How is it that college campuses across America, who are bastions of liberalism, have become filled with so much anti-Israeli hate and pro-Palestinian activism? How can these students be so blind to the reality of the Middle East? The answer is victimhood. In our society, if you are able to paint yourself as the victim, then you are always right. And the Palestinians have done an unbelievable job portraying themselves as the victims in the conflict in the Middle East. When, in reality they are a primary cause of all of the wars and the killings in that part of the world. The Palestinians do not want peace. Several times over the years – 1993, 2000 and 2006 – Israel has offered them a two-state solution to bring peace to the region and Palestine has turned them down every single time. The Palestinians do not want peace; they want the destruction of the state of Israel. That is why they elected Hamas to run Gaza, yet, they continue to portray themselves as the victims of the wars that they create so they can weaponize their victimhood.
Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, targeting civilians – women, children and babies – and when Israel strikes them back, out of self-defense, attempting to destroy the group that just murdered 1400 Jews and is threatening to wipe Israel off the map, somehow the Palestinians, who elected these terrorists to run Gaza, have turned Israel’s justified response as another way to claim victimhood. And many in America and the rest of the Western world have sided with them because victimhood means almost everything. It carries the most weight. What would the reaction be if mobs of people in Israel chanted, “death to Palestine” and called for the destruction of all Palestinians from the “river to the sea” like the Palestinians do to Israel?
There are now calls for “proportionality” and a ceasefire in Gaza because Israel is in the process of destroying Hamas. That is how the game is played. Hamas launches an unprovoked attack on Israel, killing thousands of innocent Israelis. Israel strikes back, and starts destroying Hamas, and then there is an immediate call for ceasefire. Both sides go to the neutral corners while Hamas reloads. Two years from now, Hamas will attack Israel again, killing thousands of civilians, and we will do this over again. Would Hamas and the pro-Palestinians be calling for a ceasefire if Hamas was winning, dismantling the state of Israel? Of course not. There is no such thing as a cease fire with Hamas and Palestine. A ceasefire is merely giving Hamas time to prepare to launch their next attack on Israel. And we allow this to happen because Palestine is considered the victims.
The victim mentality can easily create very destructive behavior in people. In the movie, The Miracle Worker, Helen Keller, a 7-year-old deaf and blind girl, is allowed to run roughshod over her family – disrupting family meals, taking food off of other people’s plates, throwing food across the room, hitting and screaming – because her family feels sorry for her. They view her as a victim of her disabilities. When Anne Sullivan arrived to teach her, a battle of wills arose because Anne refused to allow Helen to get away with her destructive behavior. Helen screamed and cried in response. Helen’s family admonished Anne, “don’t you have pity for her?” To which, Anne replied, “Pity for this tyrant? The whole house runs on her whims. Is there anything that she wants that she doesn’t get?” The family’s pity for Helen’s victim status turned her into a monster.
Our empowerment of victimhood has created a legion of self-ascribed victims who are dictating and destroying our society. We saw that with George Floyd where victimhood became synonymous with Sainthood. The more you can portray yourself as a victim, the saintlier you become. George Floyd was no saint. George Floyd was a bad person. He went to prison for armed robbery, during which he took a loaded gun and pressed it into the belly of a pregnant woman, threatening to kill both the mother and her child. What level of evil does a person have to have to do something like that.
The day he died, George Floyd was in the process of committing a felony when he was arrested by the police, and also had enough fentanyl in his system to kill five people. But somehow, he is considered the victim, a saint. After he died, there were two funerals for him, and multiple memorial services across the country with some of the most famous and powerful people in the world in attendance. Were they there because George Floyd was actually a saint or even a good person? Of course not. They were there because he was portrayed in the media as a victim. And because we were told that George Floyd was a victim, tens of thousands of people were allowed to commit over 500 riots, destroying our major cities, and the same people who are siding with Palestine and Hamas, supported those riots, because victims are allowed to get away with anything.
Have you seen our major cities lately? The second biggest drug store chain in America, CVS is shutting down 900 stores due to the rampant, unfettered shoplifting that is allowed in Democrat-run cities. Other major retailers like, Target, Nordstrom and Whole Foods are following suit, shuttering dozens of their stores due to the uncontrolled theft that is allowed in this country. In Democrat controlled California, shoplifting is allowed up to $950. Why would all of that be allowed? Minorities, who commit the vast majority of the shoplifting offenses, are viewed as victims in our society, and if you are a victim, you can get away with whatever you want, even theft in broad daylight.
Our attitudes toward this victim mentality have changed over the last 30 to 40 years. There was a time when people never wanted to be seen as a victim. It was a sign of weakness; it was a sign of defeat, but now everybody is clamoring to be the victim because we have empowered and immunized victims in our society. So fake victims crop up everywhere. People who claim that words are violence. People who are supposedly hurt by so-called micro-aggressions. We are not allowed to offend anyone, anymore, and if you do, you will be censored on social media because you victimized someone. And their definition of offense is not limited to threats or name calling, if someone disagrees with you, they become offended, and your opinions will be taken down from social media. So, if you can portray yourself as a victim, you can leverage that to strip another person of their constitutional rights. Victimhood is such a destructive and defeating mentality. It is the exact opposite emotion of what you should have. It destroys people.
There are real victims in the world, but most of the people who are portraying themselves as victims are not real victims, they are just weak or scam artists, trying to weaponize or monetize their so-called victim status. The true victims rarely ever do that. True victims reject their victim status. They don’t want to be seen as a victim. And it is only when they refuse the victim status and reject your pity, that they become truly empowered.
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Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.