In my opinion the thing that makes the current wave of self-victimising in order to gain social power different (not necessarily worse), or said differently what makes it into "a wave" that arised...
In my opinion the thing that makes the current wave of self-victimising in order to gain social power different (not necessarily worse), or said differently what makes it into "a wave" that arised above what was the norm before, are broader cultural trends which started for different reasons. Specifically the fact that according to some people, we live in a time of "late stage empathy".
These broad trends are more visible if you look at pop culture. A good example of a different time with a different cultural "vibe" is Kurt Cobain - one of his big features was cynicism about the world and refusal of many trends of that time. But this was not just Cobain, this was a thing at that time period, growing through art and culture of different kinds. After that, mainstream (but not completely ideologically empty) art gradually shifted from this rebellious phase into placing focus on maximum apparent honesty and personal authenticity. And that slowly naturally evolved into empathy, which gave rise to a new wave of feminism and other social justice movements that we now know very well, among other things.
However, as it happens with almost all similar social trends, it starts meaningfully, but then it gradually gets emptied, coopted by big mainstream entertainment industry, and also by bad actors on an individual level. So instead of real empathy, you sometimes get empty hypertrophied performative "empathy" that, when combined with the self victimization, is used as a weapon that can be quite powerful.
This is new, at least to some degree. I'm quite sure we could find some historical parallels for it as well, but it is quite strongly shaped by the ways in which our communication changed on the internet and probably other coincidental changes in our society that happened in the last two or three decades.
The opressor claiming they were the victim of provocation and that they are the victim of their own behaviours is a very, very old trope. I would go as far as saying it is one of the basic human...
The opressor claiming they were the victim of provocation and that they are the victim of their own behaviours is a very, very old trope.
I would go as far as saying it is one of the basic human behaviours. We always judge ourselves by our intentions (and how we want to be, regardless of how we actually are), and judge others by impact.
That's not to say there aren't people that are fully able to admit fault etc but the aggressor claiming they are the victim is hardly a new concept. Not even in literature.
The people such writings will reach are often the people that are already in a position to live life in a way that doesn't promote self-victimisation to begin with.
I am overly pessimistic about the impact of such work, but not blind to the fact that it does work. Just maybe not to the extent some people hope.
In my opinion the thing that makes the current wave of self-victimising in order to gain social power different (not necessarily worse), or said differently what makes it into "a wave" that arised above what was the norm before, are broader cultural trends which started for different reasons. Specifically the fact that according to some people, we live in a time of "late stage empathy".
These broad trends are more visible if you look at pop culture. A good example of a different time with a different cultural "vibe" is Kurt Cobain - one of his big features was cynicism about the world and refusal of many trends of that time. But this was not just Cobain, this was a thing at that time period, growing through art and culture of different kinds. After that, mainstream (but not completely ideologically empty) art gradually shifted from this rebellious phase into placing focus on maximum apparent honesty and personal authenticity. And that slowly naturally evolved into empathy, which gave rise to a new wave of feminism and other social justice movements that we now know very well, among other things.
However, as it happens with almost all similar social trends, it starts meaningfully, but then it gradually gets emptied, coopted by big mainstream entertainment industry, and also by bad actors on an individual level. So instead of real empathy, you sometimes get empty hypertrophied performative "empathy" that, when combined with the self victimization, is used as a weapon that can be quite powerful.
This is new, at least to some degree. I'm quite sure we could find some historical parallels for it as well, but it is quite strongly shaped by the ways in which our communication changed on the internet and probably other coincidental changes in our society that happened in the last two or three decades.
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The opressor claiming they were the victim of provocation and that they are the victim of their own behaviours is a very, very old trope.
I would go as far as saying it is one of the basic human behaviours. We always judge ourselves by our intentions (and how we want to be, regardless of how we actually are), and judge others by impact.
That's not to say there aren't people that are fully able to admit fault etc but the aggressor claiming they are the victim is hardly a new concept. Not even in literature.
The people such writings will reach are often the people that are already in a position to live life in a way that doesn't promote self-victimisation to begin with.
I am overly pessimistic about the impact of such work, but not blind to the fact that it does work. Just maybe not to the extent some people hope.
Anyone with more knowledge or understanding of slave/master dialectic would probably have some interesting insights here