The Victim Cult

I’ve been reading “The Victim Cult” by Dr. Mark Milke while simultaneously reading “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand and I have to tell you guys, my tolerance for people who refuse to take responsibility for their own lives has reached below zero. Too often, people have claimed grievances or injustices while neither having to prove it or accepting their own culpability in it. In addition to the dilution of real victims being believed and supported, diversity of ideas and thought are perceived to be aggressions and assaults on opposing perspectives. I loved theatre as a child. I loved to act and be on stage and, frankly, be the center of attention. I was in a play and my father was in attendance in the crowd. He was way back in the back, so hardly anyone in the audience could see him, but I could see him from the stage. He was making silly faces and crazy gestures and I was absolutely mortified. At the end of the play, I was so hurt and angry with my father that as he came to greet me and congratulate me, I pushed him away and acted like a spoiled and petulant child crying and spouting off about “hurt feelings.” My dad calmly knelt down to my level and looked me in the eyes and asked, “Feelings? What are feelings? And how did I hurt them?” I knew, because of the tone in his voice and the look on his face these questions were rhetorical but I still responded with, “because you embarrassed me and that hurt my feelings.” He laughed, looked at me with a seriousness that I will never forget and said, “I can’t hurt your feelings without your permission. I can’t MAKE you be happy, I can’t MAKE you be sad. The only thing I can make you think or feel is whatever you allow me to. In our lives, we cannot control the things that happen to us, we can only control our reactions to the things that happen to us. If you allowed me to upset you, that is your fault, not mine. I want you to remember that.” He hugged me, stood up, took my hand and walked me to the car. Even to this day, I encounter things in my life that instinctively upset me and I have to ask myself is it because I want to be upset about it or is it because I’m allowing outside influences to impact how I feel without thinking about it? Not enough people in today’s society stop and think about how they are allowing other people to control how they think, act and feel. They are also making themselves victims so as to not have to accept personal responsibility and accountability for their actions. “He said something mean that I didn’t agree with so I had to shoot him; it’s his fault, not mine.” “Your team name is a microaggression so change it because it hurts my feelings.” “You dressed like an Indian for Halloween so you must be a racist colonizer and need to lose your job.” “You donated money to a protest so I hacked the website and released your private information to the public to ruin your life.” Victimhood is being weaponized against corporations and people and it appears not enough people care to put this in check and it’s going to get out of hand very soon. I would encourage anyone who reads this to occasionally check your premises if you find yourself in a situation where you’re blaming someone else for the way you feel about something. Is it really their fault, or is it your fault for allowing them to impact you? I discuss this more in depth on my latest episode with Dr. Mark Milke on my YT channel. You’re welcome to check out the deep dive here. Feel free to share this and make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss the next one! Also, if you want to support me and the content I produce, feel free to check out my Patreon.