Yes, another post on this topic. You’re sick of it, I get it. But we actually spoke about it in our Workshop, so hey, why not.

I don’t feel I need to explain my views on victim culture because I’ve already talked about it at length on 90% my blog posts. You know why? Because it has taken over literally even single facet of life. But I probably will anyway…

The grand stage for victim culture is the reality television show, more specifically, one that is competitive-based. In our workshops, we discussed how shows such as The Voice, Masterchef, etc exploit contestants for their own ideological gain. But today, it isn’t just the shows, it’s also the contestants who always want their sob story acknowledged.

Any reality television competition:
Presenter/Judge: You’ve had a rough time haven’t you?
Contestant: Yeah, when I was 6 my father/mother/brother/sister died from cancer/a car accident/etc
OR
Yeah, I’ve had depression/cancer/etc for the last few years.
Presenter/Judge: You’re brave, you know that right?
*Contestant sings/cooks and defies the odds*
*Audience goes crazy*
*Judges start crying*
This is the greatest story of mankind.

So there are two questions to consider. One, as a culture, how did we get here? And two, why do we glorify this idea of victimisation? The former is quite simple. Gen X’ers coddled their millennial children during their upbringing. They didn’t say no. With this came a generational shift of ‘feeling’ rather than ‘thinking’. Can you name the greatest thinkers of the last 10-15 years? No. Because we don’t value critical thought anymore, and as a result we live in a society where art is terrible and we reward morons. The second is because millennials are narcissists. Now, allow me to distinguish the two types of narcissism; one is the celebration of grand achievement, which I have no problem with, and the other is a gross glorification of one’s own thought, meaning that one believes their own ideas are factual and the refusal to engage with differing viewpoints is justified. 99% of millennials have the latter. Victim culture gives these people an excuse to make a tragedy their tragedy, which allows their self-aggrandisement to flourish under the pretense that they themselves have somehow helped a cause with their disingenuous sympathy.