Conservative Victimhood Culture is Ruining America
Everything is someone else's fault.
Listen to any conservative media, and you’ll hear a conversation about culture. Since the birth of modern conservatism, the movement has relentlessly critiqued the allegedly flawed culture of its political enemies. According to conservatives, college kids enjoy cancel culture, African American cultural failings cause Black hardship, and the political left is governed by victimhood culture, obsessed with wallowing in the suffering of marginalized identities and prioritizing their needs over the majority’s. Centering culture as the essence of politics benefits conservatism in two interconnected ways.
First, it softens racist messages to placate American sensibilities, enabling conservatives to promote a racial hierarchy in mass media. CNN won’t host David Duke to say ‘Black people are lazy,’ but they do let Ben Shapiro say ‘Black culture is inferior to White culture.’ Excusing White racial grievances as ‘cultural’ as opposed to racist gives the speaker just enough plausible deniability to court support from conservative-leaning voters for whom racial slurs are a bridge too far.
Second, explaining away systemic outcomes, such as the racial wealth gap or gender pay gap, as a result of individual and cultural choices justifies the conservative vision of government. By promoting an individual-focused worldview, conservatives lay the groundwork for an agenda of low taxes, few public goods, and limited welfare programs.
As these two benefits reinforce each other, they’re often packaged together to promote conservatism’s desired outcome of a racial, gender, and class-based hierarchy. This political strategy was infamously explained by Lee Atwater, Chairman of the Republican National Committee and advisor to presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush.
“[Republicans] start out in 1954 by saying, ‘N-ger, n-ger, n-ger.’ By 1968, you can’t say ‘n-ger’ anymore. That hurts you. It backfires. So you say ‘forced busing,’ ‘states’ rights,’ and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes. All these things you’re talking about are economic issues, and a byproduct of them is that blacks get hurt worse than whites. Saying ‘We want to cut this’ is much more abstract than the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than ‘N-ger, n-ger.’”1
While this vile political strategy would have one believe the Republican Party hates victimhood culture, the opposite is true. In fact, Republicans need their base to bask in self-pity. Social improvements, such as marriage equality can’t be viewed as a gain for queer Americans, but an attack on straight Americans. Affirmative action doesn’t help underserved Black applicants; it steals college admission from your perfect White daughter. Constantly saying that straight, White Americans are the real victims has bred a culture of conservative victimhood, actively decaying the already-frayed social fabric and public institutions of the United States of America. No such equivalent exists on the political left. From economics to education to sex, every aspect of the modern right wants to blame someone else for their failings. A recent essay on Hyndman, Pennsylvania by John Dick highlights this destructive group think. While detailing the damage decades of capitalist profiteering has done to the six-hundred person town, Dick defends Hyndman’s conservative culture, despite it worsening their woes.2
“The population of Hyndman has shrunk by half in the past 40 years. The local K-12 school shuttered a decade ago, replaced by a charter school that closed this spring. The few remaining jobs are at the prison, the utility companies, and a handful of machine shops – all 30 miles away. The life expectancy is roughly 8 years shorter than in our rich Pittsburgh suburb…
You could argue that the people in Hyndman who support Trump’s economic policies, or Trump broadly (i.e. nearly all of them), are simply undereducated and uncultured – the same root cause of most MAGA stereotypes, like xenophobia, climate change denial, or vaccine skepticism. Let’s say you’re right.
Whose fault is that? They didn’t want their school to close. You couldn’t even get a cellphone signal or high-speed internet in town until a couple of years ago. Parades of politicians and empty promises from both sides have come and gone. They feel betrayed by a system that overlooked them, partly because they were too proud to complain about it. They don’t want anything handed to them. They just don’t want it handed to anyone else at their expense.”
