In psychology, there’s a phrase known as, “Blaming the Victim.”
Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially responsible for the harm that befell them. For example, there is a greater tendency to blame victims of rape than victims of robbery in cases where victims and perpetrators know one another.
You cannot be both a victim, and a victimizer, at the same time. It’s logically contradictory to blame the victim for a crime – either totally, or in part.
It’s also unjust.
Here’s an example of blaming the victim, provided by Hillary Clinton:
“[Donald Trump] is becoming ISIS’ biggest recruiter,” Clinton said at Saturday evening’s Democratic debate in New Hampshire. “They are showing videos of Donald Trump” as propaganda.
Wait a minute. ISIS recruiters urged the killing of Americans long before Donald Trump became a presidential candidate.
ISIS recruiters could just as plausibly show pictures of Thomas Jefferson, or George Washington, as videos of Donald Trump. These men supported individualism and separation of church and state, ideas which make advocates of Islam, really, really enraged.
They could post remarks made by Winston Churchill who, long before he became Prime Minister of Great Britain, described Islam as a “retrograde force,” and a “fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog.”
If they did so, would this mean Thomas Jefferson and Winston Churchill are responsible for recruiting more members of ISIS?
Or is ISIS, and the individuals who willingly join that group, responsible for ISIS?
Hillary Clinton blames the victims. She’s shifting responsibility away from ISIS and Islam, and placing the blame on people like Donald Trump, who speak out against them.
Clinton said that America’s priority should be “making sure that Muslim-Americans don’t feel left out and marginalized right at the moment when we need their help.”
Why is it the obligation of Christians, atheists, agnostics, Jews, Buddhists and anyone else who is not Muslim to take responsibility for the unspecified emotional needs of Muslims?
“We have to reach out to Muslims and say, ‘You are not our adversary. You are our partner.’”
Partner in what? At present, the United States does nothing to fight ISIS, nothing with any remote chance of succeeding.
Where are the peace-loving Muslims, with whom we’re to “partner?”
If such existed, they would not be offended by Donald Trump. They’d say, “He’s right. We don’t want these violence-loving Muslims anywhere near us. Keep them away from America.” And out of self-interest alone, they’d let the world know that they don’t agree with these terrorists about anything.
Where are they?
Hillary Clinton has set up a straw man, only in reverse. She makes up these nonexistent, mass movements of Muslims who oppose ISIS. She says that for their sake, we must refrain from criticizing Islam. We never hear a peep out of any of them. Yet it’s on this basis that we’re to surrender our national security and right to self-defense.
Insanity. In a pantsuit.
You can rail against “racism” all you want. But Islam is a religious ideology with a decisive political component. It’s a choice. You are not born with an ideological view; you choose it.
You can rail against “hatred” all you want. But Islam is the # 1 force for hatred in the world today. Its advocates preach hatred against anyone who disagrees with the ideology, and calls for their death and destruction.
If anybody knows of an Islamic movement preaching tolerance, rationality, individualism and separation of church and state, please tell me all about it.
“Mr. Trump has a great capacity to use bluster and bigotry to inflame people” Clinton said.
What about 9/11? Paris? San Bernardino?
Aren’t those events inflammatory?
How could Donald Trump’s bluster come even close to the bigotry of anti-gay, anti-woman and Holocaust-denying mullahs who seek to wipe Israel off the face of the map?
Many conservatives blame the victim just as much. It’s Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but it’s also Lindsay Graham, Jeb Bush and some of the other Republican candidates.
Ultimately, the problem lies with Americans who keep electing these people.
The next time there’s a terrorist event, I don’t want to hear the cries and the questions of, “Why? How could it happen?”
So long as we endorse politicians who blame the victims, then we’re participating in our own destruction.
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