Stolen Valor & Stolen Victimhood

| February 28, 2019

The Washington Times just came out with an excellent editorial talking about the nature of society and how “stolen victimhood” compares to “stolen valor.”

You can tell a lot about a society and the culture by the people whom it venerates as heroes. Not so long ago in the United States military valor and other feats of physical and patriotic derring do were the ne plus ultra of what determined who became venerated. That’s why the crime of “stolen valor” is there in the first place, by men (and sometimes women) who aren’t veterans who want to bask in the glory and respect afforded actual heroes. Were American warriors not heroes, there would be no valor to steal.

But now we’re witnessing something altogether different. You could call it “stolen victimhood.” The pathetic and outrageous case of Jussie Smollett is the latest example of this baleful trend.

It was quite telling – not only that his sandwich survived the attack but that he was able to transition the story into the reaction to it vs. whether it was truthful or not.

Mr. Smollett was strangely unco-operative with the Chicago police. Still clutching the sandwich that survived the attack, he refused to hand over the cellphone he had used during his beating, and took refuge in stolen victimhood. “It became a thing of like, ‘Oh, It’s not necessarily that you don’t believe that this is the truth,’” he said several days later, “‘You don’t even want to see the truth. If I had said it was a Muslim, or a Mexican, or someone black, I feel like the doubters would have supported me a lot much more. A lot more. And that says a lot about the place that we are in our country.’” Indeed.

Although the news is a version of storytelling, fact and fiction should stay in their own lanes.  It is a terrible trend when we can’t accept the news as the news and have to put on our filters and evaluate everything in context and take into consideration politics, agendas, whether one is making enough money or getting enough playing time as a quarterback or an actor.

How is what Smollett did any different than a news reporter that uses unnamed sources to promote a narrative?  Why are they protected because they are labeled a “journalist?”

The following clip from the Greg Gutfeld show is funny, but it is a nervous kind of funny since it probably comes too close to what is really going on.  Worth every second of viewing.

Category: Media, Politics, Stolen Valor, Stolen Victimhood

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Commissar

This shitbag did not just pretend to be a victim; he harmed victims.

There is no future universe where this guy is redeemed in the public eye.

A Proud Infidel®™️

Here’s hoping that Smollett gets written off that show and blacklisted.

A Proud Infidel®™

BY “written off the show”I mean like how McLean Stevenson’s character was “killed” on the TV Show “M*A*S*H”. It was said that he thought he was indispensable to the show and after he demanded a big increase in pay his character was “killed”.

Daisy Cutter

That’s a perfect example of life influencing art.

Commissioner Wretched

Digression: I read somewhere that Stevenson tried to sell a script for “M*A*S*H” that would have featured him in another role, one of a wounded officer brought to the 4077th for treatment. Everyone, especially Radar, would have been stunned by his resemblance to Col. Blake. At the end, when the wounded officer was being sent home, he was supposed to say to Radar, “It was good to see you again, Radar,” and when Radar turned around, the officer wouldn’t have been there.
Needless to say, the producers – stung by Stevenson’s salary demands – wanted nothing to do with the story.
But it would’ve been a good episode.

Mike Kozlowski

…Actually that kind of ties in to why he was actually ‘killed off’ – Stevenson walked at the end of his contract as he was fully entitled to do, but managed to work up so much acrimony as to how he felt he was being treated that the producers decided to terminate LTC Blake with extreme prejudice so he could never come back. Had he left on better terms he might have shown back up every onw and then.

Ncat

I believe the original script for the last Mash episode, which was quite an event, had him being found alive in a POW camp. It turned out his body hadn’t been found.

He refused to reprise the role for the same reason- money.

Hondo

Agree fully with your first point.

Sadly, today I’m not so sure your second point is true. It certainly should be – but I’m not sure it is.

Ret_25X

false. He is already being propped up by both media and entertainment personalities.

He will be a hero because to the identitarians, truth is not empirically provable, but felt.

And what he tried to portray feels right to them.

So yes, he will be back.

He will not be deplatformed, censored, unpersoned, or dehumanized by the fawning left sphere.

Bet on it.

Keepin' It Real

Somewhere along the line the word “brave” will be attached to his actions.

The Other Whitey

He has a depressingly-large legion of defenders. You have the people buying Terence Howard’s “the Jussie I know would never do this” crap, never mind that Howard habitually beats women, his word is being taken as gospel by far too many. Then there’s the assholes saying that it doesn’t matter that Smollett lied because it was “representative” and/or “started a conversation.” Not sure how it’s supposed to represent or start a conversation about anything other than Smollett being a lying sack of shit, but there you have it.

America is such a racist nation (/sarc) that “victims” have to fake their hate crimes. Smollett is only the most visible example of a growing trend, and has the support of an unfortunately-large segment of the population who value their narrative over the truth.

Toxic Deplorable B Woodman

Lying to “advance the narrative/agenda”.

Whatever that is.

A Proud Infidel®™️

SO damned many “racist attacks” in the past few years have been complete fabrications that I am automatically skeptical the moment I read or hear of one. I think I fucked up and jumped the gun when first news of Chief Four Teeth spouted off, but I was immediately suspicious of Smollett.

