An Epidemic of Victimism

Why has victim versus oppressor become the main political discourse?

What do Feminism, the Men Rights movement, incels, Anti-Racism and Animal Liberation have in common?

Nothing, you may say. These are different movements, often at odds with each other. Some are worthy of support, others of scorn.

They have in common that they are all based on the idea of victimization.

• In Feminism, women are victimized by the Patriarchy.
• The Men Rights movement, in response, claims that men are the victims of a matriarchal system brought about by Feminism.
• Incels claim that they are the victims of sex deprivation caused by a conspiracy of selfish women with powerful alpha men.
• Anti-Racism shows that Blacks are the victims of systemic oppression that goes back to slavery and the Jim Crow era.
• Animal Liberation claims that animals are the victims of humans, who use them for food, clothing, entertainment and scientific research.

I agree with some of these movements and disagree with others. However, I am not here to discuss their merits, but to analyze their underlying strategy of victimism. Although this word has negative connotations, I think that it is a strategy with both positive and negative aspects.

The origins of victimism

This century, the predominant political discourse is that of victims versus oppressors. However, it was not always so. Political fights used to take place using violence and economical struggle.

In the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution brought about the development of a working class, who fought against its oppression by inventing socialism and democracy. The main idea behind socialism was to use the power of the State to protect worker’s rights. The working class would take control of the State either with a violent revolution or by democratic means.

The 20th century saw an enormous increase in the power of the State. The police and the military became powerful enough to quell any attempts at revolution. At the same time, the working class gained in comfort and economic power. Supplying food and goods to the expanding urban populations made the modern economic system tremendously fragile. Tampering with it was not in anybody’s interest.

The exception, of course, were totalitarian states. However, oddly enough, many of them transitioned to democracy without a violent upraising. The peaceful transition from dictatorship in Spain was followed by the USSR and the whole of Eastern Europe, and then by the South American dictatorships in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil. They were achieved by international pressure and economic incentives, but also by the power of the citizenship to shame the rulers into leaving power. Globally, the number of totalitarian regimes has been steadily decreasing.

Therefore, at the same time that revolutions became next to impossible, new ways of achieving political change through non-violence opened up. They consisted of influencing public opinion, so that the votes and actions of the politicians would follow. Thus, the dream of Gandhi and Martin Luther King to achieve change by non-violent means became a widespread reality.

Of course, this was a vast improvement over the old way of enacting change through revolution and war. When victory depends on violence, the most violent win, and they are likely to become the new oppressors.

The problems with victimism

However, the discourse of victims versus oppressors has its problems, too.

1. It divides society into groups based on their victimhood. This gave rise to identity politics, where belonging to a group and defending its interests takes precedence over the well-being of general society.
2. It encourages propaganda and misinformation, because each group competes with the others in claiming top victim status. Reason is sacrificed on the altar of victimhood.
3. Victimhood becomes the way to achieve new privileges that supposedly would compensate the injustices done in the past against a certain group. The goal of common justice and equality is sacrificed to create a society segmented into groups with different claims to compensation and redress.
4. Society is divided into victims and oppressors. If you don’t have a claim to victimhood, you are an oppressor. I cannot say “I am a white man in good health and financially secure” without being accused of privilege. It is assumed that any personal wealth and well-being has been achieved by oppressing others.
5. Only victims have the right to speak. If you are not a victim, you are assumed to be an oppressor trying to defend your interest. So, unless you are a victim, you will be ostracized.
6. Self-serving, outspoken individuals speak in the name of the victims to accrue political power and wealth. They are not just politicians, but professors and writers claiming expertise in the intricacies of the process of oppression, and how to fight them. Victims of abuse are paraded as an example with little regard to their personal autonomy, their opinion and their healing process.
7. The real causes of a problem are not investigated. Just one thing matters: the evilness of the oppressor and the innocence of the victim. Anything else is considered an excuse to forgive the oppressor and maintain his privilege.
8. Solutions don’t matter. In fact, there is a perverse incentive not to solve problems, because then victims would stop being victims and the whole system would crumble. Therefore, to recognize any kind of progress or victory is condemned as politically incorrect.
9. The victim mentality negatively affects self-esteem. Our sense of worth no longer depends on our behavior and achievements. It is based solely on our victim status and our belonging to an oppressed group. You are discouraged from showing strength and self-sufficiency because these are not the attributes of a victim but of an oppressor. You must not heal the injuries from past abuse, but show them proudly to rank higher in the hierarchy of victims.
10. The overabundance of claims to victimhood produces empathy fatigue and thus becomes self-defeating. People become cynical and disinterested. The increasing polarization causes everyone to either stake their claim to victimhood — siding with one particular identity and ignoring the others — or to see oneself as an oppressor — in which case you are automatically the enemy and should devote your energy to defending yourself.

The solution?

I think we need to focus on finding the causes of problems and rational solutions for them.

• When the causes involve exploitation, this should be stopped.
• However, we would also need to stop granting automatic privileges to anyone who claims to be a victim and, particularly, to those claiming to speak in the name of victims.
• It is important to recognize that there are many people who are neither victims nor oppressors, and that wealth and well-being (“privilege”) are not evil in themselves.
• We need to leave behind the negativity of the victim mentality and focus more on personal growth and developing the positive aspects of society.
• Instead of identifying with a particular group, we need to realize our common humanity. This is the source of true empathy and compassion. These, and not guilt and shame, are the motors of deep societal change.