Victim-Blaming

It's your own damn fault for being there! 

"Does one deserve to have evil done to her by consequence of putting herself where evil can reach her?"

-Brandon Sanderson

It took mere minutes for the Trump Administration to cast the fatal shooting of Renee Good as something she was asking for...victim-blaming. It was a pretense to justify bad acts.

Explaining The Just-World Phenomenon

The Very Well Mind 

Why do people (not just politicians and leaders) do this? Why do they dodge reality and deflect blame? Why couldn't we all admit the shooting is concerning, and they've begun an investigation into the incident, and a review of deadly force protocols? The first question for me, is this the bad act of an individual, or endemic to ICE? It might be because they no longer have control of the message, and control of the narrative is more important than anything else. 

It seems there are no longer any adults in the room.

Psychology Today examines the reasons for victim- blaming.

• A new study suggests a subset of people seemingly derive enjoyment from victim-blaming: “everyday sadism.”
• Victim blaming may occur because people are motivated to see the world as a just place.
• Lack of empathy for victims is another factor that can increase blame.

The article in Psychology Today concludes, Whether driven by fear, lack of empathy, or other factors, victim-blaming can compound victims’ suffering by shaming and stigmatizing them, and it can reduce the accountability of those responsible for causing harm, making harmful acts more likely to continue. Though victim-blaming is pervasive and difficult to combat, noticing and challenging it in all of its forms can help to reduce its power.

What is the Just-World according to The Very Well Mind?

The just-world phenomenon is the tendency to believe that the world is just and that people get what they deserve. Because people want to believe the world is fair, they will look for ways to explain or rationalize injustice, often blaming the person in the situation who is actually the victim. This phenomenon explains why people sometimes blame victims for their own misfortune, even when they have no control over the events that befall them.

The Very Well Mind lays out real-world examples.

• Religion: A classic example of this tendency is found in the Bible's Book of Job. In the text, Job suffers a series of terrible calamities. At one point, his former friend suggests that Job must have done something terrible to have deserved his misfortunes. Research has shown a strong link between the just-world viewpoint and religiosity.3
• Crime: More modern examples of the just-world phenomenon can be seen in many places. Victims of sexual assault are often blamed for their attack, as others suggest that it was the victim's own behavior that caused the assault. 
• Discrimination: Another example of the just-world phenomenon is when people blame the victims of hate crimes.4 For instance, in cases of police violence against Black individuals, some say there are just "a few bad apples" in the police force. But this denies the reality of the victim's experience and the role systemic racism plays in the violence.
• Moral judgements: The just-world phenomenon is also apparent in discrimination and moral judgment against people with HIV or AIDS.5 Some people believe that those living with HIV or AIDS do not deserve access to high-quality healthcare, for instance, because they are "to blame" for their illness.6
• Poverty: People living in poverty often face prejudice and are blamed for their circumstances. If the world is fair, people living without adequate resources are simply not doing something right, the just-world argument suggests. This outlook ignores the role of factors like economic inequalities, lack of access to resources, trauma, and racism.

The Very Well Mind also suggests what we can do as individuals to avoid the just-world phenomenon.

• Practice empathy: Instead of stewing in anger or irritation about someone else's situation, try having compassion for what they're going through. Understanding others' emotions may actually lower your own stress levels as well.7
• Avoid victim-blaming: Victim-blaming is something many of us do without realizing it. But remember, only the perpetrator of a crime is responsible for their actions.8

  Magalhães Tavares S, Pimentel CE, Pereira CR. How belief in a just world and secondary victimization relate to victim-perpetrator disparities in reparation demands in cases of gender-based violence. J Soc Psychol. doi:10.1080/00224545.2025.2600031

   There are also many external factors that contribute to homelessness and poverty, for instance. Don't assume you know why negative things happen to someone.
• Learn about social injustice: By educating yourself on social inequalities, you'll find that people are subjected to harsh realities every day. Our biases and prejudices can keep us from seeing the truth. When you find yourself judging someone's situation, ask yourself if your outlook is affected by racism, sexism, ageism, or discrimination of any kind.
• Consider the source: When you hear a story on the news, asking yourself some of the following questions can shift your perspective: Whose story is being told? Am I hearing more than one perspective or only one person's viewpoints? Is it possible I'm not hearing the full story or all of the details?
• Explore your emotions: Underneath your judgment of someone else's circumstance, you might find fear and anxiety because you worry that what happened to them can happen to you, too. Process your emotions and be gentle with yourself.

It's not a war, it's a police action!

 

Do you remember this?

Government officials insisted that the conflict in Vietnam was a police action. That way we did not have to declare war. I heard that phrase again yesterday, Police Action.

To go deeper I went to Britanica. Call me old fashioned, but I trust this source over AI.

By nearly every metric, the Vietnam War was, in the common sense of the word, a war. The United States committed some 550,000 troops to the Vietnam front at the height of the conflict, suffered more than 58,000 casualties, and engaged in battle after battle with communist forces in the region until its withdrawal in 1973. However, from a constitutional perspective, this conflict did not technically count as a war. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress sole authority to issue declarations of war. Since 1941 Congress has declared war only six times, all during World War II. Congress authorized troop deployment in Vietnam, but, because it did not issue a declaration of war on North Vietnam or the Viet Cong, the Vietnam War is, technically speaking, not considered a war in the United States.

Lessons are soon forgotten when greed and lust for power take over, cloaked in the need for national security.

Getting Mellow on Christmas

Getting Down With Charlie Brown

When I first started working in Public Radio, I was music director at a radio station that aired a lot of jazz. One of the clubs I used to frequent was The Jazz Estate. Saying the bar was cozy may have overstated its size. I think they could have seated 25 to 30 between the bar, tables, and booths. The authenticity, and intimacy of the setting was incredibly mellow.

