When the browbeating and hounding of the public isn’t enough to keep people fixated on the official narrative, there’s always the prospect of some good old fashioned moral extortion.
The Idaho Press stated in a recent headline, “‘It’s not about the books’: Idaho library director resigns over intimidation and ‘political atmosphere of extremism,’” which is a good example of the legacy media’s fascination with victimhood. In this case, the library director is being “victimized” by parents and community members who are publicly speaking out regarding age-appropriate reading materials for kids.
Those who might be tempted to voice concerns about LGBT books being mainstreamed to young children are expected to feel shame and to fall silent for having such “extremist” concerns.
Instead of shutting up and sitting down like obedient children, these citizens have persisted in asking questions, requesting public records, and attending public meetings in person. Their concerns about inappropriate materials being made available to kids have not been adequately addressed or explained away.
According to the article, “The threats against her have been veiled but their message is clear,” with religious undertones of “fire and brimstone" and a perceived “call to violence.”
Of course, there’s a difference between being a victim and claiming victimhood.
Each of us at some time or another will be a victim of bad fortune, bad timing, or another person’s malice. With our misfortune comes the opportunity to bear our trial with courage and dignity and to rise above our current circumstance.
Victimhood has become more of a group identity trait and is nearly always assumed to be the result of some kind of systemic wrong stemming from a never-ending state of class warfare.
It’s noteworthy that victimhood is either validated or rejected by much of the media depending upon the ideological purity of the person or group in question.
Think back to a few years ago when a group of students from Covington High School in Kentucky were attending a pro life demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial. A short video clip of Nicholas Sandmann smiling as a Native American elder approached him banging a drum was deemed as a racist confrontation because Sandmann was wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
News outlets and pundits from across the country piled on to condemn what they described as a racist attack on the Native American activist by out-of-control Trump supporters. The boys were doxxed, received death threats, and were even called on the carpet by their own school.
It was only after a longer version of the video surfaced that we learned what actually happened. The boys had done nothing to instigate any confrontation. The only racist badgering that was taking place was being done by a group of Black Hebrew Israelites who were taunting the Native American elder. The press was positively loath to give up its supposed moral high ground when faced with reality.
Pay close attention when your sympathies are being played upon through the use of guilt, shame, and groupthink. The left is not above using contrived victimhood to discourage any deviation from the official narrative.
