Is there some sort of psychological explanation for the increasing phenomenon happening in the USA, in which bullies/oppressors cast themselves as "victims" of the groups they are persecuting? An example is a recent news story, in which a right-wing Christian said that gays were forcing Christians out of jobs as bakers, photographers, etc. But nothing of the sort happened. What did happen? Bakeries and photographers who refused to offer their services to gay couples getting married got sued under non-discrimination laws. But never did a bunch of gays come in and fire anyone from their job for being a straight conservative Christian. Whereas plenty of GLBT folks have been fired from jobs solely for being gay, or for marrying a member of the same sex. Not just in the Catholic church, but also some private businesses that insist that their retail stores or restaurants are "religious organizations." (Cough, Hobby Lobby, cough, Chick-Fil-A, cough) Another example is multimillionaire businessmen feeling "persecuted" because of movements to increase taxes on the wealthy to levels that prevailed before 1980. Again, they weren't confronted by an angry mob threatening to kill them. And while they have systematically moved jobs overseas and gotten away with reducing wages and benefits as much as possible for their employees, they cry foul when anyone works to make the system more equitable for workers? What's common between these stories is that the *bullies* are casting themselves as "victims" of the very people they seek to oppress! Does no one else even notice this is going on?
Homophobes being using this tactic for years. It is childish and pathetic. Being gay has no emotional/physical affect on them and they should mind their own business. They think gays are throwing their lifestyles on them while it is them that is making it an issue. It just a delusional mindset they get brainwashed into and it keeps playing like an broken record. Pretty soon as time goes on the record is gonna be broken for good and more people are leaving homophobic places and coming to our side. Why do you think the south is less populated and diverse now cause people are leaving and only right wing crazies win elections down there.
This attempt of an argument it's so idiotic I take it as an admission from the other party of their utter incapability to string coherent thoughts together and I just leave the discussion right there. If it ever reaches that point of straw-manning it's no longer a discussion anyway, it's trying to reason with a 5 yr. old shutting their ears and yelling "NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH." It's so shamelessly moronic that I can't even feel threatened by people raising this "point" since no one with half a brain (meaning: no one that matters) would ever take such a pitiful excuse of a rebuttal with any amount of seriousness. Let them make a fool of themselves, the only thing they succeed at whenever they try to make this a valid point is making it easier for me to point at them and tell the rest "Listen to that bullshit. Do you really wanna be on the same side as those morons?"
It's a false equivalence. It places the seriousness of the discomfort of the privileged at being challenged or deposed at an equal (for those just trolling to disrupt a discussion) or worse (the idiots and malicious bullies who can't stand being told not to bully) level compared to the bullying that inspired the challenge in the first place. An easy analogy to go back to is the French Revolution; conservative aristocrats in the first lot of executions (largely justified by the legal standards of the time) were mourned as unjust victims when they had spent their entire lives partying on the graves and labour of peasants and other labourers, using the money from their toil to fund the lavish lifestyles that stole desperately needed food from them. That's not to say there weren't excesses, but it deliberately ignores why they were there in the first place; deliberately depriving others of social respect and basic necessities. The only difference is that we're not stringing up homophobes and gay-bashers and murderers.
I once had a conversation with someone who said he hates gay people because they "complain and sue and ruin peoples lives all because someone didnt believe in homosexuality".
Ah yes. Reminds me of a similar one where someone said "the LGBT community is brutal". They haven't seen anything yet. :3
We'll show them. :badgrin: Bullies usually end up to be my victims when they bother me or my friends. So I could understand it on that notion... poor bullies...
Someone once posted a cartoon showing a man talking to a woman about how we love you despite you being a sinner so we systematically discriminate against you, etc, When she says he's an asshole, he's yells "Why are you so intolerant of my beliefs?" I wish I could find a link to that cartoon.
Haven't been seeing that crap happening a lot lately I wonder if this is the result of the narcissistic society that guy said that we were creating . Does anyone think maybe it's like narcissistic behavior at it's finest ? I once had a friend like this he would miss treat me and his other friends say shitting things to us and when we stood up to him he would play the victim he also did this to another guy as well . We always thought something was mentally wrong with him , he was just off . I always thought he was the type of person that would chop you into pieces and then say what did I do . I just think he's just a F:***: person .
But you don't understand, I wouldn't have had to punch them if they weren't nerdy! They forced me to do wrong and I'm the victim here!
Nobody cries victim louder than the bully just as nobody screams about being poor louder than those with wealth in their pockets.
When I read the thread title, I thought this was going to be about bullies who bully, because they themselves are/have been bullied by third parties. Because those do exist. Reading the OP though, those people are just genuinge jerks.
'I want to be able to keep holding my outdated homophobic beliefs because FREEDOM OF SPEECH and if anyone tells me I'm not allowed to say these offensive things anymore, I'm going to throw a tantrum and campaign to have more billboards ERECTED'
