OPINION | POLITICS | PALESTINE

Democratic Bullying and Stockholm Syndrome in the Age of Genocide

The system that permits genocide to go on without consequence is one that is harmful to ordinary Americans, too.

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You are taken hostage, along with a group of people. Your captors are rather nice. They feed you, bring you medicine, even talk about your rights. They check on you several times a day, reminding you that they’re on your side, fighting for you, defending your freedom. You just have to support them, because if you don’t, they say, your freedom is lost forever.

Sympathetic as your captors are, every few days they grab one of the hostages and kill them right in front of everyone. Then they’ll get back to feeding you and singing your freedom, smiling throughout as if nothing happened, until they return and execute another hostage.

The day they come for you, you stand up, you resist, you make a charge at your captors. Suddenly, all the other hostages gang up on you, hold you down and tie you up. Better you killed than they. God forbid they risk losing their freedom forever, for siding with you.

Sounds familiar? The scenario above describes Stockholm syndrome, where hostages are known to aid their captors, thinking that will facilitate their safety and eventual freedom.