Victim blaming and defaming is a cognitive bias that some people embrace when the victims of an injustice or suffering are held responsible — in whole or in part — for the injustice or suffering that has been committed against them.
Blaming victims for their own victimization can appear in the form of negative social responses from legal, medical, and mental health professionals, as well as from the media and immediate family members and other acquaintances.
The generic process of Blaming the Victim is applied to almost every American problem. Every important social problem—crime, mental illness, civil disorder, unemployment—has been analyzed within the framework of the victim-blaming ideology.
Because we are all predisposed to believe stereotypes, especially individuals that possess a strong just world belief, preexisting negative racial stereotypes can provide convenient, although fallacious explanations. This leads to an even greater revulsion of the victims. Theories of inferiority emerge as justification and linked to certain racial minorities. This cognitive-dissonance reduction requires vilifying the victim to uphold one’s prejudices. These people are lesser, in intellect, in biology, in culture. These people are not “worthy” victims, but “unworthy” victims.
Both Israel and Palestine Claim Victimhood
On October 7th Hamas attacked Israel killing more than 1,400 people and taking over 200 Israelis hostage. Since then, Israel has bombarded a seemingly defenseless and penned-in population in Gaza with the objective of eradicating Hamas. The Israeli bombardment has resulted in a Palestinian death toll of more than 10,000 victims and over 4,000 of that number being children.
Since the conflict has erupted, pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests have broken out in the U.S. and across the globe, with some becoming violent.
Both sides are also battling over the narrative of victimhood with Gaza and the U.N. requesting a cease-fire for humanitarian reasons, and Israel rejecting calls for a cease-fire and continuing the bombardment out of claims of necessity and self-defense, not a choice.
According to Volker Türk, the United Nations human rights chief, “both Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes.”
“The atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian armed groups on October 7 were heinous, brutal and shocking, they were war crimes – as is the continued holding of hostages,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“The collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians amounts also to a war crime, as does the unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians,” he added.
The first victim of conflict and war is the truth. As facts and information are often distorted or suppressed to serve the interests of the waring parties.
The media has become seemingly useless as an aid for factual information, as different media outlets report different findings and the core reasons for the conflict. It’s no wonder trust in the media remains at a record low.
Americans’ confidence in the media has been anemic for nearly two decades, and Gallup’s latest findings further document that distrust. The current level of public trust in the media’s full, fair and accurate reporting of the news is the second lowest on record.
This new confidence reading follows Gallup’s historically low confidence in both TV news and newspapers in June and a new low in December’s annual rating of the honesty and ethics of television reporters. Newspaper reporters received similarly low ratings in the same poll.
At 34%, Americans’ trust in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” is essentially unchanged from last year and just two points higher than the lowest that Gallup has recorded, in 2016 during the presidential campaign.