The Covert Narcissism Of The Collegiate Victim Class
Victimhood has become so au courant that college students work themselves into a frenzy finding victimizers everywhere and convincing themselves that they are terribly oppressed.

A quote from a Robby Soave Reason blog post:

"I don't study in the library because I don't feel comfortable, because I don't feel comfortable with people always wondering what my gender identity is," said another activist.

How do you go to the grocery store? The DMV?

The truth is that for people who really don't have much going in life or who really aren't going much of anywhere -- perhaps because they study subjects like how pumpkins are a form of white oppression -- the only way to have power over others is to claim to be victimized at every turn.

This is especially absurd, because the venue for announcing how victimized they are is the American college campus in 2016.

Anyone who is able to go for years without a job and attend college is wildly "privileged."

And if you can't go to the library or the grocery store because you worry what people are thinking of you, well, perhaps you need a counselor to talk to you like we would a 4-year-old, telling the 4-year-old that no, other people's thoughts do not leave their skulls and come attack you while you're shopping.

So, yes, you absolutely do need to be in an institution -- but not one of higher learning.

That said, there's also a more compassionate view -- one that explains why some might feel they have no choice but to join ranks with those who use victimhood as their best and maybe only shot at having any power.

This more compassionate view comes out of the video Soave posted with his piece, about which he writes:

One of the leftists, a black woman of color, talked about the myriad ways in which her high school failed to prepare her for college.

If you are unprepared for college, shouting about being victimized and trying to bully your way to some power may seem a more productive course of action than studying in hopes of making something of yourself.

And who is unprepared for college? More than likely, someone who is born out of wedlock, grows up in a single-parent home, and goes to a public school controlled by a teacher's union -- one that cares more about the teachers pension plan and keeping even the terrible ones on the job and getting paid than seeing that kids learn.

If black lives truly matter -- beyond cop shootings -- then somebody besides Thomas Sowell (among maybe a handful of others) has to speak out about acting like they matter all along.