The self-esteem movement for designated-victim groups
One thing that Romney’s supposed “gaffe” in Israel highlights (as though it needed any further underlining) is that it’s no longer possible to speak truth about any designated-victim group for fear of offending them and/or being called racist.
The furor over Romney’s words reminds me a bit of what happened to Bill Cosby when he tried to finger certain attitudes within the black family and culture as part of the cause of the problems black people face today (as opposed to problems they faced historically, when the oppression and discrimination against them were both overt and serious). And although Cosby (unlike Romney) had the advantage of being a previously popular member of the very group he was addressing, it did him little good once he spoke the unspeakable truth.
It also reminds me of what happened to Larry Summers when he tussled with the feminist PC crowd at Harvard. Even that supposed bastion of learning, ostensibly dedicated to the pursuit of truth, couldn’t stomach the truth he voiced when it hurt the feelings of the feminist professors and their sympathizers there.
Liberals love the phrase “speaking truth to power.” But apparently, speaking truth to lack of power (or perceived lack of power; designated-PC-victim groups and their hurt feelings actually have a great deal of power these days) isn’t allowed, especially when the supposedly powerless have the power of leftist popular opinion and the press on their side.
But when we can’t tell the truth we do ourselves no favors—and we do members of the designated-victim groups no favors, either. Instead, we make sure they remain both victims and now victimizers, licking their wounds and nursing their grievances and striking out at those whom they think are to blame, instead of doing what might be necessary to help change their lot.
So often, a “gaffe” is when someone commits Truth . . .
Count me as a victim of “compassion fatigue” when it comes to the endless whines of the permanently aggrieved.
and who are the QUEEN Doyen of victimhood?
victims longer than the Jews
victims longer than the blacks
victims longer than even society existed!!!
“Man’s discovery that his genitalia could serve as a weapon to generate fear must rank as one of the most important discoveries of prehistoric times, along with the use of fire, and the first crude axe stone.” — Susan Brownmiller
Some even claim its the root of all other oppression.
Prior to them, victimhood wasnt a badge of honor and a means to goodies…
after all, if you lie that your a victim (tawana brawley, the duke university, etc), you can get a Rolex, support, free gifts, celebrity attention, and so on and so on. heck, you can even avoid prison for murdering the helpless and call it self defense.
so is it any wonder that if you bribe women with money and goodies they will abandon their families, turn on their husbands, hate their society, harm their children, and feel liberated and superior for it. the more they are a victim the more goodies they get. title ix expansion, affirmative action, disenfranchising their mates to make room for them, drugging boys in school, and more..
and this is all the bestest mostest wonderful important movement that cant be destroyed, moved or even commented on.
WAY before we couldn’t say something about isreal and that, we were all conditioned not to say the truth about women…
naw… we had to listen to a woman who had a shaved head and a golden screw inserted tell us that women are equal to men and can be firefighters (and who cares they cant carry men out or lift the hose, or etc)
personally i really dont know why they dont want credit for the work they have actually done and the way they won by beating up their own society and mates who loved them and respected them and didn’t want to fight.
you want to be able to talk freely, then you have to get rid of feminism which controls PC..
[edited for length by n-n]
Artfldgr: Maybe you should consider adding a few qualifiers to sentences of yours such as the following:
Have you really noticed all women doing this? Or even the majority? Overgeneralization does not help your argument.
I seriously doubt feelings get hurt. If you had to characterize Harvard feminists’ reactions to what Mr. Summers said wouldn’t it be more like a crack whore’s fix. Offence is never offence but opportunity. That’s why ‘they’ keep looking for ‘offensive’, redefining it, and expanding it. Were someone to catalogue what now gives offence I’d wager it would be thicker than IKEA’s.
Then too, when a member of the clan, tribe, race, religion, et al offers a salutary observation it is doubly ‘offensive’ as it is more easily taken to heart by most of the community it is aimed at and therefore more of a threat to what is now no longer a cottage industry but a global industry.
I think I may have offended at least three groups with just this comment.
The other evening there was a documentary (older) on Jackie Kennedy. It was all there: the house in Newport, the fine clothes, the trip to Paris, the horses. She obviously had a life that victims (like Michelle Obama) are supposed to envy. Yet as I watched, I realized how lucky I am to have had a different life. This is not to criticze her, only to say that my life has been full of things that she never had, even though we were materially pretty poor.
To create victims, you have to instill envy into people and denigrate them for not having the latest Anna Wintour-approved clothing. And then you can pat yourself on the back for caring about them.
