Privilege

In a response to an article titled "I’ve Experienced Fat Shaming And Thin Shaming And I Can Tell You Which Is Worse", written by and about a woman, a male friend responded via Facebook:

Or, what we could do, is stop ridiculing women.

I'd say we could stop ridiculing all people, but that really discounts my privilege. I may be fat, but since I'm male, it's OK.

Here is an example of what's wrong with the concept of privilege.  The political left views such things as sympathy as a zero-sum game.  Much in the way they view economics, if someone receives sympathy, that means less for someone else.  Therefore, they invoke the concept of privilege and enforce a hierarchy of needs.  In this example, women are classified as less privileged, and thus deserving of all the sympathy when the subject is bullying.

This friend is so caught up in this toxic ideology that he is unable to focus on what needs to be stopped, the objectively bad behavior of bullying.  Because there certainly is privilege involved in any instance of bullying, but it's not based on sex, race, class, or anything else.  Privilege is isolated 100% in the one doing the bullying, who does something objectively wrong with a clear conscience, with the direct support of privileged friends, and the tacit approval of others who decide to look the other way.

He is willing to let himself be bullied because the bullies of the left have convinced him that he deserves it.

If you think about it, the ultimate privilege is getting to be the one who decided who is privileged and who has the first claim to sympathy.  You'll notice the ones doing this are quick to discount their own privilege, seeking to place themselves among the worthy victims.