According to county records, 84% of Hyndman voted for Trump in 2024.3 I’m heartbroken that the town has lost schools, infrastructure, and people. Avid JoeWrote readers will know that my work promotes labor and community-focused policies aimed at avoiding and mitigating capitalist-caused damage, such as what has happened in Hyndman. Not just to avoid rural communities turning towards fascist politics, but because everyone deserves a dignified, comfortable life. However, that does not excuse this victimhood mentality. According to Dick, Hyndman is suffering because a charter school destroyed their education. So, why did they vote for a candidate who ran on eliminating the Department of Education and expanding charter schools?4 An eight-year life expectancy difference is tragic. But again, this town earnestly supported Donald Trump, whose healthcare policy was nonsense born from his misunderstanding of tariffs. Dick justifies Hyndman’s stubborn politics and culture as a result of pride, political resolve, and valiant victimhood. Why is this praise reserved exclusively for White, rural, Trump-voting communities? When Black Americans complain about lacking social services in impoverished inner cities, or young people accurately state that real home prices cost 1,045% more than previous generations, they’re lectured to stop complaining and work harder.5 But when White Americans endorse the conservative politics that have directly caused their suffering in hopes of punishing other Americans, they’re portrayed as noble, and it’s everyone else’s fault for ‘not understanding their culture.’ There is nothing admirable about a culture that seeks to spread its own immiseration. Hyndman got a raw deal, there’s no doubt about that. But portraying the town’s desire to replicate their harm on other communities out of political resentment is a cultural stain, not a virtue.
‘Orwellian’ is overused, but it’s the only word that describes rightists’ weaponization of victimhood as part of their reaction to progress on sex and gender issues. Statements such as the one below are common sentiments of the backlash to the Me Too movement. Not only do I not believe Me Too ‘went too far,’ considering the president is a convicted sex offender, it didn’t go far enough to combat sexual predation. And still, reactionaries present the modest improvements to sexual boundaries Me Too provided as an assault on young men. Again, through the conservative victimhood lens, any gain by marginalized identities is understood as a loss for the Republican base.
I’m thirty, so I won’t pretend to provide a first-hand account of whether or not young men are being constantly scolded. However, from my second-hand view, I’ve seen zero evidence teenage boys are being told “YOU’RE BAD.” But what I do see is a reactionary chorus telling young men they’re being told “YOU’RE BAD.” Like most grievance-based conservative conspiracy theories, perceived male victimhood is driven by a handful of prominent figures, cashing in on the latest manifestation of America’s patriarchal foundation. J.D. Vance campaigned by telling male podcast listeners they were being persecuted for making ‘bad jokes’ or ‘having a beer.’
Dominating the chauvinism media space is the infamous brothers Tate. To supplement their [alleged] sex trafficking careers,6 Andrew and Tristan have built an online brand teaching young men how to be ‘alpha males,’ also known as douchebags. They sell courses on how to pick up women using abusive tactics, make money through exploiting others, and living a life of luxury. A recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal by a high-schooler explained the Tate brothers’ allure and justified young men’s fondness of them.7
“At my school, [boys] are hit with a barrage of mixed messages every day. In history class, we’re taught about equality and the importance of respecting women as peers, often through lessons on past struggles for civil rights and suffrage. In English class, we dive into texts that unpack our privilege as white men; we are urged to feel some guilt for the inequities of the world, even if we didn’t create them ourselves. But in the locker room, it’s all about being tough and ‘manly’ and never backing down.
Am I supposed to lead or step back? Does ‘manly’ mean just one thing, and should I still chase it? It’s hard to figure out what it means to be strong without being ‘toxic,’ confident but not arrogant, assertive but not overbearing.
We also know that more women than men are graduating high school and going to college, which can feel a little like we’ve lost ground before we’ve even started.”
As a former teenager, I can confirm it’s confusing. You’re a whirlwind of excitement, depression, love, jealousy, care-freeness, anger, and every other emotion, ratcheted up to 10 by the hormones you don’t fully understand. But that has never, and should never, be an excuse for sexism, racism, or asshole-ry. Their challenges differ, but I never thought being a young man was easier than being a young woman. Prioritizing the difficulties of youth for males over females, as this person does by claiming males have “lost ground” to females, is a direct product of male victimhood culture. I’d be amiss if I didn’t say I’ve noticed this tendency in more White communities than non-White ones. Due to the nature of the United States, an accurate history lesson, like the one mentioned above, is going to critique White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant males. Not because teachers want White people to hate themselves, but because this country was founded as a tax-evasion scheme for aristocratic slaveholders. I imagine high school history classes are no different than when I took them. Never once did a teacher ‘urge’ me to feel guilty about what people who shared my skin color did centuries ago. (I’ve also never been made to feel guilty in explicitly leftist spaces, which are frequently accused of doing so.) If a young man takes history class and leaves thinking, ‘My teacher forced me to learn about the Sand Creek Massacre because she wants me to be ashamed of being White. Well, I won’t be!’, then that person is obsessed with self-pity. Because they’ve been told they’re a victim by J.D. Vance, Andrew Tate, and the conservative outrage cottage industry, they understand historical facts as attacks on their fragile egos. The essay concludes with a justification for this behavior, suggesting that rightist machoism is all young men are being offered.
