Casey Chalk of the Federalist explores a critical problem within today’s legacy media.
What do you get when you marry victimhood and narcissistic self-worship? Today’s woke ideologue journalist. For it is left-wing journalists resting upon their precarious perch in corporate legacy media who, despite (admittedly declining) wealth and influence, believe they are actually victims worthy of America’s sympathy and support.
They are the oppressed, beleaguered heroes keeping the fires of truth burning in these dark days of reinvigorated conservative cultural and political dominance, waging a fearless battle against patriarchy and racism. They also happen to have sufficient wealth and free time to indulge in some of the priciest and most self-absorbed activities that define our digital age. One need look no further than a recent column by The Washington Post’s Karen Attiah to observe the paradox.
Attiah presents the perfect example of how the contemporary obsession with victimhood and self-absorption are actually one and the same thing. Her op-ed begins by talking about how much she hated being skinny. As a teenager, she claims she was subject to stereotypes about “underfed Africans.” She yearned to be strong so she could be “a threat to the gender system.”
When Attiah began working out at a gym post-Covid, she started to put on muscle. She admits her physical labor was motivated by a vain desire to improve her body. …
… Yet despite her obvious “flexing” about her body, Attiah’s article is also peppered with digressions about women’s bodily and financial autonomy, and how women are “realizing that men are not unfailing providers and protectors.” She complains about strangers squeezing her arms without asking, while “random men” demand to arm wrestle or suggest fighting her. She’s even apparently threatened not only by conservative women but by women who want to get pregnant.
That the editors at The Washington Post didn’t perceive the bizarre hypocrisy in this piece demonstrates how little they have learned despite their recent shakeup. Attiah is a self-described victim of a white supremacist and patriarchal American society — yet she also has sufficient money for gym memberships and vitamins and the time to gain 20 pounds of muscle. Did I mention she’s a Washington Post columnist who has won awards for her “journalism”?
