A well-known characteristic of modern political rhetoric is the focus on victimhood. An interesting aspect of this focus is how analogous it is to Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), first named as Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP). Not an analogy to be taken seriously, but an amusing thing to do in idle moments.
An obvious example is how the political stance of the UK Labour party has morphed from the mitigation of genuine working class poverty to a much more contrived focus on politically imposed victimhood. An obvious analogy with FDIA is that we could describe political victimhood as Factitious victimhood imposed on another (FVIA).
Examples of the disorder are numerous.
Examples of the disorder are numerous.
2 comments:
it's a risky business. Working class poverty is a real thing, taking generations to alleviate. Modern victimhood is a thing of fashion, likely to leave politicians looking old-fashioned and out of touch, if not clinically insane.
Cameron's "Hug a hoodie" is a good example, given the amount of juvenile crime in our cities. And I doubt if Starmer will be taking the knee for BLM again, in the wake of an elderly woman butchered in broad daylight by a black mugger. And Penny Mordaunt might now regret espousing the trans cause as that particular bandwagon loses its wheels and spills the perverts and criminals all over the road.
Sam - yes it's as if bandwagons have become too unstable to risk climbing aboard, but without them, most political actors seem to be lost.
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