“Most guys I know aren’t posting Tate clips or starting fan clubs—they are just trying to find their paths. Others simply want a version of manhood that is strong and morally grounded—but they will settle for strong and shameless if that is what’s on offer.”
No one is forcing young men to support alleged rapists. There are positive male role models all throughout America, starting with these boys’ fathers. America has no problem lecturing Black men they need to ‘be better fathers.’ Bill Clinton signed the not-so-subtly-named Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act of 1998.8 But when White kids choose an inexcusable path, they’re invited to pen op-eds in conservatism’s favorite newspaper about how they’re the victims, forced to support [alleged] rapists because The Scarlett Letter made them cry.
What many of these men, young or old, are doing is finding reactionary outlets that confirm their self-perceptions as a racial or gender minority, then excusing the inexcusable by claiming it was the only option — ‘Hey feminists, look what you made me do.’ This pathetic attempt to justify evil beliefs has become a lucrative industry targeting all ages. Unfortunately, it’s pioneered right here on Substack by
. Below are two articles published by Bari Weiss’ outlet this month. The first pretends the right’s newfound fandom of serial rapist Harvey Weinstein is the fault of ‘the left.’ The second, which is somehow even more disgusting, makes the same excuse for conservatives funding a woman who called a kid the N word by blaming it on ‘the excesses of the woke era.’
Both of these frame the left as antagonizing culprits, while the right, who has been forced to idolize two of the worst people on the planet, are helpless and without agency. In other words, they’re victims. Not personally, per se. In Weinstein’s case, rightists like him because there were ‘too many cancellations’ during Me Too. For the financial backers of racist Karen, they’re the victims because the left ‘cancelled too many innocent Americans’ (direct quote).
Make no mistake, this is victimhood culture, run amok. Unlike the claims about leftist victimhood culture that prioritizes female, queer, and minority voices, this rightist culture doesn’t even require someone to be an actual victim. All you have to do is claim someone, somewhere, looks down on you, or that something you learned that made as targeted attack comparable to Jim Crowe. Once that’s been established, nothing conservatives do is their fault. They can vote for politicians promising to eliminate their schools, celebrate sex criminals, and spend life whining about how its just not fair you can’t use racial slurs anymore. Not only is conservatism’s self-pity party destroying the social fabric of America by encouraging people to be crude and distasteful as an act of resistance, but it’s actively ruining the United States. The president won’t stop complaining that nothing is his fault, the media misrepresents him, and all thirty-something women who accused him of sexual misconduct are a lying cabal. As a result, everyone’s 401(k) is depleted and planes are falling out of the sky.9 All because conservatives refuse to take responsibility for their actions.
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In Solidarity — Joe
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/
https://civicscience.com/wws-archives/4-19-2025-sometimes-everybodys-feelings-are-valid/
https://www.bedfordcountypa.org/Elections/Nov%205%202024%20-%20Official%20-%20Statement%20Of%20Votes%20Cast%20RPT.pdf
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-expands-educational-opportunities-for-american-families/
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/comparing-the-costs-of-generations.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/andrew-tristan-tate-brothers-under-federal-investigation-united-states-rcna199836
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/relationships/boys-at-my-high-school-love-the-tate-brothers-heres-why-6b1df184
https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/WH/New/html/19980624-13821.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/retirees-stunned-market-turmoil-tariffs-shrinks-401ks-rcna199753
The fact that Trump is now granting citizenship and asylum to white men from South Africa because they are somehow VICTIMS is the worst example of this victimhood problem. Great article!
Every time a right-wing conservative complains about anything, at the core of their grievance is the inevitable fallout of whiteness and the unrestrained technological “progress” driven by capitalism, a project of whiteness they themselves actively uphold. The so-called “culture war” is just this dynamic laid bare: a desperate, performative revolt against the consequences of a system they refuse to interrogate.
They are perpetual victims of their own refusal to think critically, feel deeply, or reflect honestly. They lack not just emotional and moral intelligence, but the courage to grieve. To grieve the false promises of empire. To grieve the loss of meaning that comes with exploiting the Earth, others, and themselves.
And so, they lash out. But their rage isn’t revolutionary, it’s a tantrum. A tantrum against the ghosts of their own design.