Justifying Violence through Victimhood

Victimhood as a game of chicken and egg

“Woke means calling everything you wish to control oppressive until you control it.” James Lindsay

With the backdrop of war in the Middle East breaking out Saturday, October 7, between Israel and the Iranian-backed terrorist organization, Hamas of Palestine, I'm introducing a third piece about the role of victimhood as it relates to narcissism.

As narcissism is an organizing and explanatory principle governing our lives, even and especially in extreme cases such as war, narcissism and its close ally, victimhood, are yet again in the mix as a major consideration for determining one's thoughts or allegiances around this war.

There is an emerging school of thought that suggests that China colluded with Iran and Saudi Arabia to back Hamas against Israel and the United States, which is troubling in view of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their bid for world domination and oppression. China is America's number one international threat, not only from a Communist and therefore woke perspective but over Taiwan and its fragile democracy.

Many of the Social Justice Warrior (SJW) battles on social media are emanating from the woke far left espousing support for Hamas as justified, owing to the Palestinian history of Israeli occupation and oppression of Gaza. The question is coming down to whether Palestine or Israel is the rightful victim. Is Hamas in the right because Palestine has been victimized by Israel? Or is Israel the aggrieved country, having suffered a terrorist attack?

Here we get into chicken and egg considerations. One of my yoga philosophy teachers from back in the day over a decade ago taught that seeking justice, or restorative justice, was a futile and counterproductive aim given that retaliation and retribution would always be just around the corner, and thus, violence would self-perpetuate. It was better in essence, to borrow a Christian phrase, turn the other cheek. Given that there is a Venn diagram overlap of SJWs and yogis, this teaching was met with consternation, if not downright hostility. In essence, I believe my teacher was imparting that victimhood lays the groundwork for vicious feedback loops of self-perpetuating violence.

Support of Hamas on the woke far left has emerged as an inflection point significant enough to chip away at wokeism’s hold over America. Tracking public sentiment in the last few days, it has been palpable, the tidal wave of backlash, from both the left and right, against what many still perceive to be the fringe minority of the left, though in my opinion has long since metastasized as the woke-left dominates our institutions, including the media, universities, and corporations through for example, DEI, CRT, SEL, all oppressive programs dressed up as liberating.

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It appears that applying theoretics to real life is not popular. Decolonization, when an abstract theory sounds good on paper to many and becomes another thing entirely when it involves bloodshed. As the narcissist knows all too well, fantasy is more enticing than reality.

Understanding the mechanics of victimhood is central to understanding narcissism. Narcissism is marked by alloplastic defenses (“It's everybody's else fault, never mine.”) and an external locus of control. In other words, owing to alloplastic defenses, narcissistic victims blame other people for their defeats, failures, misfortunes, and mishaps and never take accountability. Having an external locus of control means that a victim (or narcissist) outsources his agency to others; think cult member in the case of a bona fide victim or in the case of a narcissist, he outsources ego functions to others. A narcissist believes himself to be a chronic victim and is in a perpetual state of seeking narcissistic supply (attention) to buttress his False Self. The narcissist obtains this narcissistic supply by psychologically and otherwise predating on others and thus, has an external locus of control much like a vampire.

No matter what side you stand on, and I stand with Israel, a contemplation of victimhood is called for to help understand and make sense of this tragic war. As such, I have assembled pull quotes from my teacher on narcissism, Sam Vaknin from a two-part 6-hour compilation video series on victimhood that he published in the last week on YouTube. The first video in this series involves my interview with Prof. Vaknin and his conversation with journalist/author, Michael Shellenberger.

The subject of victimhood as it presents in narcissistic identity politics is profound and topical, and since it is the most popular subject I've covered yet on Concerning Narcissism, it deserves a deeper dive.

Overview: Definition of a Victim

Source material

Real victims occupy reality. They are alert and aware of nuances. They have dignity. They seek resolution and real solutions. They accept responsibility for their contributions to their own predicament. They learn lessons. They modify their behaviors. They grow. They evolve. They learn.

