The myth of passive victimhood secretly prolonged the older myth of chosenness.

Evidence

That this self-deceiving theory, accompanied by the belief that the Jewish people had always been the passive, suffering object of Christian persecutions, actually amounted to a prolongation and modernization of the old myth of chosenness and was bound to end in new and often very complicated practices of separation, destined to uphold the ancient dichotomy, is perhaps one of those ironies which seem to be in store for those who, for whatever reasons, try to embellish and manipulate political facts and historical records. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 17

Categorization

• XREF: A mechanism parallel to arguments that victimhood narratives in minority discourse can reproduce the very separateness they lament — relevant to analogous claims about Islamophobia discourse.
• DEEPTHINKING: The irony that a self-understanding of pure passivity smuggles back a superiority myth is subtle enough to repay dwelling on — it identifies how oppression narratives can preserve privilege claims.