The War on Dignity: The Rise of Victimhood Culture
29th June 2018
In 2011, a group of University of Wyoming students created a Facebook group called “UW Crushes,” where they shared anonymous declarations of attraction to one another. The police were called to investigate when one anonymous poster wrote: “I want to hatef–k Meg Lanker Simons so hard That chick runs her liberal mouth all the time and doesn’t care who knows it. I think its [sic] hot and it makes me angry. One night with me and shes [sic] gonna be a good Republican bitch.” Students who were members of the group asked the group’s administrators to remove the post. But Lanker Simons objected: “Actually, I want this to stay up. This is disgusting, misogynistic, and apparently something the admins of this page think is a perfectly acceptable sentiment.” She continued: “Even if it is taken down, I’m left to wonder if there’s someone out there with a violent fantasy about me—and likely other women.” Police later determined that the post was a hoax and that the threat had been written by Meg Lanker Simons herself. Before the police arrived at this conclusion, a rally against “rape culture” had been held at the university.