Victim blaming is a terrible, shameful, misguided practice. Victim’s are never at fault for what was done to them. And much of it comes from racism and misogyny. But I think there’s another facet that is possibly more horrifying.

I remember when I told am older friend I was going to New York city for the first him. He promptly told me that I needed to carry my wallet in my front pocket so it would be harder to steal. And everyone knows about those parts of town you shouldn’t go to late at night. It seems that the default view is that the world is out to get you. Lower your guard, and someone will get you. I think this is broader, and really the driving force of victim blaming.

It’s the attitude that the world will screw you over unless you stop it. With this view, you almost have to blame the victim. Because you see no other responsible party. You certainly can’t change the world to prevent this from happening. It means that while expressed as racism, or misogyny, it’s actually a fearful reaction to being faced with evidence of just how horrible they believe the world to be. They don’t think they can change the world so this stuff doesn’t happen, and don’t want to face that. So they avoid it by assigning unwarranted agency to the victim, and then blame the victim for not exercising that agency.

It needs to stop, but it’s only going to happen when people accept that the world is only as bad as we let it be.