To grasp why members of the American left come out to rant and root for their favorite fake victims like Colin Kaepernik and Christine Blasey Ford while they ignore real victims like Juanita Broaddrick, we will introduce two new concepts: narcissistic authoritarianism and its ethical strategy, the fake victim-rescuer delusional system.

In the last century, science and technology conferred astonishing and ubiquitous material improvements to life around the world and especially in America.  The dizzying ascendance of wealth and material privilege set the stage for a fundamental shift in consciousness from morality and law (which infuse compassion and justice into the daily struggle for survival) to consciousness oriented around narcissistic gratification.  In this paradigm, the struggle for survival is over, and the goal of ethical consciousness is to feel good about oneself.  This vast transition arose when scientific advancement, mass affluence, and material comfort afforded shortcuts around historic American righteous authority articulated in our biblical and constitutional heritage.  Moral absolutes became the refuge of simpletons, and maintaining a constitutional republic more bother than it's worth.

Modern American consciousness, as a whole, has shifted from social control based on historic righteous authority to social control based on modern narcissistic authoritarianism.  One way of conceptualizing the difference between the conservative right-wing mindset and the progressive left-wing mindset is that the left has more completely abandoned traditional righteous authority, allowing narcissistic authoritarianism to more completely fill the religious and moral vacuum for the left.  Narcissistic authoritarianism relies on a fallacious victimology regarding race, sex, and sexuality, as a primary means of considering oneself good and virtuous.  This psychology is narcissistic because it is a closed self-referential belief system devoid of absolute, universal, or unchanging truth about human worth.  It is authoritarian because narcissism is inherently tyrannical.  There is no escape from or appeasement of this tyranny in the pursuit of imaginary glories of self-image. 

But the greatest impact of the shift from adherence to traditional righteous authority to modern narcissistic authoritarianism is that in the former, virtue derives from actual self-sacrifice and good deeds, whereas in the latter, virtue derives from displaying concern for supposed victims – and the louder, the better – without having to do any real service for anybody.  That is so much easier and more fun.

Although narcissistic authoritarianism rejects traditional morality, the ego still needs to organize the world in categories of good and evil.  In the absence of religiously based schemata of virtue and sin by which the ego can consider itself good, a new system of judgment and ethical differentiation developed, primarily among the left wing.  It can be termed the fake victim-rescuer delusional system.  In this psychological system, virtue lies in advocating for and rescuing accredited victims.  This ethical system, which to a great degree has replaced traditional morality in left-wing psychology, is a defense mechanism that answers the question, "How do I feel good about myself without the bother of doing anything practical for the actually downtrodden?"  The ego's answer is, "Why go to the trouble of actual service to real victims when it feels better to rant, rave, curse, and scream about fake ones?"

Because the psychological payoff of the fake victim-rescuer delusion is not to actually protect or help anybody, but rather to enable the delusional rescuer to feel good, fake victims work much better than real ones.  Victims who have experienced actual pain, oppression, and suffering might dampen one's spirits.

Narcissism is authoritarian by nature because it works in service of the ego, whose job is to be a self-serving tyrant, while protecting the ego from making sacrifices.  Psychologically, such sacrifices require sincere introspection.  Introspection is by nature quiet.  Those providing real help to real victims tend to be quiet because they are subsumed in the work.  Those reveling in rescuing fake victims tend to be noisy and histrionic and to direct attention to themselves.  Consider these victim-rescuers.  Their activism, purportedly in support of the "victim" Christine Blasey Ford, is pure spectacle characterized by noise, execrable manners, and mob (rather than individual) action.  Nowhere is Dr. Ford to be seen.  However, these intrepid rescuers made sure their own video selfies were seen by millions. 

Christine Blasey Ford is already one of the most ideologically useful and emotionally gratifying fake victims in American history.  Her victimization sideshow has provided such service to the narcissistic authoritarianism of the left wing that the Democrats should strike a Fake Victim Medal of Honor.  If you had a fifteen-year-old daughter and learned that she went to an unsupervised party, drank herself stupid, and was momentarily pinned to a bed before getting free and sneaking home, would your first thought be to call the police?  She may have had a harrowing experience while in the 9th grade, but if such an event did occur, it was a frightening life lesson, one that apparently Dr. Ford failed to learn.  She is reported to have continued as a heavy drinking, hard partying surfer girl for years, before becoming a professional victimology scripturalist.  She first unpacked her victimhood in marital therapy, which is a propitious moment for elaborating upon one's grievances.

Beyond the historical significance of helping the rageful left destroy the most qualified nominee to the Supreme Court since Antonin Scalia, the ongoing value of fake victims for the left is that they are much more fun to advocate for than the real ones.  Having worked in a crime victim's assistance program with rape-survivors, I can attest that the difference between "victims" like Blasey Ford and the real ones is striking.

Real rape victims tend to come from lower-income, lower-educational level backgrounds.  Often their lower socioeconomic status makes them more vulnerable to victimization.  The rape of a teenager or adult does not tend to submerge for years.  It has an immediate, often devastating effect on the person's life and behavior.  Psychologically disabled people are often difficult to help.  They often make self-defeating choices and set up conditions of re-victimization to expiate their shame.  Psychotherapy for a sexually victimized person is an exquisitely delicate process of supporting the recovery dynamics of the mind.  It is truly "leading from behind."

Acquaintance rape victims tend to come from the same culture and political belief system of the rapist.  They are not driven by a political agenda, like the cadre of hard-left lawyers Blasey Ford has around her.  Juanita Broaddrick was honored to meet with the politician who subsequently raped her.  Clinton preyed on women who worked for him and trusted him. 

It is often said that fake victims do terrible damage to the credibility of real victims.  But the damage goes deeper than undermining credibility.  The fake victim-rescuer delusional system, which amounts to little more than rage and self-directed virtue-signaling, excuses the left wing from providing or supporting the actual difficult, compassionate, and patient service that may help real crime victims.

Image: Plum Leaves via Flickr.