That you have been victimized doesn't make you a victim. That you have been victimized doesn't even make you a survivor. You have gone through an experience and there are many types of experiences, so unless the abuse is protracted, long-term, all-pervasive, unless the abuse is egregious, you're not a survivor and you're not a victim.

You have someone who has had a bad experience. Victimhood is an identity. To define yourself via an event of having been victimized or even to define yourself via a relationship in which you have experienced having been victimized is not helpful. It retards growth, healing, and recovery, and prevents you from moving on.

Victimhood identity resembles very much narcissism and in this sense, it's pathological.

You would do well to recall your abuse, never forget, and depending on the severity of the abuse, never forgive. But one thing you should never ever do is adopt the abuse as a defining parameter and dimension of who you are, of your personality, and let the abuse dictate your future, because that would be perpetuating the abuse.

That's exactly what the abuser wanted to do, wanted to accomplish. You'd be handing the abuser a victory, a triumph. You would be keeping the abuser, preserving the abuser in your life, the abuser's voice, the abuser's judgment of you, the abuser's agenda, and the abuser's actions to realize, actualize, and materialize this agenda.

Don't do this to yourself. Don't become an accessory after the fact with the abuser. Don't become an accomplice. Don't continue to self-abuse, having been abused by someone else. Don't continue to self-victimize, having been victimized. by your abuser.

Abuse creates victims, but victimhood is not about actual abuse. It's not about specific events. Victimhood is an organizing principle of reality. It imbues your life with a sense of purpose. makes sense of life, gives it meaning, and provides you with a purpose and a direction. And in this sense, it constricts your life, it limits it, restricts it.

It doesn't allow you to exit this self-imputed image and self-perception as a victim. It defines not only who you are, but what you can and cannot do, what rights you have, and what obligations. It becomes a straitjacket, a prison cell, don't do this to yourself. The best way to move on, recover, and heal is to shed this skin, dismantle victimhood, and reclaim your autonomy, your personal independence, and your agency.

Pull Quotes

Source material

The majority of social activists and political activists are mentally ill. Many of them, if not the bulk of them, are dark triad personalities, exhibiting a trio of subclinical narcissism, subclinical psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Quite a few of them are sadists as well and qualify for the dark tetrad.

Social activism movements, social justice movements, and political movements have always been hijacked by narcissists and psychopaths throughout human history. Nazism is a prime example of a victimhood movement hijacked by a psychopath. So is communism, and so to a large extent is capitalism.

Victimhood as an identity is a relatively new phenomenon, about 150 to 200 years old. Nationalism in all its forms in the 19th century was founded on victimhood.

Victimhood as an identity is a new thing. And now we have a malignant development of this, competitive victimhood. Victims compete with each other for the title of “I am the greatest victim ever!”

All the mainstream media, all the streaming platforms such as YouTube, LinkedIn…throughout social media, victimhood movements are in control of all these platforms.

If you dare to criticize victimhood movements, confront them with facts and studies, or disagree with them, they punish you. They punish you viciously, severely, vindictively. They cancel you. They ostracize you. They make other people shun you. They go on smear campaigns.

Victimhood movements, small and big…a victimhood movement can be comprised of 10 people can be comprised of 10 million people, but all of them have one thing in common: they use narcissistic and psychopathic techniques and methods, and they are sadistically punitive, unforgiving and vindictive.

The study links virtue signaling to dark triad traits. Virtue signaling simply means an insincere, fake, feigned signaling of an underlying virtue, virtuous behavior, or a virtuous belief system or value system.

Virtuous signalers are phonies. They're show-offs. They adopt opinions and postures in order to garner praise and sympathy to extract narcissistic supply. In short, they are either narcissistic in the best case or outright narcissists in the worst. They need everyone to see just how good they are.

They are self-appointed, no one has elected them to office, no one has told them to take on the assignment of the administration of justice, but they are the equivalent of vigilantes and they operate within a culture that says that victimhood confers a right. And so rights confer obligations and duties on other people.

If I have a right, you have a duty towards me. If I possess some kind of right, you have an obligation towards me. Rights and obligations are two sides of the same coin. So, victimhood movements are entitled. They are demanding. Victims have discovered that victimhood empowers. Many of them have also discovered the financial benefits of victimhood.

