Victims and Virtues...(DUKE: Justice doesn't compare with the need to believe)

National Review ^ | April 16, 2007 | Michael Barone

[IrishMike]

“We believe these three individuals are innocent.”

The words, soberly spoken by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, bring to an end the unjust prosecution of the three former Duke lacrosse players.

“We have no credible evidence that an attack occurred.”

The motives of the “overreaching” prosecutor, as Cooper called him, are obvious: Prosecuting three white men on charges brought by a black accuser helped him win black votes he needed in an election. The motives of those who rushed to believe the charges—and continued to believe them 366 days after DNA testing implicated none of the players—are something else.

The “Group of 88” Duke professors, journalists for the New York Times, and the Durham Herald-Sun, and heads of black and feminist organizations all seemed to have a powerful emotional need to believe. A need to believe that those they classify as victims must be virtuous and those they classify as oppressors must be villains. A need to believe that this is the way the world usually works.

Except it doesn’t. Cases that fit this template don’t come along very often. In this country, black-on-white crime is far more common than white-on-black crime (black-on-black crime is far more common still). You won’t see the characters exercised by the Duke case looking at the recent case of three University of Minnesota players accused (whether justly or not) of rape—they happen to be black.

[the808bass]

Good article

[econjack]

The “Group of 88” Duke professors, journalists for the New York Times, and the Durham Herald-Sun, and heads of black and feminist organizations all seemed to have a powerful emotional need to believe.

Come on...have the guts to name names. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and the New Black Panthers all rushed to her defense. Jesse even went on record that he would pay for her college education at NC State. None of them have recanted on their charges publicly, and Al is on record as saying he owes no one an apology even though she fabricated the entire story. If I had the money, I'd pay the player's legal bills to sue her, Nifong, Al, Jesse, and the New Black Panthers. She should pay all of the players' legal fees at the very least. This is a travesty.

[cdcdawg]

I am still amazed that nobody seems to be able to figure out what happened. It’s pretty easy to decifer. A bunch of college boys (mostly upper middle class, mostly white) hired a stripper for a party. When two black women showed up, they were not happy. Sorry, but a bunch of white college boys are not going to be as happy about a black stripper as a black college boys would be about a white stripper. That’s just the way it is. One girl was obviously wasted, and names were called and words said.

The supposed “back story” of white men using their power to screw black women 150 years ago is one that is as lost on me as the idea of English landlords enforcing prima nocte on Scottish peasant girls 400 years ago. This is something that happens in the “minds” of Jackson and Sharpton, and on re-runs of Roots. Reality is quite different. Is this something that black women really fear? That white men are just waiting to pounce on them at the first chance?

College kids drink and do all sorts of dumb things. I think it is amazing how puritanical the leftists are on this story. They are shocked at the behavior of college kids these days (while rolling around in the mud on acid 40 years ago was really different, of course). This sort of thing has been going on for at least 20 years that I can verify, and I doubt I witnessed the first. It isn’t good behavior, in fact, it is bad. Just don’t be shocked by something so obvious as the gambling at Rick’s Cafe Americana (Casablanca reference).

The “victim” was not an “exotic dancer” or even just a stripper. She’s a hooker who dances, or a stripper who does more. I have seen a frat-house party where after stripping, the girl proceeded to perform oral sex on one guy after another, for $20.00 each. Again, this was over 20 years ago, and I doubt this was new. It was gross, and demeaning for all participants (I left, and lost what respect I had for those who stayed). I have no doubt that at least some of the Duke lacrosse players would have been looking for something extra if a girl to their liking had shown up. Some would even have wanted to get it on with Ms. Mangum. Rape? Why do that when a few bucks which are nothing to these rich honkies would do it.

We are never going to move closer to racial harmony than where we are right now as long as the VAST majority of black people cannot see right through the O.J. Simpsons and the Crystal Mangums and the Tawanna Brawlys the way most everybody, black or white, saw through the “Runaway Bride.”

[sportutegrl]

So are you saying that the ‘victim’ cried rape because she didn’t get to make a little ‘overtime’? Sounds plausible.

[cdcdawg]

not exactly. I think that’s what she does, but I think she was quite intoxicated, and there was a lot of name calling, probably the “n-word.” Falling down drunk and pissed off, she made up a story to get back at them. I doubt they were all very gentlemanly. From the physical evidence that has been made public, she had already been quite busy (gross!!!).

