A
symptom common in several personality disorders is placing blame for all
of one's own problems, or all the world's problems, on not only another
person, but also on an entire group of humans.
This is nearly always a learned behavior AND perception from childhood, from the influence of other people around the person as they were growing up.
That's why whatever group is getting "blamed" for everything in one household in the community is ALSO the same group getting "blamed" for everything in several other households in the same community.
If you go to another community in another region, it will be a DIFFERENT group that's getting blamed for everything.
Often this "bad" group is the opposite sex, or sometimes one's own sex. In other words, it's the fault of WOMEN that my life is terrible, men are pretty much innocent and so am I... or it's the fault of MEN.
Not as a joke, the person will say something like " MEN are all....only after one thing... all con artists...all control freaks...all dogs..." etc., and they actually mean "All men."
Or they'll say something like "All Women are (or "All YOU women are...).. all the same... they all want such and such, or they're all so-and-so."
Or this "bad group" might be "all rich people" or "all poor people", "all black people" or "all white people", "all Democrats" or "all Republicans", "all older people" or "all young people", "all non-religious people", or "all Christians", "all Europeans", "all Americans", "all those people on the other side of town", "all those kids with the leather jackets", "all those adults with the business clothes", etc., etc.
Humans, and especially those with personality disorders, tend to have a problem with grouping OTHER people together and making them into "enemies" who are "inferior", while whomever they identify with as their "own group" is apparently completely wonderful, without blame, innocent, and pure as the driven snow.
So when they have problems in their life, they often group people together based on any superficial trait, and then make that entire group into the Enemy, so they have somewhere to dump ALL or MOST OF the blame for their problems. People OTHER THAN themselves, OTHER THAN the GROUP who they identify themselves with.
Unfortunately, children who are exposed to this can end up believing whatever they hear being said, and internalize it. So they can end up growing up to loathe and disrespect either the opposite sex or their OWN sex. Or often people of certain races or ancestries, financial "classes", certain regions, certain social, political, or religious groups, civil servants, etc.
Whoever the adults around them grouped together and made "enemies" out of, the children will often grow up hating or disrespecting as well, just because they grew up listening to the adults. And then when they end up having some kind of issue or conflict with a person of that sex, race, class, or whatever, they will see it as confirmation that the bias against them was TRUE!
BUT... when they have a conflict with someone who they identify themselves with, (like another man, or another woman, or another person of their own race), they WILL NOT take it as anything more than just a conflict, like they did with the other person.
In fact, they will usually DOWNPLAY the conflict with the person they identify themselves with, and IGNORE obvious signs that the person has a manipulative or sinister agenda.
So when a person they have prejudice against already simply disagrees with them, they'll often fly into a rage, or Ad Hominem attacks and insults against the person, or judge them to an extreme extent, perhaps try to humiliate or sabotage them, even attack them if their mental illness is severe enough.
But when a person whom they IDENTIFY WITH disagrees with them, that's just "normal conversation"... If that person does something that's ACTUALLY "bad", such as assault, theft, rape, black market trafficking, or other attack, they probably won't REJECT the person, and they might say something like "oh that was a bad choice you made.." or "Oh he/she was down on their luck" or "I'm sure it wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds." or "He/she couldn't help it."
Since they are SO SYMPATHETIC to people whom they identify with personally, they then think of themselves as a "Nice Person".
They'll also tend to display "integrity" and "ethics" toward the group they identify themselves with, but NOT toward groups they've made into "Other" or "Enemy".
SO, if they identify themselves as a "Black MAN", then when another Black MAN comes into their auto mechanic shop, they will probably make sure he gets "proper customer service" and will give him a "good price", because they're such a "good guy"...
But if a woman of African descent (in other words Black WOMAN, not a Black MAN).. comes into their auto mechanic shop, they may or may NOT be honest about the repairs her car needs, or DOESN'T need, and they may or may NOT charge her the same price for the same service that they just charged the man.
It doesn't matter what THEY are, or what they identify themselves AS. It can be ANY race, ancestry, financial class, either sex, ANY KIND of POSSIBLE WAY TO GROUP HUMANS TOGETHER.
The group they identify themselves with gets treated with "integrity", "respect", "ethics", and "sympathy", but not OTHER groups. Therefore they don't ACTUALLY HAVE integrity or ethics.
~(Where else could it come from?)
