Valorizing Victims: A Victim Culture Gone Mad
Lizzie Crocker writes at The Daily Beast about "What the U-VA Rape Case Tells Us About a Victim Culture Gone Mad":
We live in a culture that valorizes victims--where to question one woman's claims of sexual abuse is to be a "rape apologist," someone who effectively dismisses heinous crime under any and all circumstances. If Jackie is lying, she will likely--and sadly--suffer for it. And she has already put herself in an unenviable position by reaffirming her version of events as described to Rolling Stone in a subsequent interview with The Washington Post. "What bothers me is that so many people act like it didn't happen," she said. "It's my life. I have had to live with the fact that it happened every day for the last two years."The problem with valorizing the victim, as a "victim culture" does, is that anything that runs contrary to the victim's narrative is cast as an attack on that person.
Question them, and you are colluding in exacerbating the awful effects of their trauma. Question their actions or motives and you are "victim shaming" and "victim blaming."
..."Playing the victim" used to be a term of scorn, now it's a daily modus operandi to score any number of political and cultural points.
Question those taking on the mantle of victimhood and you are immediately cast as some kind of aggressive, unfeeling oppressor. The sad consequence of a culture of victimhood is that it obscures real victims and obscures the genuinely felt experiences of those victims, whatever they have endured.
Anybody remember the gathering of Khmer Rouge victims described in this book? Their appearance in the narrative was cleansing.
This problem isn't as new as it always feels.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 10, 2014 1:12 AM
This is obvious from WTC memorializing.
What has been perpetuated at Ground Zero is that madmen win. Their followers will always be able to point out, "we did that", and say, "every time they dial their phone, they will remember!".
Meanwhile, CNN reported Sunday on the anniversary of Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, and the Nintendo, but not Pearl Harbor.
Rome fell.
Radwaste at December 10, 2014 6:07 AM
> Rome fell.
So you're saying the little naughties made the wrong choices again? Darn... Kind of a sad commentary, ain't it?
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 10, 2014 10:28 AM
Williamson.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 10, 2014 10:36 AM
One of the most successful public-relations experts in history brings more understanding to the horrible, biased, rape-accusation wars.
=== ===
Adolf Hitler: [edited] The more monstrous the conspiracy, the less likely it will be uncovered.
There is always a certain credibility in the big lie. The broad masses of a nation have simple, primitive minds. They more readily believe the big lie than the small lie. They often tell small lies in little matters, but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.
It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they do not believe that others would have the impudence to do so. You may bring the facts that prove the lie clearly to their minds. They will still doubt and waver, and they will continue to think that there may be some other explanation.
=== ===
People are taught to trust government and official information. The government wants trusting peasants. The peasants may be made more vulnerable to private scams, but this is an unfortunate side effect to the higher goal.
A large fraction of people can't believe that a woman would lie about being raped. It is just too horrible to contemplate. Their internal system of trust would be broken, and they might have to contemplate a world of doubt. They would have to stop believing in truth and beauty. They would have to admit that they were wrong.
Andrew_M_Garland at December 10, 2014 10:36 AM
Jus' curious: Did you go for Marx in college?
A P.R. guy wants to warn the Sheeple about The Big Lie.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 10, 2014 12:09 PM
To Crid,
Marx was another amazingly successful P.R. guy. His following is running most of the earth.
I despise Marx and Hitler. Did you suspect that I liked them? Possibly you are confusing liking an outcome and noticing the brilliance of the techniques that accomplished that outcome.
Andrew_M_Garland at December 10, 2014 5:00 PM
Or possibly--
> The more monstrous the conspiracy,
> the less likely it will be uncovered.
--This is magical thinking dressed in bogus sophistication.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 11, 2014 12:50 AM
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