Persecution complex

{{conspiracynav}}{{cquote|The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of [[Conspiracy theory|a mysterious conspiracy]] against his common rights and true deserts. He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damfoolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy.|||[[H.L. Mencken]]<ref>"Varieties of Envy," in ''[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9r8KqQDNZD0C&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=The+central+belief+of+every+moron+is+that+he+is+the+victim+of+a+mysterious+conspiracy+against+his+common+rights+and+true+deserts.+He+ascribes+all+his+failure+to+get+on+in+the+world,+all+of+his+congenital+incapacity+and+damfoolishness,+to+the+machinations+o&ots=bcds_48qa8&sig=11fn6axCTtmUvQrcchgOW8MBRPc#v=onepage&q=varieties%20of%20envy&f=falseA Second Mencken Chrestomathy]''</ref>}}
A '''persecution complex''' is a term given to an array of [[psychological]]ly complex behaviours, which specifically deals with the perception of being persecuted, for various possible reasons, imagined or real.

People or groups who hold to marginal (non-mainstream) beliefs or theories often display some features of this malady, as a way of explaining why their views are not more widespread. It is also commonly displayed by people or groups whose beliefs actually ''are'' comparatively widespread, such as [[fundamentalist Christian]]s.<ref group=note>One may get the sense that some of these people (namely, the aforementioned fundies) won't be satisfied unless [[One world religion|their beliefs are shared by ''literally '''everyone''''']].</ref>

==Role in tribalism==
{{cquote|...one of the great secrets of human nature is that the one thing people want more than love, security, sex, chocolate or big-screen TV's is ''to feel hard done by''. Why? Because being hard done by is ''the shit''. Feeling hard done by is the sweetest of drugs. [[Argumentum ad martyrdom|If you're being persecuted -- it must mean you're doing the right thing, right]]? You get the mellow buzz of the moral high ground, but without arrogantly claiming it as your own. You get an instant, supportive community in a big dark scary world of such scope it may well literally be beyond rational human processing. When you are hard done by, you get purpose in a life where otherwise, you'd have to find your own. And when you ride that high, then no amount of [[logic]], no pointing out that in actuality you and your beliefs are at a high point of popularity and influence for the last hundred years -- is going to pry that sweet crack-pipe of moral indignation from your hands.|||John Rogers<ref>[http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/06/toxic-spiritual-nature-and-those-desks.html Kung Fu Monkey: "Toxic Spiritual Nature" ... and Those Desks Pinch]</ref>}}

The formation of a [[tribalism|tribe]], in the sociological sense, relies on the existence of a common interest or goal strong enough that a group would in some way delimitate itself from the larger society. Persecution complexes are not inherent in all forms of tribalism, but they do lend themselves to the polarization of such groups. [[Communal reinforcement]] (and, often, [[Nationalism in history textbooks|indoctrination]]) [[Echo chamber|reassures]] group members that they are indeed correct; how could all of us be wrong?<ref>[http://skepdic.com/comreinf.html Communal reinforcement], [[The Skeptic's Dictionary]]</ref> At extremes, this leads to the [[groupthink]] that places continued membership of a group and conformity to its norms above [[rational]] and critical evaluation. Such a process comes to the fore among adherents of fundamentalist [[religion]], but is almost a given for any group expressing sufficiently [[Extremism|extreme]] ideology. [[My enemy's enemy|Nothing brings people together like having a common enemy]].<ref group=note>This mindset can even be used to unite people who would otherwise be at each other's throats; see [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GenghisGambit Genghis Gambit] on [[TV Tropes]] for examples of people actively exploiting this.</ref>

[[Sociological]]ly, people tend to form groups with like-minded people. These social units form a kind of tribe united against the world by an ideology or by an idea. This is evident in [[religious]] groups, but the behavior can occur in ''any'' group that places group cohesion above the need to critically evaluate its claims.

==In religion==
[[File:San Diego Comic-Con 2012 - Church Protesters (7585265946).jpg|thumb|right|325px|Brutally oppressed American Christians protest for equal rights in San Diego.]]
{{cquote|Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.|||Ralph Waldo Emerson<ref>https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson</ref>}}