Victims have monopolized the public discourse and the global dialogue because they have a right to speak up and you don't have a right to respond.

You don't have a right to respond because you are all bad. You are evil. You are the abuser or the descendant of the abuser, or somehow connected to the abuser. Or you could have been the abuser by virtue of your skin color, your education, or the place you were born in. You are tarred with a wide brush as an abuser, as a perpetrator, and from that moment on, you should keep silent.

And if you dare to speak up, you are continuing to perpetuate and perpetrate the abuse, and you should be punished for that, either in the public sphere, in the public arena, or even criminally and legally. So victimhood movements have co-opted the levels of power. Victimhood movements have now merged and fused with power structures.

They have become the system. It's a system of victimhood. And having thus been empowered, victims are abusing their power rampantly. Look at the MeToo movement, for example.

And it's a very sick world we live in because social activists and political activists are mostly mentally ill. Many of them are narcissists and psychopaths. The insane took over the asylum. Narcissists and psychopaths pretend to be moral, ethical, upright, honest, and benevolent, but deep inside they're just narcissists and psychopaths. And now they're using the levers of power to subjugate and penalize everyone who dares to confront them, to challenge them, to undermine them, or to suggest an alternative.

Psychopathic, manipulative, and narcissistic people are more frequent signalers of virtuous victimhood. They are competitive victims. Dark triad personality traits lead to characteristics like self-promotion, emotional callousness, duplicity, and a tendency to take advantage of others.

The dark triad traits were significant predictors. Oh, virtuous victim signaling! I can't tell you how terrifying these few words are. What it means is that we have been transitioning from the age of dignity to the age of victimhood, and I'm now quoting the famous sociologist, Campbell, as we have transitioned into the age of victimhood, narcissists, and psychopaths, who took advantage of this transition, compromised the new power structures, pretended to be victims, and many of them do believe that they are victims because narcissists have alloplastic defenses and an external locus of control. In other words, they blame other people for their defeats and failures and misfortune and mishaps.

Virtue signaling is defined as the conspicuous expression of moral values done primarily with the intent of enhancing one's standing within a social group.

Victim signaling may be used as a social influence tactic that can motivate recipients of the signal to voluntarily transfer resources to the signaler. This is absolutely shocking. Victimhood is the organizing principle of today's society. Victimhood is the explanatory principle of today's world.

It imbues the world with meaning, and makes sense of reality—Victimhood is the new religion, together with narcissism and narcissists consider themselves as victims. Narcissism is a victimhood movement, and so we are at the mercy of narcissists and psychopaths masquerading as moral virtuous victims, codependent people pleasers, healers, rescuers, saviors, many of them are online as coaches, self-styled experts, you name it.

This is a dangerous situation and there's an emerging literature on what is called competitive victimhood and it deals with the prevalence of victim signaling by various social groups. There is evidence that victim signaling carries some benefits. It's a functionality. It's a resource extraction strategy. This is a war for money, for power, for fame and celebrity. Today, the more victimized you are, the more of a victim you are. The more your identity is that of a victim, the more public exposure you gain. The more likely are you to have access to the media, the more money you are likely to make.

And that is why on YouTube, there is a group of unscrupulous immoral individuals with and without academic degrees who make a living out of perpetuating victimhood because there's a lot of money in it. Victimhood has become a cottage industry. Victims, victim signaling justifies victim groups seeking retribution against alleged abusers and oppressors. This is true on the collective level and it's big it's true on the individual level. Victims feel totally entitled to behave immorally and even criminally in the pursuit of what they call justice. What kind of justice? The justice they decide on. They are the law. Retribution takes the form of demanding compensation through some kind of resource transfer from non-victims.