This morning I was searching for Christmas Jazz and stumbled across this performance of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" recorded at the Jazz Estate. 

This year I'm sharing this with you. If you have time, lean back with your favorite holiday beverage. Enjoy! Merry Christmas. 

Maybe we'll stop by the Jazz Estate on our next trip to Milwaukee.

Are we all immigrants?

 

Photo By Joseph Lockley Unsplash

You are welcome here.

Caring about the fate of the stranger is a Christian value. Did you know that?

I have heard it said we are the uninvited. We are the unwelcome. We should take our misfortune elsewhere. But I hear your mother's voice, over the tide, and she whispers in my ear, “Oh, but if they say, my darling. Even half of what you have. If only they saw. They would say kinder things, surely.”
- Khaled Hosseini, “Sea Prayer” (2018)

They are like my grandparents, looking for a better life. That's why they came here.

What Matters

Offering Hope

Suddenly my feed is filled with quotes about a life that matters. Hopeful quotes. They present guarded optimism, because a life that matters is based on a core set of beliefs. Our beliefs are as disparate as are our values, but there is common ground.

Gratitude

 So simple  So true

Gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. -harvard health

Standing Up Against Cruelty

 

Cruel Behavior

I was listening to a report about the 5000 children separated from their parents at the border under our government's zero tolerance policy in 2019. Many of these families came here to seek asylum. None of them got to declare their intentions as they were oimmediately taken into custody. Then in an act of cruelty, their children were taken away from their parents. 

A sizeable portion of them were lost. According to Yale law, as many as 1,360 children have never been reunited with their parents six years after the United States government forcibly separated them at the U.S. border, according to the Department of Homeland Security. (Dec 16, 2024) 

The cruelty of the government's actions is the point.

The story motivated me to dig deeper, to find out more about what motivates cruelty.

Signs of a cruel person include a lack of empathy, a tendency to manipulate or control others, enjoyment of others' suffering, and a history of dishonesty and lack of remorse. Cruel individuals often disrespect boundaries, engage in constant criticism, and may resort to aggression, threats, or gaslighting to get their way. 

Taking joy in denigrating others reinforces the fragile ego of the current administration. It's called Schadenfreude. Schadenfreude is a German word that literally translates to "harm-joy." It refers to the feeling of pleasure or amusement that arises when someone witnesses or hears about another person's misfortune or suffering. 

Characteristics

• Pleasure at misfortune: The fundamental characteristic is experiencing joy, delight, or satisfaction when someone else suffers a setback.
• Lack of empathy: Schadenfreude is often associated with a temporary lack of empathy for the person in distress. The individual may "dehumanize" the other person, making it easier to feel pleasure at their suffering.
• Connection to self-esteem: It can be a way to feel better about oneself by seeing others fail, particularly if the person experiencing schadenfreude feels envious of the other person. 

Where do we go from here?

 Dr Bryan Sims wrote an article for the STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE last year on ways to reduce violent conflict through non-violent resistance.

"It is unsurprising that as the world entered its 18th consecutive year of democratic decline, it was also experiencing a record number of conflicts, with 2023 being among the most violent years since the end of the cold war. This year’s Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development successfully unpacked the complex intersectionality among factors driving instability and violence throughout the globe. Yet while the topic of authoritarianism was raised over and over again during the Forum, it was treated primarily as a governance problem. In fact, authoritarianism is a cross-cutting and fundamental threat to peace and security."

There's more

Non-violent resistance movements defend democracy and strengthen security 

Non-violent civil resistance movements have great, and underutilized, potential to help to secure sustainable peace by addressing the key drivers of conflict in their local and regional contexts. They are rooted in communities and led by and for people facing injustices. They use non-violent direct-action tactics to shift power. And they are twice as effective as armed struggles in advancing democratic aims. 

Non-violent collective action inspires dignity, agency and three ‘collectives’: collective responsibility, collective ownership and collective identity. Leveraged together, these enable non-violent resistance movements to demonstrate effective tactics that can be scaled and replicated both locally and transnationally. 

Change rarely happens without meeting fierce–and violent–opposition, as has been seen recently in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Iran, Myanmar, Sudan and Syria. However, while not always successful, non-violent resistance movements do in fact incentivize non-violent pathways to peace. And they can also reduce the risk of atrocities; research shows that armed uprisings are subject to mass killings nearly three times as often as non-violent campaigns.

Is Trump afraid of the massive, non-violent protest to his policies of cruelty? I think so. His rhetoric and actions against peaceful protests show his frustration. He would rather have riots so he could call out the troops and declare martial law.

The fact that the MAGA crowd in Washington labelled those protests “Hate America” events says a lot about their attitude toward people who do not share their goals or the way they are pursuing them.  -the hill

The court has ruled in favor of the protesters. "The Seventh Circuit stood up for the right to protest when it reminded the president that “political opposition is not rebellion.” It went on, as if offering a civics lesson to the occupant of the Oval Office, to explain, “A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protesters advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the US government, (or) use civil disobedience as a form of protest.” -the hill

The Motivational Riff

The off year election results are encouraging, but they should be motivation to keep going. Carrying on is motivated by the golden rule, "Everything you should do you will find in this: Do nothing to others that would hurt you if it were done to you." "Do not offend others as you would not want to be offended." "The successes of your neighbor and their losses will be to you as if they are your own."    

"You should respect each other and refrain from disputes; you should not, like water and oil, repel each other, but should, like milk and water, mingle together."

- Buddha