Permanent Victim Syndrome

Amy Alkon had an interesting column about how she got in an argument with a fellow about personal responsibility. Here's a little snippet:

Yesterday, I debated a guy I started talking to in Starbucks about the big problem in the black community. He said it was poverty and unequal schools. I said it was daddylessness. I also think there's a huge problem with victimhood. Read the rest here . . .

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Here's the comment I left:

Picking up on something "Toubrouk" said, look at the similarities between the Mainstream Black (MSB) views and the Mainstream Feminist (MSF) views.

Both are steeped in a never-ending mentality of victimhood. Look what Phyllis Schlafly said about the MSF movement here:

Feminists never boast about [so-called conservative feminists like Sarah Palin] because feminism's basic doctrine is victimology. Feminism preaches that women can never succeed because they are the sorry victims of an oppressive patriarchy. No matter how smart or accomplished a woman may be, she's told that success and happiness are beyond her grasp because institutional sexism and discrimination hold her down.

Doesn't that sound strikingly familiar to what we continuously hear from the leaders of the MSB movement?

Whenever the topic of racism in America comes up, I often tell my American friends to come up to Canada to see how the same "Permanent Victim Syndrome" canards are preached to the electorate by at least 2 of the political parties here and echoed by hundreds of like-minded organizations, almost all of whom are funded by taxpayer dollars. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how they ensure that gov't $ keep on flowing in.

But up here, there is no particular racial component so it washes away the illusions perpetrated by the MSB talking heads.

Teach a man or a woman how to fish and they will never be hungry. Give them a fish and they will be back tomorrow. Keep on giving them fish and they will depend upon you for a lifetime. Get the government to fund your fishing program and you will be employed for a lifetime. Follow the money, folks, follow the money.