{"id":32035,"date":"2024-06-23T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T13:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=32035"},"modified":"2024-06-23T09:00:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T13:00:59","slug":"donald-trump-and-the-art-of-victimhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/donald-trump-and-the-art-of-victimhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump and the Art of Victimhood"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"TrumpP<\/span>ersecution<\/strong>. It’s a deeply-ingrained core component of the myth of Christian history<\/a>, and well-weaponized in modern times by rightwing politicians who depend on the support from both the faithful and the pseudo-Christian Talibangelists. We’re under attack, they claim, justifying their own attacks on other faiths and non-believers. They use the imagined threat of persecution against Christians to justify book banning and book burning, forced prayer in schools, cuts to education, closing libraries, cuts to healthcare, bans on same-sex marriage, and restrictions on women’s reproductive rights. Their legislators implement repressive and oppressive measures to “save” their faith from secularists, liberals, scientists, Jews, Muslims, the UN, the WEF, George Soros, homosexuals, Democrats, immigrants, librarians, teachers, anyone they consider “woke,” the media, the DOJ, Dr. Fauci, and anyone else on their enemies list.<\/p>\n

“The rhetoric of persecution legitimates and condones retributive violence,” writes Candida Moss in her book, The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom<\/em><\/a>. “Violence committed by the persecuted is an act of divinely approved self-defence. In attacking others they are not only defending themselves; they are defending all Christians.” Seeing yourself as persecuted, as the victim, makes it easier to ignore the feelings, the rights, the vulnerabilities, and the suffering of others, as Moss adds: “A defensive insensitivity that refuses to acknowledge the sufferings of those with whom we disagree is far too often where this obsession with persecution leads us.”(see notes, below for more quotes from Moss’ book)<\/p>\n

This matters because, as Moss writes, this worldview of persecution “pervades political commentary” and “has left us with a dangerous legacy that poisons the well of public discourse. This affects not just Christians but everyone<\/em>. We cannot use the mere fact that we feel persecuted as evidence that our cause is just or as the grounds for rhetorical or actual war.”<\/p>\n

Yet that is exactly<\/em> what conservatives and the far-right do.<\/p>\n

Every year, for example, we are subject to the the ongoing “War on Christmas<\/a>,” a non-event fabricated for a gullible audience by rightwing commentators like disgraced Bill O’Reilly and Putin-loving Tucker Carlson, and fanned into a pseudo-holy war through a firehose of disinformation and lies in media outlets like Fox Newz (arguably the American outlet for Russian TV propaganda), NewsMax, and Breitbart. Anyone who does not toe the ideological (and corporate) line about Christmas and does not loudly encourage exorbitant consumer spending is demonized.*<\/strong><\/span> And it’s used every year as a political tool to distract from real issues. As MediaMatters<\/a> noted:<\/p>\n

Deep down, they must know that there\u2019s no actual \u201cwar\u201d on Christmas, but it makes for good politics. Rather than having to address issues actually facing Americans — such as health care, the economy, and climate change — the fake battles in the fake War on Christmas give right-wing media a convenient way to manufacture divisions between the left and the right. The bombardment of misinformation playing up imaginary (or wildly overblown) examples of political correctness run amok are intended to scare and create a seeming sense of partisanship even on issues that are agreed upon nearly universally.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, of course, during his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump milked the rage created by this “war.” He pledged he would “force” department stores to say “Merry Christmas” instead of Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, or another pleasant secular greeting. Didn’t matter whether the stores were operated by Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, or atheists. He also falsely claimed that Joe Biden would take the word Christmas “out of the vocabulary.<\/a>” Biden, of course, never did any such thing (nor could he) and Trump was just lying as he always does.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/a>Although he called Christians “fools” and “schmucks,” and called Christianity itself “bullshit,”<\/a> Trump made himself out to be the frontline warrior to defend Christianity in the fake War on Christmas for three reasons: first, it played well with his far-right and Talibangelist base; and he is always quick to exploit their views no matter how ridiculous or radical. Second, it was easy: all he needed to do was make a few tweets disingenuously describing his efforts to hold back the tide of godless liberals, and his subservient media outlets like Fox Newz would play it up for months to distract viewers from his abject policy failures in almost every other area. And third, since the War on Christmas plays into the popular persecution myth, Trump could hijack it by making himself<\/em> the endless victim of the “radical left” and the deep state, thus becoming its main focus. He always demands to be the centre of everyone’s attention.<\/p>\n

