General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: the tradition of blaming the victim [View all]Alcibiades
(5,061 posts)It's called projection:
I'm a cowardly, paranoid freak who carries a gun at all times.
Therefore, you are, too.
The motives of the folks who defend Zimmerman are even more highly questionable, because they are not as deranged (and no, I know Zimmerman's not deranged in a clinical sense) as Zimmerman. They project their own normalcy onto him: Zimmerman is afraid of black folks, and they are, too, so therefore Zimmerman's behavior is somehow excusable on that basis.
And why not? What I don't get is how the media are excused here. Zimmerman was acting out a violent vigilante fantasy that has been acted out on screen many, many times, particularly since the 1970's, a fantasy wherein the (loser) vigilante somehow reclaims his worth by shooting criminals, especially black criminals. That the person who gets shot might actually be just a 17 year old boy on his way home from the corner store never enters into it in the movies, of course. And, of course, Charles Bronson was able to get five movies out of it without ever killing an innocent person.