The man or woman in the street knows that these various victim groups are a bunch of hustlers looking for a free lunch and a hand out. I remember when the refugees from the Hungarian revolution came to the United States in the Fifties. They had no money and did not speak English. Within ten years they had largely assimilated. Ditto for the Cubans who fled Castro and, more recently, the Vietnamese refugees.
If a group is not doing well it is either genetics, culture, or some combination thereof.
Palestinians: Proud refugees for 64 years (and counting).
Feminists: Fighting to make everyone as miserable as they are.
Gay Activitists: Will stop those horrible pride parades when sodomy becomes a family value and Christianity is banned.
African-Americans: Forging new chains this century because whites won’t let us do anything else.
Hispanics: All boundaries, but one, must be respected.
Criminals: Because they were hurt first.
Muslims: I have the right to kill you, or maybe just tax you. How dare you call me intolerant?
Jews: What the hell? They are the victimizers, occupiers, wall street fixers, capital hoarders, big bankers, and, and, all of that and more. How dare you include them in the victim group?
Uh, well, uhmm, statistics show that more hate crimes are committed against the small population of Jews than any other group in the United States.
No. Can’t be true. You are an imperialist racist homophobe.
Well, it’s true, and the Jews are subjected to much worse in other countries. They are truly a universal victim.
I kill you.
The permanently aggrieved are proud (PROUD, I say) of their victimhood. It all they have.
Excellent points, N-Neocon. One note on the self-esteem crowd’s self-hugging, self-obsessiveness: Sociopaths & Malignant Narcissists have boundlessly High Self-Esteem.
Give me Honor any day.
if you attack a faction within the coalition of factions that makes up the democrat party, then all the factions attack.
the democrat party is not a party pf principles;it’s a party formed to service factions.
sometimes one faction might subordinate one or more of its priorities to the collective, but only to help maintain the party’s power to be able to disburse favors and dole out government deals to the coalition.
so the gays forgave obama his anti gay marriage stand because he served other parts of the coalition well, winked at them and gave the the repeal of dadt.
now that obama has openly come out of the closet on gay marriage, they are free to crucify people who merely have the same view obama had until 8 weeks ago.
Curtis, I am so stealing your list.
In addition to the opportunity that those “gaffes of truth” provide to the victim groups, there’s another reason they’re unmentionable. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”, they can’t handle the truth. To take just one example, Muslims have been brainwashed that theirs is the only true religion, and because of that, they have the right to rule over people of other faiths. But this is where cognitive dissonance comes in. Muslims know their societies are dysfunctional cesspits, but to acknowledge it would open them up to the obvious question, “why, if your religion is so perfect, are your countries such toilets?” To question the religion is heresy, so the only response is rage.
And one fruit of this disease is New Orleans during and right after Katrina.
For an Accredited Victim Group (AVG), offense is like a bank account.
Instances of being offended are like deposits. The account provides moral authority and even money–see Jackson Shakedown, Inc.–programs and grants. But primarily moral authority.
That’s why offenses must be discovered, emphasized, publicized and, if necessary, manufactured.
At the same time, if a member of an AVG hurts a non-member, that’s a withdrawal from the Offended Account and must be hidden or excused.
You can see this endlessly. The Trayvon Martin case, grossly distorted, vs. the scores of dead in Chicago. The Duke Lax hoax vs. the simultaneous rape of Duke student Katie Rouse at a Duke frat house. Tawana Brawley.
You guys are right. I’m sick and tired of the rich and powerful being pushed around by the poor and powerless.
hi rob;
1 – unions are not poor or powerless; they outspend everyone else in politics.
don’t conflate unions with workers. most workers re not unionized and prefer it that way.
2 – blacks are not powerless. we have a balck president, and have had black secretaries of every major cabinet department.
3 – women are not powerless. (see above)
and so on.
who are the “powerless”?
a – the catholic church – who can;t stop our liberal-fascist administration from forcing them to do things that violate their religious beliefs.
b – babies in the womb – who are powerless to fight against the abortion industry which has murdered millions of babies – mostly black babies.
c –
Rob clearly exposes the problem. Either he’s fourteen years old or a perpetual adolescent in a grown up body.
Real grownups don’t have such a simpleton black and white view of the world.