AW1Ed

Smollett’s entire scenario was an obvious sham, and fell apart quickly. What struck me was the instant gnashing of teeth and letting of blood by the usual suspects, long before any facts were known.

They are either a) gullible, b) willfully ignorant, or c) have an axe to grind.

Pick two.

akpual

B&C

MSG Eric

All of the above.

The Other Whitey

And there is the crux of the issue. There are racist assholes out there. Not nearly as many as some would have you believe, and they’ll never admit just how many of them are on the left, but they do exist. Every once in a while something terrible does happen to someone on the basis of race, religion, etc (again, the perpetrators are frequently leftists, but that’s another discussion). When that does happen, the victims face a Cry-Wolf effect from the many, many liars out there, including Smollett.

The same thing is happening to rape victims, thanks to the sheer number of skanks who have weaponized the false accusation. Innocent men get their lives ruined, real victims face doubt, and rapists are the only real winners, thanks to that doubt.

David

It is worth mentioning that the reason racist incidents are newsworthy is because they are relatively rare.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

This, once again, illustrates the basic flaw with protected class hate crime legislation.

Once you afford certain victims a special class of victimhood there is something to be gained by being one of those victims. You saw the tweets by the twit in Hollywood immediately after Covington and Smollett sympathizing immediately without any evidence with the anti-Trump, anti-Republican narrative.

Hate crimes were always a massive mistake, if we are all truly equal under the law the same penalty should apply regardless of the victim for the same offense against said victim. What we have here with hate crimes, once again, is an original failure of government and its enforcement arms, to do its job. The fix is never more laws for the government to enforce, the fix is always get rid of those in government responsible for not doing their jobs in the first place. But we have become a nation with very limited accountability these days.

I believe Commissar is wrong, and that Hollywood’s short memory will allow Smollett to find work, most likely after a tearful interview where he explains how the pain of living in Trump’s America hurt his soul and wounded his heart due to the open racism and anti-gay activism by our President. He will cry that he thought his voice would shed a light on the dark shadows of a nation gripped in the throes of battle against bigotry and hatred. He will sob that without his charade America would remain desensitized to the plight of gay black men throughout the land. Oprah will cry with him and tell him what he did was wrong, but perhaps for the right reasons and soon afterwards he will be working again…as if nothing at all had happened. People will support his bravery for speaking truth to power, for being a crusader even if misguided and it will all be forgotten and forgiven.

I could be wrong, and I would in fact love to be wrong about this. Somehow my experience of late indicates if I’m not exactly right I’m going to be close.

Daisy Cutter

Yes, I think you are right about Hollywood having a short memory.

Unfortunately, the tear-fulled forgiveness will provide incentive for others to do the same. It’s perfect for little to no name actors – create your own script, act it out, create a news story, cry on demand and beg for forgiveness but offer an alternative villain for your actions, add a pinch of salt, add some spice, marinate, repeat.

cc senor

Don’t look for him to get the Fatty Arbuckle treatment.

akpual

Yep Fatty never made a big comeback. Did take him three trials to be acquitted.

ArmyATC

Unfortunately, you are correct. I’ve seen several articles stating we should have sympathy for Smollett.

Comm Center Rat

I read that Smollett received $65,000 in compensation per episode of Empire. That’s more than the average American worker earns in an entire year. He wanted even more money per episode. His greed led him to the staging of his “assault.” Smollett has now learned that not all publicity is good publicity.

Daisy Cutter

$60,000 is the figure I heard:

A Proud Infidel®™

“I don’t care WHO you are, that’s funny!” – Larry the Cable Guy

The Al

Slight correction to what you wrote- he staged the “assault” AFTER he “received” a threatening letter made from letters cut from magazines, that is now being investigated as well as being sent to him from the same two brothers that he faked his assault with.

Perry Gaskill

As much as it might sound like a goofy conspiracy theory, it seems to me Smollett’s apparently faux-victim attempt is part of a larger effort to attain black reparations. Consider that a couple of days ago, California Senator Kamala Harris was pitching reparations as part of her presidential campaign, and framing the matter of having slave ancestors as being in the same category as PTSD.

It also so happens that this morning, the mainstream media has gone full root vegetable over the fact that Virginia First Lady Pam Northam evidently made a perceived gaffe by handing cotton to some black kids taking a tour of historical slave quarters. Cotton! The horror! Those poor black children have now been harmed forever…

rgr1480

I never understood the horror of “COTTON.” My white grandparents (b.1901 and 1912) chopped cotton as children …. everybody chopped cotton if you were a farmer in that AO.

Also, I grew up constantly hearing “Keep your cotton-pickin’ hands off…” Today, that is seen as a slur to blacks?

