What is your victim status?

originally posted by: Benevolent Heretic

originally posted by: TheLaughingGod
it's about an ideology and set of beliefs that are based on victimhood. We're talking about excessive political correctness and cultural Marxism.

If the OP had been as up front and honest about the topic as you were, then I would have immediately understood and moved on, because I'm just not interested. But as it was, the OP was very general and I wasn't at all sure what they were talking about. Only when the OP posted a link, did I become aware of the topic.

I skimmed the rest of your post, but it sounds like a bunch of white male victim speak, which I'm not really interested in.

I'm not trying to decry anyone's point of view, or slam anyone for their political, religious or social beliefs. I wish you refrain from believing that TheLaughingGod is stating something I'm trying to hide. I have clearly stated the purpose of this post. I'm not trying to further my own personal agenda or anything like that. I don't do that. Here or anywhere.I was asking a couple of honest questions that I wish to know the answers to. I simply want to understand an issue that seems to be growing in our society. I'm sorry if my desire to educate myself offends you, but that is all its about. Not everyone has a hidden agenda, Benevolent Heretic. Sometimes you actually get exactly what you see.

originally posted by: Benevolent Heretic

originally posted by: redhorse
Pfishy is pfishin...

I wonder what he'll catch?

He caught me in his net... But I got away... LOL!

Lol.

originally posted by: Portsfour

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: pfishy

Nope. Not a victim.

Ahhh! You have been charged with fishing without a liscence on ATS sir! HOW DO U. PLEA?

Well, if asking an honest question in an attempt to educate myself is a crime, then I'm guilty as it gets.

Are we really going to have this "I'm more of a victim that YOU!" pissing contest?

And then people wonder why I've checked out of humanity as a whole. My inner hikikomori is patting me on the back right now, nodding sagely and saying "You were right. Never go outside again."

originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
Are we really going to have this "I'm more of a victim that YOU!" pissing contest?

And then people wonder why I've checked out of humanity as a whole. My inner hikikomori is patting me on the back right now, nodding sagely and saying "You were right. Never go outside again."

I was concerned about that happening when I created this thread, but I am still hoping to be able get some real, honest information from it.

a reply to: pfishy

I'm a Native American/Scottish (Basically White) girl living in Japan.

I won't say I'm a victim of anything, because I'm not. You're only a victim if you allow yourself to be one. Do people mutter "worthless gaijin" under their breath when they see me? Sometimes. I'll always be "Gaijin" to some people here. I don't let it be who I am. And man when I politely tell them I live and work here in perfect Japanese, do they stumble ALL over themselves apologizing. It's delicious.

Have I been groped on the train? Yep. Only once, and I broke his hand. He still rides the same train as me every morning when I get off work, but he's never bothered me since. He won't even look at me.

a reply to: pfishy

I am not a victim. I refuse to be a victim.

I think society has gone over the deep end with all this victimization. It's ridiculous.

I will always work to look at things from a position of strength. Nobody forced me to go on depression medication. That was a choice I made. Going off them has been difficult, but I will overcome and be strong.

I've been raped. It was a horrendous experience, but I refuse to be a victim. Karma got the sob who raped me.

Victimization is an attitude. I will keep my attitude strong.

a reply to: ChiefD

Yes, but I'm sure you can see the allure of being a victim. If you can claim victim status, then you can always blame your own shortfalls on something else without taking responsibility. If you didn't get that job, it wasn't because you weren't the best applicant, it was because you were (insert victim group here). Then instead of owning that you might have some real work to do on yourself because work is hard, you can just sit back, whine and make someone else hand you something you never earned to begin with.

a reply to: pfishy

What is your victim status?

I'm struggling to think of any part of my life which could attract a victim label.

I'm self employed and work when I want to. If I don't like someone I will not provide my services to them.
Could've worked last weekend for a guy, £300 cash for no more than 10 hours work, turned it down because I think the guy is a prick, passed it on to a mate who I know needs the money.

I'm white, living in a 98% white area, at the last census.
My police area (Devon and Cornwall constabulary) is vastly outnumbered by citizens and they mostly only carry batons so they are nearly always friendly because they know they cannot get away with even the hint of oppression. Hell, they even take help from us citizens whenever it all kicks off.
I'm a heterosexual male, no sex/gender discrimination I've ever been aware of.
I'm fit and healthy so no disability discrimination.
I'm an agnostic atheist, so maybe some rabid believers of [insert religion] may discriminate against me but I couldn't care less as I do not rely on people of faith to provide for whatever I need and want in life.

Perhaps, at a stretch, as I am a republic seeking anti-monarchist, I could consider myself a victim of being born in a constitutional monarchy which means neither I, or my offspring can never aspire to be head of state due to accident of birth.
That would be silly of course though, the Crown holds no real 'power' anymore so I don't really care about the issue to campaign in any stronger fashion than moaning about it on ATS once in a while.

Nope, I can't think of anything to consider myself in any way a victim.
Sympathies to anyone who does, but even when I've been at the lowest points in my life, such as months sleeping rough when I was a teenager, I still didn't think of myself as a victim, just someone with a mission to beat out the best path I can in life.

The day I think of myself as a victim of anything is the day I have lost any sense of personal responsibility and belief in myself.
No thanks.

This thread is turning out awesome!

Usually on here everyone's a victim of everyone else, the system and the systems dog and feel they should be identified as such and be duly accommodated/recieve special treatment.

Waydago all the posters above who don't see themselves as victims. Yeah we've had bad experiences but we ain't victims!!

a reply to: pfishy

I like the name VPN in the IT world.

I call it the Victimizing People Network......all these websites we visit and # we download give others that feel controlled by bigger control $y$tems within society a chance to purge and to pretend they are part of something larger.

