The Victim Shield and Analyzing the News

The Victim Shield and Analyzing the News by Bill Wilson 

 

One of my favorite things to do is coach. Coaches tend to watch a lot of video. This helps to break down what works and what doesn't work. I remember teaching my wife a football 101 kind of course on the formations and positions and how to identify certain types of plays. It afforded her a better understanding of how the game works and she has become quite good at conversing about the particulars during games.

This type of breakdown is also helpful in analyzing and discerning the news. There is a playbook that people use to get their points across as well as to manipulate the media. Understanding the plays, gives better insight on how the game is played. Let's discuss the Victim Shield play.

The Victim Shield is simply using victims to make arguments, preempting a counter-argument by droning on about the suffering of the victim-spokesperson.

Alternative opinions must be preceded by proof that the speaker has "sacrificed" more than the victim. The Victim Shield play has many formations and options.

For example, Islamic terrorists in Israel fire rockets from schools or hospitals into unarmed villages. When the Israeli military retaliates, the Islamists claim the Israelis bombed a school or hospital. They use the headlines to curry favor before the United Nations Human Rights Committee by demonstrating how the Israelis devalue the lives of poor Islamic "Palestinians."

Recently, there were news segments and stories asking the question whether Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump had ties to Russia. The genesis of these headlines came from the hacking of the Democratic National Committee's voicemail and email systems, which the Clinton campaign floated as possibly done by the Russians and inferred that Trump was behind it.

Once again, emails revealed Clinton's negligence, mean- spiritedness, and cunning conniving. But her campaign was successful in making her the victim and turning the headline on Trump.

The Clinton's are masters at this.

Benghazi was the result of an anti-Islam video; classified email scandal was a conservative conspiracy; and so on.

The latest in the Victim Shield play is Islamic lawyer Khizr Khan who stood behind his son, a Muslim who lost his life defending America in Iraq.

Khan, an immigration attorney whose business is advocating for illegals and Sharia Law clients, made an accusatory plea for continued carte-blanche immigration of Muslims into America.

Trump comments against immigration of Muslims from known terrorist states were met with "how dare he attack a family who lost a son while defending America."

The Victim Shield play deflected the issue and threw it back on the one pointing out the problem.

Try looking at the news from a Victim Shield perspective and you may find the real game.

As Jesus said in Matthew 24:4, "take heed that no man deceive you."