Alleged victims claiming victim status can facilitate resource transfer by conferring moral immunity on the claimant and the complainant. It's an interesting kind of transactional landscape. All you have to do is claim victimhood of some kind: ageism, ableism, sexism, racism, anti-semitism, any -ism goes. Just identify your slot and claim your prize. Moral immunity shields the alleged victim from criticism about the means they might use to satisfy their demands. The minute you identify as a victim, you are beyond reproach. Anything you do is morally justified in the pursuit of restoring justice and balance. Your justice and your balance. You can act criminally, you can act immorally, you can act unethically, and it's all okay because you're doing these things as a victim—Victimhood Identity. Your victimhood stance is therefore a shield, a protection, a defense against the repercussions and consequences of your own actions. No wonder narcissists and psychopaths find victimhood irresistible. Victim status can morally justify the use of deceit, intimidation, bullying, criminal conspiracies, violence, verbal and otherwise, against alleged abusers, perpetrators, and oppressors. In the pursuit of accomplishing their goals, victims are entitled to behave in any way they choose. They are above and beyond the law. They are the law.

This is lynching. We're in an era of all-pervasive, massive lynching of men by women in the wake of the MeToo movement, lynching of whites by people of color, lynching of oppressors, alleged oppressors, descendants of oppressors, could have been oppressors, by wannabe victims, fake victims, and above all narcissists and psychopaths.

Claiming a victim status can lead observers to hold a person less blameworthy, to excuse transgressions. The victim has a monopoly on the right kind of speech, and any other speech is castigated and chastised as evil and dark and backward and reactionary and wrong. It's a small step from this to criminalizing speech, and we are not far from that. A lot of speech is already being criminalized. There's self-censorship, there's political correctness. There is an absolute fear to speak up. A person who has psychological standing can reject or ignore any objections by non-victims to the unreasonable demands of the victims. If you're a victim, you don't have to listen to the other party, to the other side. You're automatically in the right. Justice is on your side. “Gott mit uns”/God is with us. Do you know whose slogan this was? The SS. Gott mit uns was carved on the knives of the SS. God is with us.

Nazi belt buckle justifying violence with the slogan “Gott mit uns”/God is with us

Moral immunity and morality plays have become the only forms of morality. Deflection of blame has become the only way to blame. Guilt has been expunged. Victims never feel guilt. Whatever they may do, and many of them do horrible things, they never feel guilty.

A perceived victim signals others to transfer resources to a victim, but the motivation to do so is amplified when the victim signal is paired with a virtue signal. People high in the dark triad traits emit the dual signal more frequently.

Casting yourself as the victim today is a suspect activity because narcissists and psychopaths are doing all these things.

We have transitioned from all this to a world where everyone competes to be a victim. Why? Because victimhood pays. Victimhood has become a cottage industry and has been invaded by mentally ill people. Narcissists. Psychopaths. These movements, which started off as legitimate social justice movements, have been hijacked and altered beyond recognition.

When you identify other people as oppressors, abusers, or perpetrators, you give yourself license to behave as one. When you cast other people as criminals, you then feel totally justified in behaving as a criminal or behaving criminally. It's as if, the minute you cast yourself as a victim, morality flies out the window, and you're entitled to do anything and everything you wish to your heart's content.

This is sick. This is dangerous. This must stop. We must speak up. All of us must speak up against this phenomenon, but we are too terrified. We are afraid of losing tenure and our jobs, being shunned and canceled, and being prosecuted criminally. It's gone that far. As victims, erstwhile victims, attain positions of power, they bring their victimhood with them into the power structures, compromise the power structures and the institutions and render them long arms of psychopathic and narcissistic victimhood.

It is an untenable situation that is ripping apart the social fabric, generating gender wars, all-out wars actually between various interest groups, each one of whom, each one of which is claiming to be a victim. Identity politics is now conflated totally with victimhood. This is bad. This is what gave rise to Nazism. I repeat, this is what gave rise to Nazism, identity politics conflated with victimhood. If we don't want a repeat of the 1930s, we must stop right here and right now on the collective level.

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Service Announcement:

A year in the making, on Oct. 4th, Woke Psychopathology: a Taxonomy, which I contributed to with Sam Vaknin, Jordan Peterson, Peter Boghossian, Josh Slocum, and Christine Brophy was released! Out of hundreds of posts, this taxonomy is listed in Michael Shellenberger's Substack, Public’s top five most popular posts of all time.

Why This One Simple Chart Will End Wokeism

Resources:

Politics as Conspiracy- thoughts on the war in the Middle East by Sam Vaknin