Hey, just a cotton-pickin’ minute, this don’t look like like the Coachella Valley to me!
https://youtu.be/e8TUwHTfOOU?list=PLdFNvs8cdH1B9_QlISI58ULoHwVO-kKEE&t=16

Poetrooper

I chopped and picked cotton growing up in Oklahoma and all the young folks out there in the fields with me were white, although there were plenty of blacks in our small town. It was the early 1950’s version of an entry level job, like flipping burgers is today–although I also did that back in the 50’s, as well.

Of course I also sat on a bar stool in a rural beer joint adjacent to those cotton fields and was served my first beer at age thirteen, no questions asked and no notice taken.

Times have changed, some things better, some things worse, race relations, compared to those times, are now much worse but that’s admittedly from my white perspective.

AnotherPat

I do not care for Ralph Northam.

But this is getting out of hand.

Was disturbed when I read this quote from Del. Marcia S. “Cia” Price (D-Newport News), a member of the Black Caucus,:

“The cotton itself is a symbol of murder, rape, displacement and the radiating effects of the transatlantic slave trade that black Virginians are still experiencing today,” Price said.”

Seriously? Cotton? Makes me wonder if Price wears any clothes made of cotton, sleeps on cotton sheets, uses US paper currency that is 75% cotton, represents any cotton farmers who reside in Newport News/Hampton, Virginia, etc.etc.

What about “Soul Food”? Should restaraunts that serve “soul food” be shut down since its origin ties in with slavery?

Source of Price’s quote:

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/first-lady-worsens-northams-racial-insensitivity-issue.html

Perry Gaskill

Price probably hoists the Mau Mau flag if you accidentally use the words “black” and “watermelon” in the same sentence.

AnotherPat

She also said “…that black Virginians are still experiencing today”.

Yeah, right. Those Virginians still have to sit in the back of the bus, use public bathrooms that are designated for blacks only and cannot eat in establishments populated by whites. (sarc)

But when they get home, they can turn on their TV and watch Black Entertainment Network to their hearts content, because *shock!* heaven forbid if whites have their own network. It would be racist.

Price needs to focus on the FREQUENT crimes that occurs in Newport News, i.e. Blacks shooting other Blacks, similiar to Chicago. Ironically, Bobby Scott is from Newport News. The same Bobby Scott that knew about the Justin Fairfax incident when Northam was running for office. I have personally seen arrogance in that man. Before boarding a flight from Atlanta to Newport News, I watched and listened to Scott throw a temper tamtrum to Delta Airlines because they would not put him in First Class. He kept saying “Do you know who I am?” Needless to say, Delta did not honor his wishes…Scott sat 3 rows behind me in coach…

I believe in equal treatment/opportunity for ALL despite a person’s color. Alot of my Black friends feel the same way. They feel those who continually address slavery, the Civil War, etc. are trying to HURT the Black population, i.e. keeping them in the past instead of moving forward, forever victimizing and demeaning their own race.

(jumps off of soapbox).

getoverit

David

She gave the cotton to ALL the students, not just the black ones. And imagine if she skipped them!

John Wright

The letter … the Postal Investigative Service (whatever the name is) will build a case. Terroristic threat by mail, probably a Federal offense.

The guy has a history of self-serving, arrogant, deceitful behavior.

Burn the damn liar.

5th/77th FA

Gotta go with VOV, again, on this. The only variable is the federal charges from the Post Office. The rest of his trumped up charges (see what I did there) he’ll walk on. Some other Hollyweird crowd will pick his no talent ass up. If you watch very much commercial TV these days, most of the “actors” are a bunch of no talent bums. The writing is even worse. As so stated by an observant correspondent many years ago, “TV is a vast wasteland.” And that was said back when there was some decent programing going on. I watch very little of it, and until this episode popped up had never heard of this idiot.

I did not watch the Oscars the other night. No need to. Reading in the news articles the next day just confirmed what I expected to happen. PC trumped (did it again) true talent.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

The Oscars were on? Damn I missed it again, that’s over 50 years in a row now I’ve not watched the Oscars…

John Wright

BTW, Jussie spells his last name incorrectly – it’s “Small”, also a description of, well leave it to your imagination

John

Tallywhagger

This is what media means when they describe a perfectly punchable face.

John Wright

All crime is “hate” crime (hateful and/or harmful actions or behavior).

Always thought the same: Why add an additional adjective that’s not needed in the specification?

cc senor

Yeah, hate crime implies there are love crimes and except perhaps for murder/suicide, how often does that happen?

Daisy Cutter

Same for “Domestic Violence”

SFC D

Does anyone ever get charged with “imported violence “?

11B-Mailclerk

I believe Trump is doing something about illegally imported Violence.

Daisy Cutter

Friendly Fire, Civil War, etc.

Jay

Here is hoping he is smug in the satisfaction that he walk on a small misdemeanor charge of the false police report attack, just for the Feds to drop a massive felony charge on his ass for that fake hate mail…..lets see how many friends/supporters he has left once the cash cow dries up. I’m guessing not many.

Daisy Cutter

Maybe Hollywood with do a Benefit-A-Thon for him?

Keepin' It Real

I see a hashtag in the near future.

#JustCauseItsALieDontMeanItWontHappen

#PuhLeaseBuhleaveJussie