Why “Playing Victim” is the Forefront of Stupidity

Personally, I hate people who love playing victim. This self-defense mechanism is the lowest of the low, and it obviously puts a lot of people in a bad light. We can’t really blame some people who resort to this mindset: they might be like this due to depression, a sickness or a crime. What’s irritating is this happening in academic arguments, and if a victim or a sufferer has been acting this way for a prolonged period, even if he has received ample support from another party.

There are actually two types of people who are “playing victim”, and these include the following:

Abusive people and those who are at fault

Let’s say you've seen a high ranking politician crying on TV, while exclaiming that the allegations and accusations thrown at him are fabricated. Proclaiming his innocence, he pleads for sympathy to the masses. As soon as the cameras stop rolling, he wipes off his crocodile tears while laughing maniacally.

Gullible people can be swayed easily by abusers playing victim. Don’t be surprised if pleas of sympathy will be met with a favorable response. This rarely happens in western cultures, but it’s commonplace in “soap opera” countries, where tears often sway public opinion, which I find disgusting. The goals of resorting to this tactic include:

In order to divert the public eye from acts of abuse. In a smaller scale, it’s this is equivalent to a school bully saying his act of taking away another kid’s lunch money was due to the former having the tendency to waste his food.
To gain sympathy from other people, calling them to arms to help bring down the party trying to strike their abusive behavior down. It’s like asking public opinion to sway to their favor, in order to put himself in a positive light.

By doing so, this enables them to escape condemnation brought about by their abusive behavior. This is an act of cowardice, and it gives them the inability to come to terms with their true selves and mend their faults.

By manipulators

Playing victim can evoke sympathy, and as mentioned earlier, sway people – whether in a mass or interpersonal scale – to do what you want them to. Gullible and caring people are always victimized by these wolves in sheep’s clothing.

People who don’t know they are

In other cases, some people are not aware they’re actually playing victim, due to debilitating circumstances, like disease and if their pride and self-esteem took a hit. Even if physical and emotional support are within arm’s reach, they still refuse help and ask for more help. Unlike the two earlier types of people, this isn’t stupidity, but rather, the inability to comprehend that they’re experiencing this. The common types of people include the following:

Severe acne sufferers. People suffering from severe acne need a lot of emotional support. It’s usually common to hear acne-afflicted teenagers saying something like “he rejected me because of my acne!”. Although this may have been the reasons behind the rejection, it may be because of something which goes beyond physical appearances.
Ostomates. Although there are a lot of groups and product distributors aiming to help people with ostomy cope and deal with their lifestyles, some need more encouragement than usual. Undergoing this procedure is not a smooth-sailing process. Other than enduring a severe intestinal disease, ostomates will have a piece of their intestine protruding from their abdomen.
People who have undergone all sorts of abuse and rejection. Their behavior can be attributed to depression and emotional instability.

In order to deal with these types of victims, it’s always important to make them feel they are worth something, and to enable them to realize that there’s more to life than what they’re feeling now!

If someone you know is playing victim, tell them to drop it, suck it up and stop.