, and unless you have something to say on the topic, out of my thread -- you wasted my time and a whole page of this thread with your nonsense.

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Angel said:

Tell your atheist allies that. All my "attacks" are counter-attacks. Dawkins and company started this war fifteen years ago. Overtures for armistice must come from the aggressor.

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RabidAlpaca said:

Every single one of my posts has been about self-victimization. None of your 4 posts after the OP have had anything to do with the topic of the thread. What you're offended about is that I would dare to call out your own self-victimization. This thread was supposed to be about everyone else, not you, right?

Also, I misunderstood nothing, you think that atheists started a war against you and you justify your constant attacks and whining as "counter-attacks" to the atheist threat. You asked for an example and with little effort I found one of the many perfect examples of you self-victimizing. We're all out to get you, remember? What do you think self-victimization is if not that?

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Angel said:

You don't understand the concept of victimhood and all of your posts in this thread have been personal and off topic. Self-defense and victimhood are not the same thing. Stop this trolling, mister.

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RabidAlpaca said:

Lol, so by talking about your own self-victimization, I've made it "personal" and you feel attacked. So you're doubling down on the self-victimization, I see. Please get on topic. The topic is self-victimization, not how much you hate being called out for your hypocrisy.

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Angel said:

Actually, I see now that this thread is about you and the likes of you. You and your ilk are purveyers and perpetuators of the culture of victimhood. You and your ilk spin everything into victimization lingo, even when it's the farthest thing from.

So, in a sense you have been on topic in that you've exemplified by your bad-faith posts the cultural problem identified in the OP.
Now take a hike.

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RabidAlpaca said:

Ooooh, so now you're trying to turn it around claim I'm the one self-victimizing? Can you provide a quote of me self-victimizing like I did for you when you asked? Shouldn't be hard, right?

Perhaps you can find a quote of me whining about how some celebrity "started a war" against me and how all my criticisms of you are actually counter-attacks to that "war" I find myself in?

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Angel said:

That other problem of yours, your reading ability, is letting you down again. Reread slowly for meaning. Or look up the word "purveyor" -- that might have been the stumbling block.
To aid in your comprehension efforts, I'll help you to this extent: No, you were not accused of claiming victimhood.

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RabidAlpaca said:

Ah, I see, so it's not the self-victimizers like you that dramatize their situation with language like a celebrity "started a war against you", rather it's people like me calling you out for self-victimizing that are the real peddlers of self-victimization culture.

I didn't mean to trigger you, I just thought you wanted to talk about self-victimization. Run along then.

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Angel said:

You triggered your ass. You are a purveyor and perpetrator of the cultural ill described in the OP. The blindness of your posts is discursive gold. Your posts are Show and Tell perfection. I couldn't have asked for a better start to a thread about the culture of victimhood. And on your side, you learned a new word: "purveyor." It's a win-win. How often do we see that!

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RabidAlpaca said:

How do I purvey self-victimization culture by calling out egregious self-victimizers such as yourself? Be specific and use quotes.

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Angel said:

Like I said, take a hike. But first look up the word "purveyor," and accept my warm appreciation for your Show and Tell act. It really gave this thread a booming start.

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RabidAlpaca said:

So you can provide no example, no quote and no argument whatsoever as to how I'm purveying self-victimization culture.

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In honor cultures, people (men) maintained their honor by responding to insults, slights, violations of rights by self-help violence. Generally honor cultures exist where the rule of law is weak. In honor cultures, people protected themselves, their families, and property through having a reputation for swift violence. During the 19th century, most Western societies began the moral transition toward dignity cultures in which all citizens were legally endowed with equal rights. In such societies, persons, property, and rights are defended by recourse to third parties, usually courts, police, and so forth, that, if necessary, wield violence on their behalf. Dignity cultures practice tolerance and are much more peaceful than honor cultures.

Sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning are arguing that the U.S. is now transitioning to a victimhood culture that combines both the honor culture's quickness to take offense with the dignity culture's use of third parties to police and punish transgressions. The result is people are encouraged to think of themselves as weak, marginalized, and oppressed. This is nothing less than demoralizing and polarizing as everybody seeks to become a "victim."

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Angel said:

The Culture of Victimhood

Let's talk about victimhood.

It appears to be on the rise in Millennial America.

In these terrible times everyone seems to be claiming victimization.

Have we nurtured a culture of victimhood?

Below are posted links to a book, a blog, and an article on the psychology of victimhood in order to kick-start the discussion.

All opinions are welcome.

If you feel victimized by this thread, speak up.
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The Culture of Victimhood
Hoaxes, Trigger Warnings and Trauma-Informed care

The Culture of Victimhood | Psychology Today

The Rise of Victimhood Culture

The Rise of Victimhood Culture - Wikipedia


THE VICTIMHOOD REPORT
The Creation of Deviance

The Victimhood Report — Notes on the Rise of Victimhood Culture

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sangha said:

I didn't read past the first sentence of your quote because it's a waste of time to read something whose premise is false.

Victims have ALWAYS been a protected class and for good reason

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