Exactly!
I think that was the big story of the last election. Many white men and some white women let themselves be defined as victims by Trump. Trump is so victimy he can't even bear a negative comment. He's the embodiment of the classic line that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. And he infantilises his supporters by telling them they should blame the world for being so unfair to them.
This is how he was so different from Dubya, and from the old wingnuts. Dubya sold muscular individuallism. It was about saying Americans are tough and will grind out their success. He was like the old style cowboys. Gritty, brutal, but also a straight shooter who kinda learned his lessons towards the end. Not totally. But there were lines in the sand he didn't cross.
I approve of muscular individuallism to a great extent, although I think you must also mollify the random nastiness of fate.
But there's little good to say about victim culture, when applied to a large class of people. Some individuals deserve that description. But I won't say something like "all Jews are victims because the Holocaust happened." The individuals who were sent to Belsen and Auschwitz for sure were victims. The American Jewish folks working as doctors, attorneys and Hollywood producers not so much. It's important to let the real victims be victims and for that to be something genuine and real. But don't say "all white people are victims" because that's code for treating people like children.
Sometimes the hurricane of life blows in your face. That is when you discover if you can be resilient. You want folks to be able to discover that about themselves. Not to say "it's so unfair that there's this thing called weather."
Face the wind. Only if you are blown over and at last can't get up again is it time for others to say you should get some help.
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