===Christian fundamentalists===
{{cquote|We're conservative, we're Christian, and therefore we're being attacked.|||[[Jerry Falwell Jr.]],<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/us/politics/coronavirus-liberty-university-falwell.html Liberty University Brings Back Its Students, and Coronavirus Fears, Too: The decision by the school's president, Jerry Falwell Jr., to partly reopen his evangelical university enraged residents of Lynchburg, Va. Then students started getting sick.] by Elizabeth Williamson (March 29, 2020) ''The New York Times''.</ref> falling into Emerson's vulgar mistake}}
[[Christian]] fundamentalists in the [[Bible Belt]] and pretty much everywhere else love to imagine that they are persecuted or "oppressed" whenever they find someone who does not share their particular [[worldview]] (such as [[creationism]], as pointed out in [[talk.origins]]'s archive,<ref>[http://talkorigins.org/indexcc/CH/CH183.html Entry CH183 in Talkorigins.org's index of creationist claims] deals with an example of a persecution claim.</ref> or their stance on abortion and LGBTQ issues) or mocks it. On closer examination of such claims, it's more commonly the case that claims of persecution are better explained as annoyance, fear, and/or anger at the removal of [[privilege]] or the curtailment of their ability to force their views on others. The controversy over [[classroom prayer]] is raised as a case of persecution to prevent Christians from observing their religious beliefs, when in reality the rulings made in the 1960s and 1970s forbade [[Separation of church and state|state schools from sponsoring religious observances]]. 

Students are, in fact, perfectly free to pray of their own accord, on their own initiative, and in their own time (only faculty-led prayer being unconstitutional, as the faculty of public schools are government employees, who are required not to endorse or disfavor any one particular religion; creationism being taught as [[science]] is unconstitutional for the same reason). All that being said, it is easier for believers of [[conspiracy]] theories to bond if they can describe these rulings as being an attack on [[freedom of religion]]<ref group=note>Or in other words, [[Religious freedom|Religious Freedom™]].</ref> for Christians rather than simply [[Reality|Christians being made to follow the same rules as everybody else]]. This perception of freedom of expression was well addressed by Oliver Wendell Holmes when he said "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." More recently, [[Fundamentalist Christianity|Fundamentalist Christians]] (particularly those in the US), will point to the growing prevalence of "[[Satanism]]" (ranging from a monument to [[Baphomet]] to [[Satandidit|pretty much anything that doesn't agree with them or their religion]]) in popular culture, and anti-Christian jokes made by comedians as "proof" of persecution.

Depressingly, most American Christians believe that they are persecuted, according to a 2016 Brookings/PRRI poll.<ref>https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/the-christians-who-believe-theyre-being-persecuted-in-america/488468/</ref> The closest thing to actual "persecution" that exists for American Christians in modern times is "hostility", which is expressed toward conservative Christians by about a third of respondents in the American National Election Study.<ref>[https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/march-web-only/what-christianophobia-looks-like-in-america.html What Christianophobia Looks Like in America], ''Christianity Today'', George Yancey, March 27, 2015</ref>

The [[New Testament]] itself also has a fair bit to say about persecution:
*{{bible|Matthew|5|10}} says, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
*{{bible|John|15|18|19}} says, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."
*{{bible|Romans|12|14}} tells Christians, "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them."
*{{bible|2 Timothy|3|12}} says, "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted," 
Yet when Christians encounter real or imagined persecution, they scream for it to stop ''immediately'', thus creating a [[paradox]] in which at the same time they don't want to be blessed, and they ''certainly'' don't want to bless anyone they think is persecuting them.

===Miscellaneous cults===
Nothing brings a [[cult]] together quite like an army of perceived enemies and persecutors, and in extreme examples this has led to religious cults effectively sealing themselves away from the population as a whole. There is a good deal of cross-pollination between extreme religious beliefs and the [[militia movement]] in America, with variants of Christianity being the most common basis for these followings. David Koresh's [[Waco|Branch Davidians]] cult was rich in conspiracy theories, and led to the very visible siege that resulted in numerous deaths as their compound in Waco was raided by federal agencies. [[David Icke]] is famed as a man who's never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like, and is best known for bizarre claims about alien [[reptilians]] conspiring to control the human race.

==In pseudoscience and alternative medicine==
Proponents of [[pseudoscience]] regularly rail against the [[scientific]] establishment and what they see as concerted efforts to quash anyone who would compete with the [[Scientific consensus|orthodox line]], typically dragging in [[Galileo gambit|comparisons between themselves and Galileo]]. A common example of this is the [[creationist]] line that the prevalence of [[evolutionary biology]] is less to do with scientific [[evidence]] than it is a conspiracy to push ideology or protect the jobs of scientists who toe the party line. The same claim is made by [[global warming conspiracy theory|global warming conspiracy theorists]]. [[Medical]] conspiracies follow a similar line in that proponents of obviously flawed treatments, such as [[homeopathy]], are not dismissed due to lack of evidence, but more because [[Big Pharma]] won't tolerate any threat to their ability to hawk their pills.<ref>[http://www.naturalnews.com/big_pharma.html "Big pharma" and its relentless war against natural remedies]</ref>

