Denying harm often requires an anecdote that quietly disqualifies the actual victims
Evidence
Gamache was shaken by this outburst. Once again, he got up to leave, but Riley had not stopped talking. He was telling Gamache, his tone calmer now, that he had a case of leukemia in his own family, his sister’s boy who lived in Rhode Island. “And I’m not being fresh, but he never drank a drop of Woburn water. I’m well aware of the emotional problems caused by this sort of thing.” — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 441
Categorization
- XREF: Business-as-familiar-defence — connects to: Proliferating victimhood claims blur genuine from strategic and fuel mutual status contestation. — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations:…, 27; Perpetrators excuse harm by displacing blame and dehumanizing victims; Lack of feedback on victims’ suffering enables harm denial as free speech — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 482 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Perpetrators excuse harm by displacing blame and dehumanizing victims
#expands(0.85) - Devaluing victims as weak targets suppresses guilt in wrongdoers.
#expands(0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1411 - People derogate their victims to justify having harmed them.
#expands(0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3962 - Lack of feedback on victims’ suffering enables harm denial as free speech
#complicates(0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 482