One of the most important things to understand about the liberal approach to crime and terrorism is that when liberals use the word "Victim", they are referring to a victimized class, rather than an individual victim.
An individual victim in most normal people's understanding is someone who has had an awful event happen to them. In the liberal understanding however, Victim is a class which people are generally born into (though in some cases they can join a victim class, e.g. Transgender) and are defined as victims because they are members of a persecuted group.
So when a middle class businessman headed home from the office is beaten and robbed outside a shopping mall, common sense identifies the businessman as the victim. Liberalism however will identify the perpetrator as the victim, if he is a member of an oppressed minority group.
This is the key to understanding the liberal approach to crime and terrorism. It is not the actions of an individual that define him, but the class which he belongs to. Individual morals don't enter into it. Individual actions don't matter, except when they reinforce the group stereotype.
Israelis therefore can never be victims. Even in death, they are still perpetrators because they belong to a class that liberalism has defined as oppressive. By contrast the Arabs in Gaza are always the victims, even when they are the perpetrators, because they have been defined as the oppressed.
Listening to the language that liberals use makes it easy to determine whether they consider a group as belonging to an oppressed or oppressive class. Oppressed classes are often described in terms of their "community", "family" or as "the people", all terms that liberals favor because they are vague and do not define a specific power structure. Oppressor class members are by turn described with an emphasis on governments and institutions.
In the media narrative, which is the primary popular distribution matrix of the liberal worldview, the oppressed will be shown as having many sympathetic children, the oppressors will rarely have any children, and when they do, they will invariably be depicted as greedy and vicious. The oppressed are "fathers" and "mothers". The oppressors will be depicted with limited family ties whenever possible. Or to sum up, the oppressed are human, the oppressors are not.
What it boils down to is the good old Communist, Kulaks vs Proletariat. The former are always oppressors, even when they are being rounded up and killed. The latter are always the victims even when they are doing the rounding up and killing.
Victim status is of course one of the most important pieces of identity in postmodern American politics, and that status is reserved for people who are members of a victimized class. Being a member of a victimized class has many advantages. If postmodern America is like a game of Monopoly, a Victim Card, can enable you to get favorable treatment in business, a reserved spot in college, or a Get Out of Jail Free card when it comes to violence and terrorism.
When you're officially a victim, you can murder and be forgiven. When you're officially an oppressor, even when you defend yourself, you're still the perpetrator.
This is what comes of a moral system based around left wing ideology, class warfare and defining people based on entitlement and oppression. Invariably these moral systems when in power, descend into tyranny, expropriation and sheer butchery-- all in the name of justice for the oppressed.
The same liberals whose hearts wept for an injustice done to an American worker, refused to see that Stalin was a monster, even as he was wading in rivers of human blood. But then they considered Stalin one of them, like Che and Fidel and the PLO, all fighter against oppression.
Subtract individual morality, free will and an open mind-- and liberal morality gives you the vivid drama of a world struggling between the oppressors and the oppressed, which is very appealing, so long as you don't look at the details. Today Hamas is being written into the category of the oppressed, despite the fact that it is a fascist theocratic organization, both things that liberals are supposed to oppose. While Israel a democratic state that provides free medical care and is about as union friendly as possible, is the devil.
But then Lenin and Stalin, tyrants who butchered millions of peasants, workers socialists and fellow Communists, were heroes-- while their victims were enemies of the people to be ground under. In liberal eyes, Hamas has graduated to Stalin status, as protectors of the oppressed. The ideological battle over that is going on, but it has already been lost. Islamism was being embraced by liberalism, even before 9/11. The bloody handshake is once again being made. And that is all there is to it.
So when a middle class businessman headed home from the office is beaten and robbed outside a shopping mall, common sense identifies the businessman as the victim. Liberalism however will identify the perpetrator as the victim, if he is a member of an oppressed minority group.
This is the key to understanding the liberal approach to crime and terrorism. It is not the actions of an individual that define him, but the class which he belongs to. Individual morals don't enter into it. Individual actions don't matter, except when they reinforce the group stereotype.
Israelis therefore can never be victims. Even in death, they are still perpetrators because they belong to a class that liberalism has defined as oppressive. By contrast the Arabs in Gaza are always the victims, even when they are the perpetrators, because they have been defined as the oppressed.