Besides humans having a tendency to be "tribal", prejudiced, and hostile toward others who are not just like themselves, this issue CAN be a ripple from a larger Cultural effect from real events in the history of a region, or the history of an ancestry, such as obvious historical examples such as European Caucasians attacking and oppressing Native Americans, or keeping Africans as slaves and oppressing them. Or men in many countries including America and Europe purposely oppressing women of all ancestries in order to keep control (of pretty much everything) until quite recently in modern history, including their own kin. There are thousands of examples of one group attacking, oppressing, or killing another, over and over throughout human history, from the Egyptians to the Romans to the Africans to the Middle East, from Genghis Khan to Caesar to King Ramses, thousands that we can read about, and thousands that were not recorded. Or in current times, Middle Eastern men oppressing, and even killing their own female kin, and attacking and killing others who are not exactly the same as they are. Or Chinese people killing their own babies in the name of population control. Or African men who rape their own female kin as a "sport". There are hundreds of examples NOW, in THIS CURRENT era of one group of humans attacking or oppressing another group.
It's not hard to understand why many people would latch onto resentment toward ALL the members of a group who attack or oppress another group. as if they ALL participate in these acts, as if they're ALL of the same mindset. But reality is actually quite different. Of COURSE not ALL European Caucasians willingly participated in oppressing Native Americans or Africans. If that were the case, there would have been no Civil War, no Underground Railroad, no Caucasian people fighting OTHER Caucasians, often risking or losing their lives, for the freedom, rights, and protection of Natives and Africans. It was MEN who actually changed the laws to stop oppressing the freedom and rights of women, because they were the ones holding the QUILLS to re-write the laws. It was not ALL men who wanted women not to have rights, it was SOME men, who apparently suffered from the same mental illness issues this article is about.
There HAVE been some groups where ALL of the members were of the same mindset when they were attacking or oppressing another group, but that's not usually the case. That's usually found in smaller bands of individuals who are displaying extremely aggressive behavior, who share some sort of severe psychosis, or who are all under the influence of either terror or drugs, being led by one or a handful of psychopaths. Hitler is one of the most poignant examples of this. He had a few fellow psychopaths who helped him keep the rest of the people in the Nazi party in a state of perpetual FEAR. Only those with serious mental illness or psychosis actually willingly helped and participated in the notoriously hideous actions. Others who reluctantly participated did it in reaction to fear of death, torture, or fear of their families being killed (which was threatened often). Still others pretended to participate in order to avoid those horrific consequences, and still others fought against the Nazi party from the "inside", protecting and hiding people at their own peril, or helping the "Allies".
It's always like that in larger groups of humans. ALL of the members of any group are not going to be willing participants in harming or oppressing, or even disrespecting other human beings.
This is nearly always a learned behavior AND perception from childhood, from the influence of other people around the person as they were growing up.
That's why whatever group is getting "blamed" for everything in one household in the community is ALSO the same group getting "blamed" for everything in several other households in the same community.
If you go to another community in another region, it will be a DIFFERENT group that's getting blamed for everything.
Often this "bad" group is the opposite sex, or sometimes one's own sex. In other words, it's the fault of WOMEN that my life is terrible, men are pretty much innocent and so am I... or it's the fault of MEN.
Not as a joke, the person will say something like " MEN are all....only after one thing... all con artists...all control freaks...all dogs..." etc., and they actually mean "All men."
Or they'll say something like "All Women are (or "All YOU women are...).. all the same... they all want such and such, or they're all so-and-so."
Or this "bad group" might be "all rich people" or "all poor people", "all black people" or "all white people", "all Democrats" or "all Republicans", "all older people" or "all young people", "all non-religious people", or "all Christians", "all Europeans", "all Americans", "all those people on the other side of town", "all those kids with the leather jackets", "all those adults with the business clothes", etc., etc.
Humans, and especially those with personality disorders, tend to have a problem with grouping OTHER people together and making them into "enemies" who are "inferior", while whomever they identify with as their "own group" is apparently completely wonderful, without blame, innocent, and pure as the driven snow.
So when they have problems in their life, they often group people together based on any superficial trait, and then make that entire group into the Enemy, so they have somewhere to dump ALL or MOST OF the blame for their problems. People OTHER THAN themselves, OTHER THAN the GROUP who they identify themselves with.
Unfortunately, children who are exposed to this can end up believing whatever they hear being said, and internalize it. So they can end up growing up to loathe and disrespect either the opposite sex or their OWN sex. Or often people of certain races or ancestries, financial "classes", certain regions, certain social, political, or religious groups, civil servants, etc.
Whoever the adults around them grouped together and made "enemies" out of, the children will often grow up hating or disrespecting as well, just because they grew up listening to the adults. And then when they end up having some kind of issue or conflict with a person of that sex, race, class, or whatever, they will see it as confirmation that the bias against them was TRUE!
BUT... when they have a conflict with someone who they identify themselves with, (like another man, or another woman, or another person of their own race), they WILL NOT take it as anything more than just a conflict, like they did with the other person.