[bennowens]

It helps the story when you find out that Nifong knew the Mangum family well. He should have steered himself away from this case due to conflict of interest.

[Tolik]

Michael Barone:

...This need to believe that the victim class is always virtuous and the oppressor class is guilty is widespread, and perhaps growing, in this country and abroad. It is particularly strong among those lucky enough to get paid to observe the way most people work and live -- academics, journalists, apparatchiks of advocacy organizations.

We can see the impulse in the rejection by the Public Broadcasting System of a film about moderate Muslims confronting Islamists. PBS says the film isn't ready yet and was tainted by the presence of two conservatives -- imagine! -- on its board of advisers. But lurking behind PBS's decision, I suspect, is a distaste for Muslims who embrace the values of Western oppressors along with sympathy, or something like it, for the Islamist victims.

...At just about the same time, another pillar of the establishment, the BBC, canceled a documentary on Pvt. Johnson Beharry, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his heroism in Iraq. The story, a BBC source said, was "too positive." Or it would antagonize Muslims or war opponents. Beharry, you see, although a West Indian by origin, has joined the oppressor class by serving heroically.

...This urge to see the victim class as virtuous and the oppressor class as villainous leads people in countries like the United States and Britain to sympathize more with our enemies than our defenders. This is not new.

"England is, I believe, the only country in which, during a great war, eminent men write and speak publicly as if they belonged to the enemy," said Lord Salisbury a century ago. Now you can add America to the list.

"Before I left for Iraq," John McCain said in a speech last week at the Virginia Military Institute, "I watched with regret as the House of Representatives voted to deny our troops the support necessary to carry out their new mission. Democratic leaders smiled and cheered as the last votes were counted. What were they celebrating? Defeat? Surrender? In Iraq, only our enemies were cheering."

McCain just doesn't get it. Our enemies are virtuous victims. We are the evil oppressors. Just like those Duke lacrosse players.

Nailed It!
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[blam]

BLOAT.

[tsomer]

I’ve always thought the boys were suffering, ah..., a kind of ‘cognitive dissonance,’on seeing the contrast between what they thought they were ordering and what showed up at their door.

So they said: “get lost, we’re not paying.”

And the drunk strumpets decided: “we’ll show you...”

And there was Nifong.

[Alia]

Good morning, Tolik. :)

Please see: "Pre-empting "social justice" from ruining the American judicial system and American lives?"

[Freee-dame]

(I left, and lost what respect I had for those who stayed).

On 60 Minutes last night, Colin Finnerty said that he had left only a couple of minutes after the girls arrived. I guess that his his lawyer was saving this for a later time in the process. Leaving made the most sense for him as he was already in trouble for a dust-up/underage drinking offense in D. C. He had to endure not only being accused of a rape, but of having people think that he was especially arrogant to stay at such a party when he was already in trouble.

As an aside, 60 minutes probably had one of its highest rated shows when they covered this story last fall. They could have lots of high rated shows if they would do more fact-based reporting, instead of their usual propaganda.

[Tolik]

Arnold Kling, an economist writing for TCSDaily.com , had a great article on this subject: Folk Beliefs Have Consequences [Locke-ism v. Marxism]

He calls this phenomenon a "Falk Marxism" as a folk believe that shape our society.

...Folk Marxism looks at political economy as a struggle pitting the oppressors against the oppressed. Of course, for Marx, the oppressors were the owners of capital and the oppressed were the workers. But folk Marxism is not limited by this economic classification scheme. All sorts of other issues are viewed through the lens of oppressors and oppressed. Folk Marxists see Israelis as oppressors and Palestinians as oppressed. They see white males as oppressors and minorities and females as oppressed. They see corporations as oppressors and individuals as oppressed. They see America as on oppressor and other countries as oppressed.

...The folk Marxist view of Iraq is that the United States is the oppressor, and the groups fighting the United States are the oppressed. At the extreme, Michael Moore and Ted Rall have made explicit statements to this effect. However, even reporters in the mainstream media who are not openly supporting the enemy take this folk Marxist view when they refer to "the insurgency."

If you think about it, the forces fighting America in Iraq consist of former oppressors and would-be future oppressors. But because America is a rich, powerful country, the folk Marxist instinct is to romanticize ("insurgency") the real oppressors and to demonize ("occupation") the real liberators.

