Ilhan’s Spraying Incident

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Ilhan Omar is under a cloud lately for her highly suspicious financial dealings, and could even be indicted. What better time to play the victim card?

But this incident reeks of inauthenticity. She appears to make eye contact with her attacker just before he gets up, as if she is signaling to him that the time for the attack had come. She walks toward him after he sprays the liquid on her, instead of running away, as any person undergoing an unexpected attack would be likely to do. And she calmly continues her speech, without any apparent concern for the possibility that the substance could be lethal and that she should go wash it off.

Both leftists and Muslims in the U.S. have demonstrated a strong affinity for claiming victimhood, demanding special privileges or consideration in light of the alleged threat they’re experiencing from “MAGA extremists” or “Islamophobes.” They play the victim card with extreme skill in a variety of contexts, attempting to intimidate their critics into silence and give themselves a patina of nobility all in one fell swoop.

Omar’s spraying incident, as transparently fake as it is, is one of the clumsiest examples of this technique, but it’s understandable, after having been coddled for years, that Omar would assume that she could get away with anything, no matter how flimsy.