==In politics==
[[File:Class War graffiti.jpg|thumb|right|Building a more [[egalitarian]] society, one defaced {{wiktl|chip shop}} wall at a time.]]
{{cquote|[[Racism]] tends to attract attention when it's flagrant and filled with invective. But like all [[bigotry]], the most potent component of racism is [[framing|frame-flipping]] — positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gay do not simply want to marry; they [[homosexual agenda|want to convert our children into sin]]. The Jews do not merely want to be left in peace; they actually are [[International Jewish conspiracy|plotting world take-over]]. And the [[African American|blacks]] are not actually victims of American power, but [[Affirmative action|beneficiaries of the war against hard-working whites]]. This is a respectable, more sensible, bigotry, one that does not seek to [[Argumentum ad hominem|name-call]], preferring instead to change the subject and [[straw man]]. Thus [[segregation]] wasn't necessary to keep the [[nigger]]s in line; it was necessary to [[black brute|protect the honor of white women]].|||Ta-Nehisi Coates<ref>[http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/07/the-case-against-the-naacp/59793/ The NAACP is Right]</ref>}}{{cquote|Oh, come and see the violence inherent in this system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!|||The constitutional peasant, [[Fun:Monty Python#Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)|''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'']]}}

Those who try to rationalize their persecution complexes often turn to political extremism, in particular, the sort that posits some secret or invisible "oppression" of some group of which the persecution complex sufferer is a part.

[[Neo-Nazi]]sm, with its theories of the [[international Jewish conspiracy|secret Jewish conspiracy]] to dominate the world, adapts itself well to this model. Variants on this theme include the [[John Birch Society]]'s [[McCarthyism|conspiracy theories involving communists]] and (more recently) [[wingnut]]s with [[New World Order]] conspiracy theories involving sinister [[liberal]] politicians. For those inclined to the other end of the political spectrum, the numerous variants of [[Marxism]] will also not disappoint, with the theory of cultural hegemony to explain how sinister [[capitalist]]s secretly hold the ''untermenschen'' in enormous interlocking systems of oppression.<ref>See, ''e.g.'', [[Howard Zinn]]'s ''A People's History of the United States''. Although a decent case can be made that such assertions aren't ''entirely'' wrong, a failure to apply [[Hanlon's razor]] often appears here.</ref> A common defense of communism is that communism has never been implemented properly — leading to a variation on the [[no true Scotsman]] fallacy that ignores the basic problems inherent in trying to establish a workers' [[Utopia|paradise]] that doesn't effectively lead to the establishment of a new [[ruling class]].<ref>[http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=aaplw&p=communism+has+never+been+tested A Yahoo search for the phrase "communism has never been tested"]. By the time he died, [[Lenin]] had become convinced that the problem had yet to be solved, but thanks to [[Stalin]], we'll never find out exactly how Lenin intended to clean up the mess.</ref>

The [[Korean Friendship Association]] is a contemporary example of a group built almost entirely on a persecution complex the size of an aircraft carrier. In their [[worldview]], [[North Korea]]'s status as an international pariah that spends [[money]] on missiles rather than feeding its starving population has absolutely nothing to do with the batshit insanity of the [[dictatorship]] of the North Korean government; apologists instead blame [[West]]ern hegemony for conspiring to oppress the glorious revolutionary experiment that is North Korea. Similarly, [[paranoid]] apologetics are used in defense of governments in [[Venezuela]] and the [[Middle East]]. [[Zimbabwe]]'s woes should not be blamed on [[Robert Mugabe]]'s ruinously poor grasp of [[economics]] and his destructive social policies. It's far easier for the ZANU PF (Mugabe's ruling party) to blame former [[colonial]] powers, [[Zionist]]s, the formerly politically dominant white minority, and [[homosexual]]s for the impressive implosion of Zimbabwe under their rule. Attacking external criticism is far easier than tackling internal problems, the resolution of which could undermine the very basis of the group in question.

