The Rise of Victimhood Culture : Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and the New Culture Wars

__The Rise of Victimhood Culture__ offers a framework for understanding recent moral conflicts at U.S. universities, which have bled into society at large. These are not the familiar clashes between liberals and conservatives or the religious and the secular: instead, they are clashes between a new moral culture―victimhood culture―and a more traditional culture of dignity. Even as students increasingly demand trigger warnings and “safe spaces,” many young people are quick to police the words and deeds of others, who in turn claim that political correctness has run amok. Interestingly, members of both camps often consider themselves victims of the other. In tracking the rise of victimhood culture, Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning help to decode an often dizzying cultural milieu, from campus riots over conservative speakers and debates around free speech to the election of Donald Trump. Acknowledgments......Page 6 Prologue: After the Election......Page 9 References......Page 17 Contents......Page 23 Chapter 1: Microaggression and the Culture of Victimhood......Page 26 The Microaggression Program......Page 28 Critics of the Microaggression Program......Page 31 Microaggression and Moral Polarization......Page 36 A Culture of Honor......Page 37 A Culture of Dignity......Page 39 A Culture of Victimhood......Page 40 Beyond Microaggression......Page 41 Why Call It Victimhood Culture?......Page 46 Moral Status and Victimhood......Page 47 The Cultural Contradictions of Victimhood......Page 49 The Unconventionality of Victimhood Culture......Page 50 References......Page 52 Chapter 2: Microaggression and the Structure of Victimhood......Page 62 The Sociology of Conflict......Page 63 Conflict and Third Parties......Page 65 Gossip, Protest, and Complaint to Authority......Page 66 Social Structure and Moral Dependency......Page 67 The Logic of Microaggression Campaigns......Page 72 The Structural Logic of Partisanship......Page 73 The Structure of Campaigns......Page 75 Partisanship and Conflict Severity......Page 81 Domination as Deviance......Page 83 Microaggression as Overstratification......Page 84 Microaggression as Underdiversity......Page 85 The Social Structure of Microaggression......Page 87 Purity and Tolerance......Page 89 References......Page 91 Chapter 3: Trigger Warnings, Safe Spaces, and the Language of Victimhood......Page 96 Trigger Warnings......Page 99 Safe Spaces......Page 104 The Harms of Safety......Page 109 The Language of Harm......Page 111 Moral Vocabulary......Page 112 Changing Concepts......Page 114 Failure to Communicate......Page 118 The Harms of Harm......Page 120 References......Page 122 Chapter 4: False Accusations, Moral Panics, and the Manufacture of Victimhood......Page 130 The Logic of False Accusations......Page 131 Accusations Against Individuals......Page 132 Accusations Against Groups......Page 134 Hate Crime Hoaxes......Page 136 Credulity and False Accusations......Page 139 Due Process and False Accusations......Page 140 False Accusations and Moral Panics......Page 142 The Duke University Rape Hoax......Page 146 The University of Virginia Rape Hoax......Page 148 “Rape Culture” and Moral Panic......Page 152 References......Page 159 Chapter 5: Opposition, Imitation, and the Spread of Victimhood......Page 167 Why Moral Cultures Spread......Page 169 Moral Culture and Child Socialization......Page 170 Learning Victimhood......Page 172 Moral Culture and Social Class......Page 174 Class and Victimhood......Page 176 Victimhood as Cultural Capital......Page 178 Opposition and Backlash......Page 179 Competitive Victimhood......Page 185 Conservative Victims......Page 187 Purity Spirals......Page 191 References......Page 195 Chapter 6: Sociology, Social Justice, and Victimhood......Page 201 The Promise of Sociology......Page 204 Sociology and the Enlightenment......Page 205 Value-Free Sociology......Page 207 Sociological Technology......Page 209 The Promise of Social Justice......Page 210 Social Justice and Victimhood Culture......Page 214 Sociology’s “Sacred Project”......Page 216 The Rejection of Value-Free Sociology......Page 220 Conflict Theory and Victimhood Culture......Page 221 Public Sociology and the Triumph of Victimhood Culture......Page 225 Beyond Sociology......Page 227 References......Page 231 Chapter 7: Victimhood, Academic Freedom, and Free Speech......Page 237 The Idea of Free Speech......Page 240 Free Speech and the First Amendment......Page 242 Free Speech and the University......Page 245 Free Speech and Academic Freedom......Page 246 The Idea of Censorship......Page 247 Speech and Status......Page 248 Speech as Violence......Page 249 Censorship, Academic Freedom, and the First Amendment......Page 251 Censorship on Campus......Page 253 Riots, Censorship, and Visiting Speakers......Page 255 Riots, Censorship, and Professors......Page 259 Title IX, Bias Response Teams, Censorship, and Students......Page 262 Right-Wing Censorship......Page 264 References......Page 267 Chapter 8: Conclusion......Page 273 The Puzzle of Moral Cultures......Page 274 Sociology as Deviance......Page 277 Clarifying the Campus Culture Wars......Page 279 Moral Technology......Page 283 References......Page 288 Index......Page 290 "The Rise of Victimhood Culture offers a framework for understanding recent moral conflicts at U.S. universities, which have bled into society at large. These are not the familiar clashes between liberals and conservatives or the religious and the secular: instead, they are clashes between a new moral culture--victimhood culture--and a more traditional culture of dignity. Even as students increasingly demand trigger warnings and "safe spaces," many young people are quick to police the words and deeds of others, who in turn claim that political correctness has run amok. Interestingly, members of both camps often consider themselves victims of the other. In tracking the rise of victimhood culture, Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning help to decode an often dizzying cultural milieu, from campus riots over conservative speakers and debates around free speech to the election of Donald Trump."--Back cover. The Rise of Victimhood Culture offers a framework for understanding recent moral conflicts at U.S. universities, which have bled into society at large. These are not the familiar clashes between liberals and conservatives or the religious and the secular: instead, they are clashes between a new moral culture--victimhood culture--and a more traditional culture of dignity. Even as students increasingly demand trigger warnings and zsafe spaces,y many young people are quick to police the words and deeds of others, who in turn claim that political correctness has run amok. Interestingly, members of both camps often consider themselves victims of the other. In tracking the rise of victimhood culture, Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning help to decode an often dizzying cultural milieu, from campus riots over conservative speakers and debates around free speech to the election of Donald Trump. Annotation Offers a framework for understanding recent moral conflicts at U.S. universities, which have bled into society at large. These are not the familiar clashes between liberals and conservatives or the religious and the secular: instead, they are clashes between a new moral culture - victimhood culture - and a more traditional culture of dignity. Even as students increasingly demand trigger warnings and 'safe spaces', many young people are quick to police the words and deeds of others, who in turn claim that political correctness has run amok