4 Comments

One question I'd love to pose to researchers who posit *tendency for interpersonal victimhood* as a personality trait is how extensively do they think it is found in the population. Even if they can't give precise numbers; I'd love even just a ballpark.

Expand full comment

The research from which this concept is articulated and measured is only available through academic institutions or for a $35 pdf fee. Perhaps this research offers a population estimate? Might Arc Digital pursue this research through one of your discussion formats? It looks like a really promising direction to counter the self-defeating superficiality of cancel culture narratives and culture war polarization.

Expand full comment

Excellent piece. It explains how right-wing talk radio and university-based prohibitions against anything white, male and straight are playing the same game. I sent it to my friend who listens to RW talk radio!

Expand full comment

That victimhood propensity exists across the left-right spectrum seems worthy of greater elucidation and documentation/research. This is arguably a contemporary cultural proclivity that is rooted in broader patterns of individual entitlement, pursuit of superficially defined status (e.g. fifteen minutes of fame), and the desire to self-identify as an “activist.”I would categorize it as a form of cultural decadence, which in my view is real, worthy of reflection, and related to but separate from the “culture wars.” The controversy about white fragility aside, perhaps what we are experiencing is a fragility of character where we feel victimized when jostled out of our taken-for-granted experience.

Expand full comment