Althouse puts up the video of Steven Colbert claiming he is the only martyr in late night. She thought using the word martyr was ill-advised given current circumstances.
A lot of black people and a few white ones were martyred in the Civil Rights era, and everyone has been trying to look just as oppressed and endangered since. Martyr carries an extra implication, that you are being sacrificed not just because of who you are and what you have done, but because you represent a group. "I'm doing this for all of you," is the secret message being Colbert's declaration. They hate all you wonderful people so they are punishing me." Trump didn't use the word, but said something similar a couple of years ago telling the crowd "In the end their not coming after me. They're coming after you - and I'm standing in the way." When it is a killing, and there is a fair connection between the victim and a cause I can see the justification. But not every Hispanic who is killed is being killed for that reason alone, or even mostly. Losing your job? Okay, that's a bad thing, though with celebrities it doesn't inspire pity, just anger.
We have martyr inflation. People want to look like they are just as brave, their cause just as noble, and their enemies just as evil as more traditional martyrs.
1 comment:
I don't see that (in)famous Trump quote to be similar to martyrdom at all. Martyrs all almost always innocents killed for the faith, or at least in a passive position when put to death. I doubt that Joan of Arc would be considered a martyr if she hadn't been executed after capture but had died in battle. The context of the Trump quote is from a man actively engaged in politics as much more of a guardian than a martyr.
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