In 2022, when he announced his third presidential run<\/a>, in his speech Trump said, among his lies, “I am a victim. I will tell you I\u2019m a victim.” He claimed he was the victim of a corrupt justice system every day in his media statements during his trial for falsifying business records for his hush-money payment to a porn star to keep his adultery secret. After his 34-count felony conviction, Trump amplified his pseudo-Christian rhetoric by calling the judge in the case a “devil”<\/a> \u2014 one of the several deities in Christianity \u2014 and saying his defence witnesses “… were literally crucified by this man who looks like an angel but he\u2019s really a devil.”<\/p>\n

Of course, no literal crucifixion took place, and Trump was lying as he always does.<\/p>\n

As Candida Moss wrote:<\/p>\n

The view that the history of Christianity is a history of unrelenting persecution persists in modern religious and political debate about what it means to be Christian. It creates a world in which Christians are under attack; it endorses political warfare rather than encouraging political discourse; and it legitimizes seeing those who disagree with us as our enemies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Talibangelists equate persecution with faith. In her review of David Limbaugh’s 2012 book, Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging a War Against Christianity<\/em>, far-right harridan Anne Coulter commented, “There is no surer proof of Christ’s divinity than that he is still so hated some 2,000 years after his death.” Of course, Limbaugh’s book was just more disingenuous ideological claptrap, but it was well received by the Talibangelists.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/a>If Trump was being persecuted, the Talibangelist logic goes, he must<\/em> be one of us faithful… even if he struggled to hold a bible rightside up, couldn’t name a biblical verse or book<\/a>, and is never seen in church. They believe in him even though he has proven himself a serial liar countless times, a serial adulterer who paid hush money to a porn star he coerced into sex, and has broken at least nine of the Ten Commandments<\/a>. They believe in him even when he became a convicted criminal. They believed in him when he conned students at his fake university. They believed in him even when he started selling cheap Chinese-printed bibles with fake-leather covers at overblown prices. And they believed in him when he promised<\/a>, “Believe me, if I run and I win, I will be the greatest representative of the Christians that they’ve had in a long time,” even though he was nothing of the sort during his failed presidency.**<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Reality does not shake his followers’ rose-tinted view of Trump. A recent story in the Associated Press news<\/a> was headlined, “Jesus is their savior, Trump is their candidate. Ex-president\u2019s backers say he shares faith, values.” The story noted:<\/p>\n

Many of the T-shirts and hats that were worn and sold at the rally in March proclaimed religious slogans such as \u201cJesus is my savior, Trump is my president\u201d and \u201cGod, Guns & Trump.\u201d One man\u2019s shirt declared, \u201cMake America Godly Again,\u201d with the image of a luminous Jesus putting his supportive hands on Trump\u2019s shoulders.
\nMany attendees said in interviews they believed Trump shared their Christian faith and values. Several cited their opposition to\u00a0abortion\u00a0and\u00a0LGBTQ+ rights, particularly to transgender expressions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Trump<\/a>Donald Trump is, in both his own eyes and his deeply gullible followers, the most persecuted person in history, and he makes sure to tell his followers that, over and over, and over. He’s the victim of endless attacks. And none of it, according to him, is his fault. He’s always the victim, never responsible for his acts. His rights are always being violated. The justice system is rigged against him alone. His election was stolen.\u00a0 He is the target of a witch hunt. He calls on his followers to be prepared for an apocalyptic “final battle” to save themselves. And him, of course. He demands they save him from justice, from responsibility, from consequences, from guilt.***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And his more gullible followers associate him with their Jesus. He plays on the messiah theme<\/a>, too, claiming in every speech he is the only one who can save them, the only one who stands between them and the satanic forces of evil: “I am the only one that can save this nation,” he said<\/a>. One may smile, and smile, and be a villain. (William Shakespeare:\u00a0Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5)<\/em><\/p>\n