everyone trying to out-soy each other in how they’re the most persecuted and misunderstood

I'm still baking this hypothesis, but I think that the way that the American civil religion metabolized the Civil Rights movement gave half the people in this country a persecution fetish. Even the richest, privilegedest, most winningest people feel like they're being persecuted all the time because they are actively projecting themselves into the almost saintlike role of the prosecuted minority.