We live in a culture of crybabies.
Now don’t get all offended. Just stop, for a moment, and read.
I’m not saying every single person gets upset more often than a 2-year-old – it’s just that most people do, at least nowadays.
We all know the world is constantly changing, morphing into the form that best represents whatever it is that modern society decides to care about that day.
While there are many positive changes that help make up our world in 2016, it has become almost impossible to ignore the steady growth of a particularly dangerous culture – the culture of victimhood.
I knew the whole misplaced “woe is me” attitude was gaining popularity when I found myself getting more and more annoyed as it was brought up more and more often.
But it wasn’t until I read a Dec. 2015 opinion piece in the New York Times called “The Real Victims of Victimhood” that I realized the issue was actually real, and not only in my head.
The piece revealed this “culture” has now been identified as a widening phenomenon by sociologists.
The Times’ writer, Arthur C. Brooks, summed up the problematic issue quite well.
“So who cares if we are becoming a culture of victimhood? We all should. To begin with, victimhood makes it more and more difficult for us to resolve political and social conflicts. The culture feeds a mentality that crowds out a necessary give and take — the very concept of good-faith disagreement — turning every policy difference into a pitched battle between good (us) and evil (them).”
Let me be clear: These so-called victims aren’t to be confused with people who have actually been victimized, physically or emotionally, through crime or discrimination, and so on.
The individuals I’m talking about aren’t victims at all, though they think they are.
They are the culprits who undermine and talk over the voices of those who deserve to be heard; those who aren’t being dramatic or selfish, those who legitimately need help.
And one of the most common places this kind of behavior occurs?
College campuses.
College activists view ordinary interactions as aggressive and organize “safe spaces” to protect themselves from forms of speech they find offensive.
American college students have started touting a hypocritical reputation as they seek to restrict expressions they claim infringe on their emotions.
They call upon their First Amendment rights to, in turn, limit the First Amendment rights of others.
Do you see the irony here?
The series of protests that erupted in November at the University of Missouri is a prime example.
The movement, primarily led by a student group called Concerned Student 1950, erupted over racism at the school. The protests gained national attention and resulted in the resignations of Richard Bowen Loftin, the campus’ chancellor, and the University’s System President, Tim Wolfe.
But even though their mission was largely a success, the student protesters didn’t want the media around to report it.
At the height of the protests, Tim Tai, a student photographer on a freelance assignment for ESPN, tried to take photos of the group’s small encampment on a campus quad.
But the student activists didn’t want reporters anywhere near their “tent city.”
The protesters blocked Tai’s view, pushed him away and, at one point, chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, reporters have got to go.”
Tai responded, saying the First Amendment protected his right to be there just as much as there’s.
It wasn’t much help. They continued to argue with him, claiming he was being unethical by ignoring their privacy requests.
“We’re documenting historic events with our photographs, and when people are crying and hugging when Wolfe resigns, it becomes a personal issue that people all over the country can connect with,” Tai said in a Nov. 9 interview with the New York Times. “It’s my job to help connect those people to what’s going on.
These examples paint a pretty clear picture: that we live in a society of overly-sensitive bullies; one that, unfortunately, only appears to be growing.
Victimhood shamelessly assumes sovereignty to determine who is and who isn’t allowed to speak
I do admit that most (all) of the time, I don’t want to hear anything that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth, because it’s so outlandishly offensive – and I know I won’t be able to keep my lunch down.
Maybe I’m justified to feel that way, at least when it comes to him.
Maybe.
