In God We Trust

The Left and Their 'Good Victims'


By Robin of Berkeley
AmericanThinker.com


A number of years ago, I was the victim of a brutal street crime.  Although I was left with a broken nose and two black eyes, I learned soon thereafter that I wasn't a "good victim."

A progressive friend, Fran, clued me in.  When I told her what happened, she said, "What you went through wasn't half as bad as what he has suffered."  Fran was referring to the fact that I am white and the assailant was black.  In other words, my suffering didn't matter.

Fran's reaction is not at all unique in these parts; here, there are good and bad victims.  For instance, a couple of years ago, a middle school teacher was stoned and beaten in her classroom by a vicious mob of students.  And yet, because of the racial makeup of the victim and the assailants, the media had little to say, except to imply that the teacher may have been a racist. 

When I mentioned my horror about this heinous crime to yet another leftist friend, she responded in the prescribed, politically correct way.  Without showing an ounce of compassion toward the battered teacher, my friend blamed "white privilege."   

With Obama and the hard left in charge, we see nationwide what I've witnessed up close and personal here in Berkeley.  Thus, when a young white couple were beaten unconscious after leaving a GOP fundraiser, the mainstream media did not find their plight worthy of reportage.  Similarly, when a conservative had his finger bitten off, or when a frail, diabetic conservative was beaten, the silence was deafening.  Sarah Palin's church being torched with children in it didn't deserve even a blip on the evening news.  

When thirteen U.S. soldiers at Fort Hood, including a pregnant woman, were mowed down (and thirty more wounded) in cold blood, President Obama didn't interrupt a Native American shout-out to renounce the horror.  When Obama finally did speak, he urged us not to jump to conclusions.  Since then, next to nothing has been said about the slaughter.  The fact that the murderer was a Muslim automatically disqualifies the soldiers from being "good victims."

In contrast, during the recent, also horrific Tucson massacre, twenty people were injured and six killed by an apparently psychotic 22-year-old.  Given that the Fort Hood murders involved an internal jihad, doesn't this incident pose a greater safety risk to this country than a lunatic in Tucson?  Consequently, shouldn't Fort Hood have been dissected and analyzed for months on end?  

However, since the politicos found a way to blame Tucson on conservatives, this latter atrocity has garnered much more publicity.  In fact, Obama presided over a huge memorial service for the families and survivors of Tucson.  No comparable event was held for the loved ones of Fort Hood.

The left divides the world into good and bad victims.  People who are viewed as part of an aggrieved group are "good victims."  Those who suffer at the hands of  these protected groups are not afforded this same status.  In fact, "bad victims," like the middle school teacher, as well as me, are made to feel responsible for being assaulted.  Good victims are showered with attention because they reinforce the leftist party line.

The left needs to control popular opinion by censoring information that's unflattering to its cause.  If the populace were fully informed about leftist violence, there would be a mass stampede rightward.  New Black Panther leader King Samir Shabazz railing about murdering "crackers" and their babies isn't exactly the best PR for the progressives.

But there's an even more disturbing reason why so many hardcore leftists divide the world into good and bad victims.  It is because many of them don't care about human beings. 

Think I'm exaggerating?  Then why haven't progressives spoken out against the death threats received by Sarah Palin and her family?  People on the left relish telling Palin rape jokes -- or laughing at them.  Several leftists fantasized publicly about conservatives dying painful deaths.  Comedian Wanda Sykes thought it would be a hoot if Rush perished from a kidney disease.

And we're not talking here solely about contempt towards conservatives.  Many progressives don't appear to be fans of the human race.  Euthanasia for the dying and death panels for the old are discussed with cold, steely indifference. 

Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich tells elderly people that with government-run health care, "We are going to let you die."  Editors at Newsweek Magazine think nothing of splashing a cover feature about "Killing Granny." 

Obama himself doesn't seem to be a big people-lover.  He's buddies with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, who bombed living, breathing humans.  Obama appointed John Holdren -- a man who has advocated forced abortions and sterilizer in our drinking water -- as science czar.

When Obama was an Illinois state senator, he refused to protect live babies who survived late-term abortion.  While abortion is a hot-button topic, who among us would not agree that if the baby is born alive, he or she should be allowed to remain in that state?

Another disturbing example: progressives have had a field day blogging about how Palin should have aborted her Down Syndrome child, Trig.  Part of the reason Palin resigned her governorship is because of the vicious things said about Trig.  Isn't it offensive in the extreme when people wish death by abortion on a fully formed child?

It makes me wonder: what has happened to these people to make their hearts grow so cold?  Perhaps it's all the violent TV shows and movies desensitizing people.  Maybe it's a result of the left's Alinsky-like tactics that pit groups against each other for limited resources.

More profoundly, in our secular world, people are alienated from the life force, from the Source of all love in the universe.  You can see it; the light has gone out of so many people's eyes.  And they reveal this darkness by sexually degrading Palin, wishing bodily harm on Rush, or promoting the early deaths of our old people.

For many progressives, their indifference, even hatred, springs from a deep sense of spiritual alienation.  Because it is an alienated person, a lost soul, who has forgotten this essential truth: that every life matters, even that of a Down Syndrome baby or a political opponent.  

A frequent American Thinker contributor, Robin is a recovering liberal and a psychotherapist in Berkeley.  Robin's articles are intended to inform and entertain, not to offer treatment or diagnosis.  You can comment on this article here.