Listening to the language that liberals use makes it easy to determine whether they consider a group as belonging to an oppressed or oppressive class. Oppressed classes are often described in terms of their "community", "family" or as "the people", all terms that liberals favor because they are vague and do not define a specific power structure. Oppressor class members are by turn described with an emphasis on governments and institutions.
In the media narrative, which is the primary popular distribution matrix of the liberal worldview, the oppressed will be shown as having many sympathetic children, the oppressors will rarely have any children, and when they do, they will invariably be depicted as greedy and vicious. The oppressed are "fathers" and "mothers". The oppressors will be depicted with limited family ties whenever possible. Or to sum up, the oppressed are human, the oppressors are not.
What it boils down to is the good old Communist, Kulaks vs Proletariat. The former are always oppressors, even when they are being rounded up and killed. The latter are always the victims even when they are doing the rounding up and killing.
Victim status is of course one of the most important pieces of identity in postmodern American politics, and that status is reserved for people who are members of a victimized class. Being a member of a victimized class has many advantages. If postmodern America is like a game of Monopoly, a Victim Card, can enable you to get favorable treatment in business, a reserved spot in college, or a Get Out of Jail Free card when it comes to violence and terrorism.
When you're officially a victim, you can murder and be forgiven. When you're officially an oppressor, even when you defend yourself, you're still the perpetrator.
This is what comes of a moral system based around left wing ideology, class warfare and defining people based on entitlement and oppression. Invariably these moral systems when in power, descend into tyranny, expropriation and sheer butchery-- all in the name of justice for the oppressed.
The same liberals whose hearts wept for an injustice done to an American worker, refused to see that Stalin was a monster, even as he was wading in rivers of human blood. But then they considered Stalin one of them, like Che and Fidel and the PLO, all fighter against oppression.
Subtract individual morality, free will and an open mind-- and liberal morality gives you the vivid drama of a world struggling between the oppressors and the oppressed, which is very appealing, so long as you don't look at the details. Today Hamas is being written into the category of the oppressed, despite the fact that it is a fascist theocratic organization, both things that liberals are supposed to oppose. While Israel a democratic state that provides free medical care and is about as union friendly as possible, is the devil.
But then Lenin and Stalin, tyrants who butchered millions of peasants, workers socialists and fellow Communists, were heroes-- while their victims were enemies of the people to be ground under. In liberal eyes, Hamas has graduated to Stalin status, as protectors of the oppressed. The ideological battle over that is going on, but it has already been lost. Islamism was being embraced by liberalism, even before 9/11. The bloody handshake is once again being made. And that is all there is to it.
Comments
I think because in the end no one really cares for victims or most anyone else.
ReplyDeleteMaking certain things a cause though gets them votes, money,etc.
Also America today has not known real oppression since the 1700's.
Yes and yes. Funny how history is repeating itself, like with good old USSR.
ReplyDeleteBush attacked Iraq beause Saddam was used chemical weapons on people and was thinking about more dangerous weapons. Bush Attack Afghanistan. at the same time, Bush was freinds with a country called Saudi Arabia, and some other.
ReplyDeletethe Leftists: Bush attacked 'Islamic countries' and 'Islam'. (as if Eypt and Saudi Arabia and Jordan, ... were not Islamic) knowing the power of religion, they are trying to divide the world on the basis of religion and start religious wars... good religion, bad religion. good class, bad class.
I might be way off base but the liberal concept of victimhood almost seems like a vairant of the Indian caste system. Funny that liberals throughout the world have never thought to protest against that evil.
ReplyDeleteAnna--you're right. Also, the local PBS station airs a show each Sunday called European Journal. A few weeks ago they did a feature story on efforts to remind young Russian citizens of what true government oppression was like--including simulated interrogations and strip/body cavity searches.
The reason for the efforts, said on older Russian man, was that young people didn't have a clue as to how bad it was and older Russian , he said, were growing nostalgic for the old days.
Nostalgic for the days of oppression. That's a hard idea to grasp.
ironic too, as russian is an oppressive totalitarian state again too
ReplyDeleteit's just slightly less obvious
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