Stop teaching people to play the victim

Gerry H.
3 min readAug 20, 2022

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My dad didn’t have a mom and/or a dad. Yes he had biological parents but he was abandoned as a baby and was raised in a home for boys in Germany during the 1930’s. Back in the days when everyone was a big fan of corporal punishment. Not until he was twelve years old was he adopted —and only then because he was able to work and earn.

His early life was rough, pretty much hell in fact, he made it through World War II as a preteen/young teenager in Germany. He was shot at, he stole, and he was stolen from. I do not know much of the specifics because he didn’t tell us (me and my brothers) much before he passed. He was of average intelligence and was addicted to cigarettes and alcohol.

Did he ever whine and cry and play the victim, or when he was young, did he work hard to develop skills and make something of himself? He worked hard and developed skills, eventually becoming a skilled carpenter. He didn’t whine expecting a hand up (or hand out) because he had gotten a bad deal. He worked long hours and got the job done, proved his worth, and eventually made it to middle class. Yes he was “white” but being white when everyone is white is not an advantage.

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I’m not saying it’s easy, nor am I saying a lot of people in this world have not gotten a shitty deal — they have. But that isn’t a reason to not try. My dad started out disadvantaged, but he kept at it, worked long and hard until he made something of himself. When I graduated from high school I did the same, I had two full time jobs, for a bricklayer during the day and at a restaurant evenings and weekends (70 hours a week). I paid my way through university by saving before I went, not by borrowing after I got there (or whining later about debt forgiveness). Anyone who tells claims there is such as thing as “white privilege” is ignorant. If my father or myself were privileged, why did we have to work so fucking hard?

So stop telling people they are disadvantaged, that does not help anyone. Life is hard for most of us (thanks to the rich selfish c#nt elites than run everything), and there is always someone in a better, or worse, position. Seeing someone better off isn’t an excuse to give up.

It’s probably easier than ever to develop skills today: anyone can go to the library and take free online courses. There are a million things to do and learn. Stay in school and work hard. Do anything and everything to learn and develop skills. When the learning stops at one job that means it’s time to move on, change positions, try to take on more responsibility, etc. Do not stagnate.

If a person works hard every day to make something of themselves and they do not give up they will very likely succeed. If a person plays video games all day, steals at night and whines about how disadvantaged they are in-between, I have no sympathy for them. My dad came from nothing, way less than most, but he didn’t ever play the victim.

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Gerry H.

Programmer and avid reader. I have moved to gerryha.gonevis.com because they have a much nicer editor. Google wons Medium.com and censors people.