===Republican Party (United States)===
[[File:Ben garrison-fountains of free speech.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Another brilliant masterpiece from [[Ben Garrison]].<ref group=note>We'd all be ''far'' better off if this was actually true…</ref> (Why does he think we're big on wasting water?)]]
Within United States politics, members of the [[Republican Party]] have developed a persecution complex, believing that news [[media]], universities, pollsters, [[scientists]], [[Hollywood]], and all powerful institutions are arrayed against them. Republicans interpret any negative feedback about their party's popularity or the efficacy of their policies as evidence of anti-Republican bias. This comes through in countless Republican talking points, including:
*"Pollster Bias" — Opinion polls are not always accurate, but historically, they’re no more likely to underestimate support for Republicans than they are to overestimate them.<ref>https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-polls-are-all-right/</ref> Republicans, however, assume that all polls underestimate their candidates and policies. When pollsters find that [[Donald Trump]] has a low approval rating, for example, Republicans respond by pointing out that the polls underrated Trump in the [[2016 U.S. presidential election|2016 election]] — conveniently leaving out that pollsters also underrated [[Barack Obama]] in the [[2012 U.S. presidential election|2012 presidential election]], that they accurately predicted [[Democratic]] victories in 2018, ''et cetera''.
*"[[Deep state]]" — Since becoming president, Trump faced resistance from career civil servants who worked for Executive agencies. Believing that Trump's impulsive, bigoted behavior was immoral and threatened American interests, these individuals leaked information about White House operations, refused to comply with Trump's instructions, and otherwise put some brakes on the Trump Administration. Republicans interpret this not as evidence that people with experience running the Executive Branch view Trump's policies as irrational, but rather as a "deep state" conspiracy to undermine the Trump Administration and destroy America.
*The Climate "Hoax" — Climatologists, atmospheric chemists, geophysicists, and other scientists across the globe have overwhelmingly concluded that [[climate change]] is real, a serious problem, and the result of human activity. Republicans believe that all of these people are involved in a vast international conspiracy to weaken America, establish socialism, or achieve some other nefarious end. Trump famously lent credence to this conspiracy theory when he claimed that "the concept of global warming was created by and for the [[Chinese]] in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." This is a strange claim to make given that China itself has spent billions of dollars to combat climate change through [[renewable energy]] investments; if such investments make a country non-competitive, China would appear to be shooting itself in the foot.<ref>https://qz.com/1247527/for-every-1-the-us-put-into-renewable-energy-last-year-china-put-in-3/</ref>
*[[Gay agenda]] — Also known as the "homosexual agenda", this conspiracy theory holds that [[LGBTQ]] Americans seeking the same legal rights and socio-economic opportunities as their [[heterosexual]] fellow citizens do this for nefarious purposes. Any efforts by schools, businesses, or government agencies to oppose anti-LGBTQ discrimination is seen as evidence that those institutions are controlled by the gay agenda, and not, say, committed to treating gay people as human beings.
*[[Voter fraud]] — Republicans believe that voter fraud is rampant in the modern United States, and that it is the only reason the Democratic Party wins elections. Specific claims include that millions of [[Illegal immigration|undocumented immigrants]] vote in Southwestern states; that voters from [[Massachusetts]] routinely cross into [[New Hampshire]] to vote there; and that in 2016, Trump "won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." At the same time, Republicans appear to ignore the possibility that conservative voters may be cheating in elections. Republicans reject as "biased" the many academic studies suggesting that voter fraud does not occur on anywhere near the scale necessary to swing elections. They also never mention the fact that when voter fraud and other forms of election fraud do occur, it’s often Republicans who benefit from it.<ref>https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2017/07/07/iowa-woman-charged-voting-twice-trump-pleads-guilty/459718001/</ref><ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/candidate-says-new-congressional-election-warranted-in-north-carolina/2019/02/21/acae4482-35e0-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html?utm_term=.66f6044ecb61</ref>
Republicans’ persecution complex has fueled the rise of a right-wing media ecosystem, [[Post-truth|which purports to provide the truth]] that liberal media outlets and universities won't admit. [[Fox News]] is by far the most prominent and powerful part of this ecosystem; other contributors include conservative talk radio outlets, [[think tank]]s like the [[Heritage Foundation]] and the [[American Enterprise Institute]], news sites like [[Breitbart]] and [[Townhall]], and [[Diploma mill|whatever]] [[PragerU]] is supposed to be. These organizations exist in a symbiotic cycle with the Republican persecution complex — conservative media use the persecution complex to gain and keep subscribers, and those media then tell subscribers that they are being persecuted.

==See also==
*[[Delusions of grandeur]]
*[[Argumentum ad martyrdom]]
*[[Big science]]
*[[Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed]]

*[[God's Not Dead]]
*[[Confirmation bias]]
*[[Galileo gambit]]
*[[Hostile media effect]]
*[[Paranoia]]
*[[Science was wrong before]]

==External links==
*[https://player.vimeo.com/video/144026452 White millennial persecution interview]
*[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence] on [[TVTropes]]
*[https://reddit.com/r/Persecutionfetish r/Persecutionfetish - A subreddit dedicated to showcasing persecution complex in action.]

==Notes==
<references group="note"/>

==References==
{{reflist|2}}
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Reverse discrimination]]
[[Category:Scapegoating]]

Categories: Psychology, Reverse discrimination, Scapegoating