No End to the Victim Narrative

February 1, 2023

If anyone thought that the culture of the black victim was reaching its sell-by date — after Rodney King, after Trayvon Martin, after Michael Brown, after Philando Castile, after George Floyd — well, obviously we were wrong.

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Because in the beating death of Tyre Nichols — in which five black policemen are accused of murder – we can see that the cult of the dead black victim is not going to go away. Not yet. It doesn’t matter that, this time, it wasn’t a racist white policeman that did it. The weeping dead man’s family, the mostly peaceful protests, the helpful intervention of attorney Benjamin Crump: it doesn’t need to be choreographed, because everyone knows their part in Victim Theater. For all the worĺd’s a stage/And all the men and women merely players…

And then, enter stage left, the regime media, right on cue. WaPo: “Black Memphis police spark dialogue on systemic racism in the US.”

Earth to liberals. If there is systemic racism in the U.S., you did it. Know why? Because nobody but a union liberal is allowed to teach in the nation’s schools; nobody but a liberal is allowed to teach in the nation’s universities. Nobody but a liberal is allowed to work in the “regime media.” Yet everything that’s wrong with America is because of systemic racism. Even though you liberals have ruled us for over a century.

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But you liberals — and only you — are fighting for the Victims. Against the Oppressors. Under your regime, Victim Narratives are the most important thing in the world, and you — only you — are fighting for the Victims.

Don’t doubt me on this, as St. Rush used to say. And the proof is that there are three victim museums on the National Mall in Washington D.C. There’s the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

But not all Victim Narratives are equal in these United States. Oh no.

For there is something missing on the Mall, and it is an omission that speaks of a systemic bigotry that runs like a sewer through the American ruling class. Because not all Victims are equal.

There is no World Museum of White Trash History and Culture. And right now would be a good time to build one, what with the white working class dying of despair and homelessness and fentanyl.

You know what I think? I think that the murder of Tyre Nichols was a consequence of ruling class systemic racism against White Trash. Prove me wrong, geniuses.

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Did you know that the first shipful of White Trash arrived off Virginia in 1584? You didn’t? I wonder why. Of course, they didn’t call them White Trash in those days: merely “waste population,” Marx’s “useless retainers,” people no longer needed for working the farms of England, what with “improvement” and all. And then 400 years of pejoratives, from Waste People to Lubberland, to Rubbish and Crackers and Squatters. Then you had Northern Mudsills and Southern Trash in the Civil War, Hillbillies and Bastard Stock at the turn of the 20th century, and the Okies of the Great Depression. All this from Nancy Isenberg’s White Trash. Today we sneer at Rednecks and Bitter Clingers. And nobody gives a damn.

Of course, the Jews are the world champs in this Culture of Victimhood: the Flight from Egypt, the Babylon Captivity, the Maccabean rebellion, Masada, the expulsions from Rome, from England, from Spain after the reconquista, the Pale, the pogroms in Kiev, Warsaw and Odessa; Kristallnacht, the Holocaust.

Obviously, the memory of these horrors has maintained Jewish cultural cohesion and identity down the centuries.

It works both ways, of course. Keeping the memory of sufferings alive holds together what Taleb calls “an intransigent small minority.” But an identifiable small minority is also vulnerable to the political needs of aspiring politicians, because the easiest way to unite a nation is to make some small minority into the enemy. (Word to the wise, Adolf: Don’t Invade Russia).

But does the Victim Narrative work for anyone but the Jews? Back in the day the Victim Narrative featured the working class: satanic mills and all that. Then the Victim Narrative featured women against the patriarchy. Hey TERFs! How yer doin’, girls? Then the Victim Narrative featured blacks. And now the Victim Narrative features transgenders.

Do you know what all the Victim Narratives have in common, except the Jews-as-Victims Narrative? They are all gussied up by our rulers, the white Educated Class, as a power play. If blacks-as-victims suits the ruling class, then go for it, Benjamin Crump. But, one fine day, the ruling class will move on, for reasons of state. And any objection will be censored on social media as disinformation by Russian bots.

Don’t doubt me on this.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.

Image: Tim Pierce

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