In fact, they will usually DOWNPLAY the conflict with the person they identify themselves with, and IGNORE obvious signs that the person has a manipulative or sinister agenda.
So when a person they have prejudice against already simply disagrees with them, they'll often fly into a rage, or Ad Hominem attacks and insults against the person, or judge them to an extreme extent, perhaps try to humiliate or sabotage them, even attack them if their mental illness is severe enough.
But when a person whom they IDENTIFY WITH disagrees with them, that's just "normal conversation"... If that person does something that's ACTUALLY "bad", such as assault, theft, rape, black market trafficking, or other attack, they probably won't REJECT the person, and they might say something like "oh that was a bad choice you made.." or "Oh he/she was down on their luck" or "I'm sure it wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds." or "He/she couldn't help it."
Since they are SO SYMPATHETIC to people whom they identify with personally, they then think of themselves as a "Nice Person".
They'll also tend to display "integrity" and "ethics" toward the group they identify themselves with, but NOT toward groups they've made into "Other" or "Enemy".
SO, if they identify themselves as a "Black MAN", then when another Black MAN comes into their auto mechanic shop, they will probably make sure he gets "proper customer service" and will give him a "good price", because they're such a "good guy"...
But if a woman of African descent (in other words Black WOMAN, not a Black MAN).. comes into their auto mechanic shop, they may or may NOT be honest about the repairs her car needs, or DOESN'T need, and they may or may NOT charge her the same price for the same service that they just charged the man.
It doesn't matter what THEY are, or what they identify themselves AS. It can be ANY race, ancestry, financial class, either sex, ANY KIND of POSSIBLE WAY TO GROUP HUMANS TOGETHER.
The group they identify themselves with gets treated with "integrity", "respect", "ethics", and "sympathy", but not OTHER groups. Therefore they don't ACTUALLY HAVE integrity or ethics.
~(Where else could it come from?)
Besides humans having a tendency to be "tribal", prejudiced, and hostile toward others who are not just like themselves, this issue CAN be a ripple from a larger Cultural effect from real events in the history of a region, or the history of an ancestry, such as obvious historical examples such as European Caucasians attacking and oppressing Native Americans, or keeping Africans as slaves and oppressing them. Or men in many countries including America and Europe purposely oppressing women of all ancestries in order to keep control (of pretty much everything) until quite recently in modern history, including their own kin. There are thousands of examples of one group attacking, oppressing, or killing another, over and over throughout human history, from the Egyptians to the Romans to the Africans to the Middle East, from Genghis Khan to Caesar to King Ramses, thousands that we can read about, and thousands that were not recorded. Or in current times, Middle Eastern men oppressing, and even killing their own female kin, and attacking and killing others who are not exactly the same as they are. Or Chinese people killing their own babies in the name of population control. Or African men who rape their own female kin as a "sport". There are hundreds of examples NOW, in THIS CURRENT era of one group of humans attacking or oppressing another group.
It's not hard to understand why many people would latch onto resentment toward ALL the members of a group who attack or oppress another group. as if they ALL participate in these acts, as if they're ALL of the same mindset. But reality is actually quite different. Of COURSE not ALL European Caucasians willingly participated in oppressing Native Americans or Africans. If that were the case, there would have been no Civil War, no Underground Railroad, no Caucasian people fighting OTHER Caucasians, often risking or losing their lives, for the freedom, rights, and protection of Natives and Africans. It was MEN who actually changed the laws to stop oppressing the freedom and rights of women, because they were the ones holding the QUILLS to re-write the laws. It was not ALL men who wanted women not to have rights, it was SOME men, who apparently suffered from the same mental illness issues this article is about.
There HAVE been some groups where ALL of the members were of the same mindset when they were attacking or oppressing another group, but that's not usually the case. That's usually found in smaller bands of individuals who are displaying extremely aggressive behavior, who share some sort of severe psychosis, or who are all under the influence of either terror or drugs, being led by one or a handful of psychopaths. Hitler is one of the most poignant examples of this. He had a few fellow psychopaths who helped him keep the rest of the people in the Nazi party in a state of perpetual FEAR. Only those with serious mental illness or psychosis actually willingly helped and participated in the notoriously hideous actions. Others who reluctantly participated did it in reaction to fear of death, torture, or fear of their families being killed (which was threatened often). Still others pretended to participate in order to avoid those horrific consequences, and still others fought against the Nazi party from the "inside", protecting and hiding people at their own peril, or helping the "Allies".
It's always like that in larger groups of humans. ALL of the members of any group are not going to be willing participants in harming or oppressing, or even disrespecting other human beings.
