The politics of victimhood

[IQS.RLOW]

Though this article is about your friendly neighbourhood McGilla Gorrilla, it also applies very much to some posters here from the left who have adopted victimhood as a second skin

http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/bennel ... victimhood

Being the victim, paradoxically, can place one in a position of power. Few are game to disagree with victims (or their supporters), or question motives, or challenge them in any way for fear of being seen as an uncaring bully. When Aboriginal identity and mandated ‘respect’ are factored in, questioning victim status will likely be seen as tantamount to racism. Therefore, adopting the victim role (feeling upset, offended, outraged, racially vilified, or whatever) can be a very effective and convenient way of silencing dissent, and inducing feelings of guilt in others. Silencing others provides the ‘offended’ victim with a sense of power over others - and that feels good. Victims remain unchallenged with their victim status intact and unassailable

[Black Orchid]

Victim playing by abusers is either:

diverting attention away from acts of abuse by claiming that the abuse was justified based on another person's bad behavior (typically the victim)
soliciting sympathy from others in order to gain their assistance in supporting or enabling the abuse of a victim (known as proxy abuse).

It is common for abusers to engage in victim playing. This serves two purposes:

justification to themselves – as a way of dealing with the cognitive dissonance that results from inconsistencies between the way they treat others and what they believe about themselves.
justification to others – as a way of escaping harsh judgment or condemnation they may fear from others.

Manipulators often play the victim role ("poor me") by portraying themselves as victims of circumstances or someone else's behavior in order to gain pity or sympathy or to evoke compassion and thereby get something from another. Caring and conscientious people cannot stand to see anyone suffering, and the manipulator often finds it easy and rewarding to play on sympathy to get cooperation

A disease or a brain deficiency? Attention seeking, self flagellation?

[boxy]

Trying to play the victim of victim playing, BO?

[Black Orchid]

You do come up with some bizarre conclusions, Boxy, you obviously relate to the above