[Fern_Blossom]

My honest theory, being the victim feels good. It's easier to wrap up yourself in the warm blanket of victimhood when you're a loser.

Now, I should probably define "loser" a bit. Not in regards to wealth or career status. Generally, I mean someone that has zero going for them. No drive. No aspiration. No ambition. No skills. No pursuits. No self improvement. No self education. No... well... have you noticed the people loudest online regarding the whole victim this, victim that... if you took that away... what do they have? Like, you can't even nerd out with them about anything. No interests. No hobbies. Nothing really. Their entire personality and life comprises of this stuff. And I mean doing things within their control too. Sure, some aspirations are going to be out of your reach for one reason or another. Shit, all F1 drivers were pretty much chosen when they were sperm at this point. That's not in the cards for a lot of people. But to focus on a handful of things that don't work out for you and miss out on literally everything else the world has to offer... fuck, that's some childish shit. Which again, it's all just a tantrum of losers.

The real problem, kids are being raised that this line of thought is okay. It's encouraged and glamorized. Most of you here are programmers to some degree. If you have a few years under you're belt, you had that hazing period to become a "real programmer". That first problem/bug that could not be looked up. There was no pre-packaged solution. And you bashed your fucking head against that problem/bug day in and day out. You dreamt of it. You thought about it when you ate and when you shit. You refused to give up even though you thought you were NEVER going to figure it out... until one night you smashed that wall and grabbed the solution by it's neck.

Now imagine you thought it was computer science's fault because it was racist. Would you have solved it or just cried/whined?

Looking for the light in the darkest struggle is what most encouraging tales and stories are about, for a good reason. Even Beethoven's Ode to Joy has the themes of dark brooding, then the bright, large success in overcoming and not giving up. A good reason it's lasted this long. Hiding in the shadows of this racism/victimhood bullshit has got to stop or humanity is going to reap a barren field.

[mbg721]

If it were just that victimhood feels good, that wouldn't be enough to keep this line of thinking alive. The bigger problem is that guilt feels good, and we have people thinking it's okay for powerful institutions to convince other people that they're powerless victims.

[Fern_Blossom]

We might be arguing for the same thing, but semantics... Anyways what I'm getting at is, the victim-fetish, because let's be honest it's turned into a fetish, is a way to absolve yourself of responsibility. Maybe guilt is just that extra step of superficial absolution from your own actions. Kind of like a classical Catholic confessional. Forgive me father for I have sinned, I'm such a baaaaaaad boy. Look at me, I'm admitting to "bad". I'm innocent now....

Hell, it does seem nice to just feel guilty of stuff you literally can't control instead of admitting to the stuff you could control. Which goes to the victimhood. If you're a victim over every little thing, then "it's not my fault!" I mean... this is just going to be a long rant that's going to require me to explain one thing after another because there's a lot of nuance... probably the moral of the story, to what end does "math is racist" even serve? If someone sucks at math when it's deemed racist, they'll still suck even when it's not. Math "being racist" isn't why someone is a lazy, useless parasite on society. That person is the problem, but they don't have to face that fact not only to themselves, but society even rewards them by turning a blind eye on the dumbass waste of human potential. Maybe because society has collectively become more and more useless. Hell, maybe there's an evolutionary trait that sparks when a colony of mammals becomes too vast and wasteful, so it starts to self-cull. I don't know. Math... right... if you're too fucking stupid (this doesn't mean who I'm directly replying to by the way) to do math when it's racist, I promise you'll be too fucking stupid to do it when it's anti-racist. Because math hates you, just like it hates all of us. Equally. Put on the ball gag and nipple clamps and maybe... just maybe... math will give you a little tickle if you take your paddling well. Damn... I'm tired today... go away now...

[antifa]

> No interests. No hobbies. Nothing really. Their entire personality and life comprises of this stuff.

You could try asking them instead of completely fabricating an autonomotron made entirely out of straw.

[NoOneNew]

I'm going to have to agree with the original commentor. A majority of people who stub their toe and blame racism, patriarchy or whatever else, are incredibly boring people. Anyone that's super dogmatic is typically a one trick pony. Sure there are exceptions, but I'm not going to get yelled at for having "micro aggressions" when asking someone "so what do you do for fun" when I already know the answer since they're an insufferable, self-righteous ass.

[a_shovel]

The reason the person you're imagining is a one-trick-pony with no thoughts beyond claiming oppression is that you're the one imagining them that way. This isn't a real specific person, it's a caricature in your head of the worst traits of a few people, that's applied to a group many times larger.

[NoOneNew]

Cant speak for OP, but I do know specific people just like that. Too many actually. I think far too many introverts on HN imagine everyone else only knows a handful of people and think people only know other like minded individuals. Outside of the tech industry, it's very common for people to interact with a wide diversity of people.

[tharne]

> A majority of people who stub their toe and blame racism, patriarchy or whatever else, are incredibly boring people.

This is spot-on. These folks are essentially 21st century Puritans with all the joylessness and righteous moral outrage that comes with that. And yes, like the Puritans, they are just not very interesting people.