...it is striking that the basic narrative of the war coming through the mainstream media is folk Marxist. This is particularly true in Europe, where the folk Marxist view of America's presence in Iraq appears to be broadly and deeply held.

...Under folk Marxism, the oppressed class has inherent moral superiority to the oppressor class ... Class membership trumps individual character in determining moral standing. It should be no surprise that this belief could lead to tyranny and wanton murder by government. It should be no surprise that this belief has failed to improve the lot of those regarded as "oppressed." It inverts Martin Luther King's call to judge people by the content of their character.

...The vast majority of college professors are folk Marxists, even though they do not advocate for Communism. Their folk Marxism is dangerous because they do not even realize the extent to which it colors their world view. Although the academy is also the last bastion of avowed Marxists, it is not the overt Marxists who trouble me. They are not winning converts.

Every day, in big and small ways, academic speech reinforces the view that the world consists of oppressor classes and oppressed classes. In a way, the controversy over Lawrence Summers as President of Harvard reflects his defiance of folk Marxist orthodoxy. Folk Marxism is so automatic and so pervasive that it effectively goes unnoticed.

[reallygone]

I am writing you because I am struck by the fact that no one has brought up this issue!

Libby has been accused of “lying to a Grand Jury” and “Obstructing an investigation”. Those are exactly the same things that Ms. Magnum of the Duke rape case has been confirmed of doing. Apparently like Libby, she has a problem with remembering events. She is also alleged to have tried to “malign the reputations” of others as Wilson says of Libby.

Isn’t it remarkable that no one is charging Magnum? Isn’t it rather obvious that Ms. Magnum’s offense are much more devastating and had a much greater effect and actually undermined the reputations in a much more serious manner? Shouldn’t she receive a greater punishment that Libby? (Or Libby receive less punishment that her?).

Hmmmmmmmm. Very strange!

[Tolik]

Good rant. See my post #13 on this thread for one philosopher/economist explanation of persistence of such views.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

I can’t WAIT until the 2nd “dancer” tells all; meaning the story of that night and everything she knows re the cops and nifong......and when she does, you can bet that Sharpton, Jackson, etc will be conflicted about it.......i.e. another black hoax vs slamming the white cops and prosecutor.....I have faith in Kim Roberts, just a whore by any measure, but someone will meet her price before too long.

Crystal Gail Mangum ought to seriously consider getting her tubes tied before she multiplies any further.

[IrishMike]

The Duke and Libby cases are among many where the key factor is politics, and politics alone.
Whether to get elected as was the case with Nifong,
or to get someone, anyone which was the Fitzpatrick agenda
...... all politics.
Look at the spectacle appointing and confirmation of judges has become.
Compare Ruth Ginsberg, ACLU house counsel, appointed by Clinton ... approved 90+% of the Senate.
Look at just about any Bush appointee.
The DRats display disgraceful acts of self important pompous grand standing and pure partisan pandering politics.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Isn’t it remarkable that no one is charging Magnum? Isn’t it rather obvious that Ms. Magnum’s offense are much more devastating and had a much greater effect and actually undermined the reputations in a much more serious manner? Shouldn’t she receive a greater punishment that Libby? (Or Libby receive less punishment that her?).

I get the impression that the accused and their families feel that Ms. Magnum is a troubled woman who needs help and that it's Nifong, who acted out of political ambition, who is the real villain of this piece.

OTOH, the cynical side of me notes that Nifong is likely to have far deeper pockets than Magnum.

[hinckley buzzard]

A need to believe that those they classify as victims must be virtuous...

This is a very characteristic fallacy of the left. There are psychological reasons, a bit complex but understandable, for the distortion of attributing virtue more or less automatically to designated vicitms. But the bottom line is clear--The global attribution serves to buttress and justify the hostility inherent in the liberal personality disorder. It provides a platform for leftwingers to project their aggression while providing what some have called the "human shield" against accountability.

[Alia]

Very thought-provoking article by Arnold Kling.

My concern with what I call folk Marxism is substantive, not rhetorical. To me, the danger of folk Marxism in the academy today is that it is implicit and unrecognized -- and therefore unquestioned.

I think he is right to make this distinction, and it is applicable on many levels and issues