Yesterday Americans were shocked by the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk. In his address to the nation, President Donald Trump called for an end to political violence and the inflammatory rhetoric that often insights it. But there’s more going on than mere inflammatory words.
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Our nation has seen a rise in violence generally and political violence particularly. It also seems evident that there is a disproportionate amount of that violence coming from the Left.
Consider this: there were no known political assassination attempts on President Joe Biden. There were at least two assassination attempts on President Donald Trump. There have been no mass killings of transgender children by Christians. Even in recent days we have seen multiple mass killings of Christian students by transgender persons. It was not a Leftist activist who was shot in the neck yesterday.
But even as political violence increases from the Left, many liberals still maintain a posture of victimhood. They insist that they are oppressed; that it is the Right who is the aggressors. People on the Right are often described as evil.
The coexistence of a victim mentality and increasing violence is not only ironic. It is causal. Taking the posture of a victim creates a sense of desperation in people. It creates a feeling that the system is rigged and cannot be fixed by the normal non-violent means. It makes people feel the stakes are too high to do nothing. That desperate times call for desperate measures.
Victimhood also creates moral justification for otherwise immoral acts. “They started it.” “They’re coming after us.” “We have to get them before they get us.” This becomes the rationale of a person who is constantly told he’s a victim.
Even when we see violence coming from the so-called Right, it is usually also accompanied by a victim-mentality. White supremacists, for example, take on a victim posture comparable to that on the Left. They often frame the situation as hopelessly corrupted by the Jews or the Blacks or whoever else they feel is running the system. They also use terminology of desperation and hopelessness with predictable results.
If we are going to put a stop to horrific instances like the one we saw yesterday, it’s not enough to call for non-violence. We must call for the end of a victim mindset that creates desperation and hopelessness instead of healthy political engagement. People in both parties need to stop leveraging this kind of language for political benefits.
We must get past this horrible trend of political violence. But we cannot do that unless we also shed ourselves of this particular mentality.
Start with yourself. Do not take on a bitter, envious, victim-mentality. Instead, productively engage with the process to improve your situation and the situation of those around you.
This may be the first step in overcoming the darkness currently clouding our culture.
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