VPN= Start getting all sort of Uverse (phone line) call spam scams and fishers. Wonder how they know where Im at? (easy its called a dumb phone and ip) So not only do we have criminals victimizing us, we have vigilante gangstalker criminals victimizing us who they deem as undesirables within the pecking order.

Thus we have 3 groups of Bully Victimizers
1, LAW-Military- Government-religions-Academia
2, IT-DotCom, Hackers, Crackers, Media entrainment beLIEf programming
3. Street Thugs-gangs, drug dealers, drug users, bubbafied white-tra$h looking for extra cash, and the well connected that get a little cocky because they know a big influential fi$h.


I'm a real threat because I don't fit anywhere---reason i gave you a 7000 year head start to make it fair and I wanted to show you that strength in numbers is an illusion. Lone Rangeristics always wins in the end. Look at Jesus or Yeshua. The guy definitely was not Jewish Christian Muslim or Pagan. He broke the mold and still to this day is more powerful than armies, technologies, religions, or strength in numbers. We do not require elaborate teams, organizations with power, or advanced technologies, or hidden spiritual knowledge to watch the watchers of this very tiny universe. One of trillions I might add.

Ok, so apparently no one who has cared to reply so far identifies with a victim status. How about experiencing microaggressions then?

a reply to: pfishy maybe you could give us an example of what your after? Why you being so cagey in what your really getting at here?

originally posted by: pfishy
Ok, so apparently no one who has cared to reply so far identifies with a victim status. How about experiencing microaggressions then?

Technically, all it takes for you to be a victim of a microagression is for something to have happened that made you feel bad or uncomfortable.

In that sense, given what this site is and the types of discussion we have, we've all likely been the victims of a microaggression at some point or other if we cared to keep track of it.

a reply to: ketsuko

Being defined as such, I suppose you are absolutely correct. But has anyone truly been adversely affected by this? And is it used in context with such a generalized meaning?
In other words, citing an example, is being a minority student in a predominantly caucasian classroom truly a dangerous microaggression? (Yes, that was described as a dangerous microaggression in a lecture I recently watched)

a reply to: pfishy

Microaggressions?!
Urm...okay, I'm a Welsh bloke who has lived longer in England than Wales now.
I've faced aggression from bigoted folk over the years, and I face daily pisstake about being Welsh, mostly as banter, but occasionally I know there is obviously 'micro-aggression' behind it.
...'Welsh twat', 'Sheep shagger', 'Itinerant migrant worker', 'Where's your work visa?', '# off back to the valleys' blah you name it, I've been called it and I've given back just as firmly, or in laughter as jest.

Do I care? no, even with those usually uneducated folk who don't like me because I'm Welsh, I'm a strong person and either make them look silly with a good line back at them, or just outright ask them if they wish to move on to actual physical violence instead of bating around the bush with the insults.
If it is banter though then yep, bring it on I say, I love the laugh at work or the pub, when there is no ill feeling behind it, and I give it back.

But micro-aggression? Really?
Is this the new thing that means one day we will never be able to take the piss out of each other for fear of hurting feelings? What a bland society that would be, almost as false as those 'greeters' at superstore entrances in the US.
Some of the most serious issues between males in my society are confronted through piss-take and humour, especially over a drink. If the UK ever becomes that bland world of fake politeness that US media portrays as the norm, then it will be a sad day in my mind.

...when Walmart bought Asda in the UK they started with those fake smiling polite 'greeters' and most people laughed at it as a stupid false US thing. They were withdrawn from every store near me. We don't tend to do fake polite in the UK, and I hope we never start.

I'm sorry if that last post sounded judgemental. I didn't intend it to be. I'm just a bit incredulous at the concept if indeed that's all that word means.
Anyone have any experience with this?

a reply to: grainofsand

You have no idea how far round the bend it's gotten.

a reply to: grainofsand

Thank you. That was an honest perspective, and that's pretty much how I see it as relating to real life. But it's being pushed as a major problem in some places. And that's what I don't understand.

originally posted by: pfishy
I'm sorry if that last post sounded judgemental. I didn't intend it to be. I'm just a bit incredulous at the concept if indeed that's all that word means.
Anyone have any experience with this?

My husband works in corporate America. The key for Human Resources is impact v. intent. Meaning it doesn't matter what you intended with what you said or did. What matters is the impact it had.

At UCLA, a professor was using the Chicago Style Manual to grade his students' work and the student capped Indigenous which should be lowercased. So the professor marked it, and the student called it a microaggression because he felt the professor was denigrating the important of indigenous groups.

That's how it works.

Sue has been researching microaggression since 2007 and has written two books on the subject. According to him, the person delivering the microaggression often does not know he’s doing it and might even think he is complimenting the other individual. “When you try to bring the issue of microaggressions to the attention of people who are completely unaware that they have delivered a microaggression, they get defensive and deny it and tend to say that you’re being paranoid or you’re being oversensitive,” Sue tells me. “Many microaggressions are so subtle that neither target nor perpetrator may entirely understand what is going on.” According to Sue, there are many types of microaggressions, based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any other factor that can make a group “socially marginalized.” These microaggressions can be expressed verbally (as with the white and Asian students), nonverbally (as with a woman clutching her purse when a black man walks by), and environmentally (as with an educational curriculum containing few books by female authors).

And it can be this subtle, you are in math class, and the you ask the guy next to you for help. It's pretty normal and natural. Right?

Now, let's assume you are white and he is Asian.

Uh-oh, you just made him feel uncomfortable. Why did you ask him for help? What it because you stereotyped him because he was Asian? I mean, everyone knows all Asians are good at math, right?

Congrats! You are now guilty of microaggression, and all you did was ask the guy next to you for help. And because he has a problem; it's your fault. See how that works?