I sat in an ICU room with a dozing old timer-friend today for 6-hours and read sizable pieces of Dr.Sowell’s,”Intellectuals and Society” (Basic Books,2009). WONDERFUL, as you’d ecpect from Thomas the Great. The reason I mention it here is the “designated victims” in your post, N-Neocon. The ‘high minded’ and ‘deep’ and ‘determining’ amongst us reg’lar folks–The Anointed–decide(lucky us)who are ‘victims’ and ‘minorities’ and who us’sun bigots, racists, homophobes(maybe my favorite), etc are. You know, y’all, us with that darned Tragic Vision? Little of these choices are based upon logic, critical thinking, weighed evidence, yet our culture is chained by them. One of my faves on the beknighted victimhood thingy is the never-ever hearing from the intello-slicks on our Asian bruthas & sistahs and their massively obvious “anomalies” in our population. Superior grades, achievements, solidity of family, absense of self-pity, etc. Nope. Nada. Nein. Nuthin. They just don’t fit that Victim Nitch. Now, I gotta run to chik-fil-A,’Yo.
All here would find Dr.Sowell’s book well worth reading.
Mr. Frank,
“If a group is not doing well it is either genetics, culture, or some combination thereof.”
If it’s genetics then the discussion is in no better state than under the iron fist of Marxist-enforced political correctness.
Taking the issue of blacks in America as an example, a discussion looks pretty near impossible on both sides of the political aisle. We all know why it is so on the Left, so I’ll just give a brief overview: They are wedded to the notion that the plight of blacks must be Whitey’s fault, and you’re WACISTâ„¢ if you dare to insinuate any of the fault lies with blacks.
Since no such artificial ruling exists on the Right, surely discussion must be unfettered on that side? Wrong. On the Right, the discussion of this issue is beset by a different problem: No sooner does it begin than the thread is witness to the arrival of the IQist Brigade, those who with the expected tropes like “average IQ of 75” (a scientific-sounding way of saying “Blacks are born chtoopid and fated to stay that way”) achieve the same effect of denying blacks any responsibility, or any hope of lifting themselves up–from the opposite direction that the Left does it, but the result is the same.
What I’m not saying is there should be a ban on IQism, however much I may disbelieve in that materialist dogma. But it means, by its very nature, that the discussion is over, because the facts of genetics are set in stone. Once you have argued that a certain group is either privileged or disadvantage by its genetics, there’s no room for calling for responsibility or change or entertaining any sort of hope for a brighter future. Genetics is the killer of all prospect of free will and personal improvement, and it is there that the Far Left and the Far Right meet in the Circle of Politics: Where the former view whites as congenital oppressors, evildoers no matter what they do, and the latter view the darker races as immutably fated for inferiority because of their lower average IQ.
You tell me eye color is inherited and genetically determined, I’ve never had a problem with that. But the character and soul of people–well, the Torah has the final say on the matter, and it says no human being of good mental health is exempt from free will and responsibility. That’s why I brook no deterministic buck-passing from either Left or Right.
Anyone who has read “The Haj” by Leon Uris will have an understanding of the cultural differences between the Muslims and the Israelis. That will lead to understanding why the Israelis have been so economically successful and the Paletsineans haven’t. Anyone who has read “Don’t Let’s Go To the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood” by Alexandra Fuller will understand the cultural differences between the Europeans who settled in Africa and the native Africans. That will in turn lead to understanding why post-colonial Africa has been so benighted. Such books will also lead one to the understanding that what Mitt Romney said in Israel is absolutely true. Culture does matter.
Neoconscum’s recommendation of Thomas Sowell’s book, “Intellectuals and Society” will help you understand why post modernism cannot accept those plain facts about culture. Post modernism is not about reality. It’s about pretending that all people and cultures are the same and that anyone who has ever been shortchanged, defeated, lost out, or otherwise inconvenienced has the right to be given special victim treatment…..in perpetuity.
Curtis is right. The Jews have been the universal victims. Yet they just keep on pulling their socks up and getting on with improving themselves. That the Israelis are condemned for being successful in defending themselves and turning desert into productive land is just another chapter in a long book of abuse.
I’m with vanderleun. My compassion for perpetual victims has run mighty low.
As a positive sign, notice what happened, however, when the G&L types tried to push around Chik-Fil-A
… Cue the appropriate music
“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every from of tyranny over the mind of man.” Would Thomas Jefferson has been appalled at our PC culture?
Oops, I meant to say: Would Thomas Jefferson have been appalled at our PC culture?
On gaffes: a gaffe occurs when a politician UNWITTINGLY tells the truth, either about something else or about himself (by what he says about something else).
When Romney makes a statement that is plainly and obviously true and verifiable and the Press call it a gaffe, they are trying to convince us that no reasonable person could believe what is so obviously true.