The Weaponization of Victimhood
Lilie Chouliaraki
Victimhood has always been a powerful vocabulary in the struggle for justice. Recently, however, in a paradoxical reversal, claims to victimhood are used by the privileged as a strategy for fortifying their positions of power. In an interview with Albena Azmanova, Lilie Chouliaraki addresses what she calls ‘the politics of pain’, discusses the way neoliberalism has enabled the reversal of victimhood, stresses the danger of confusing victimhood with structural vulnerability and advises strategies for countering the weaponisation of victimhood.