victim = 'feckless irresponsible individual'

[Jonathan Lighter]

Remember how "hero" is expanding to include a kind of victim?

For the past 24 hours I've heard and read numerous comments to the effect
that Mitt Romney "considers 47% of voters to be victims."

But he doesn't. He said they think of *themselves* as victims. Because Mitt
Romney still seems to know what "victim" means  .

Of course, most people want to help victims, but that's not the point. The
point is that Romney didn't say that putative people who believe the
government owes them "medical care, food, housing, you name it" are, in
*his* opinion, "victims."

But that's how the press, pundits, and public are telling it, even when
they go on to clarify the details.  GOP as well as Dem pundits.  At some
level of their consciousness a "victim" is a kind of "loser."

Nowadays it shows weak character to be a "victim."

Instead of a "survivor."

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org