The Blame Game - Are We a Country of Victims? (ABC News)

Starring:Jason Winer, Christopher Reed, Kara Jane McNamara, Adam Zuvich, Jonathan Givens, Jenna Zablocki
Studio: Mpi Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

an interesting look
A poor excuse for reporting
The Victimization of the Citizens of the US
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The Blame Game - Are We a Country of Victims? (ABC News)
Starring: Jason Winer , Christopher Reed , Kara Jane McNamara , Jonathan Givens , and Jenna Zablocki
Manufacturer: Mpi Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel - Why Everything You Know Is Wrong

ASIN: B000060MVS
Release Date: 2002-11-26

Customer Reviews:

an interesting look.......2007-04-17

THE BLAME GAME: ARE WE A COUNTRY OF VICTIMS? (1994)
directed by George Paul
approx. 50 minutes

This is a good John Stossel ABC special. The subject is whether or not America has become too saturated with "victim mentality".

The show has three parts- first, mostly ridiculous cases of people who could probably do something on their own but take government checks or file frivolous lawsuits to get money. One man says he will not get a job because he knows that will be the end of government "support". A few of the people in this segment that receive government money even say that they believe the system should be closed down due to all the abuse! The portions on silly lawsuits have to be seen to be believed, such as the dude who sued because a bicycle doesn't have a warning label instructing him that its more dangerous to ride an night. Perhaps the most famous person in this segment is Stella Liebeck, the woman who won a lawsuit against McDonald's after she spilled hot coffee on her leg.

The second section deals with what it means to be considered "disabled". This is important for legal purposes due to the passage of the "CITIZENS WITH DISABILITIES ACT". There are strange cases where people either blame common problems (like alcoholism) or classify themselves with new conditions to justify their actions. One example is the dentist who claimed he had a disability that made him fondle female patients! When Stossel asks a lawyer if "we've gone too far", the young man say that we haven't gone far enough! A proponent of the CDA says that cases like these diminish the real reasons the legislation was enacted.

The final section deals specifically with black Americans. Stossel doesn't deny that racism still exists, but shows multiple perspectives from the black community on the subjects or welfare and government programs. Two groups of black immigrants (the first from an unspecified African country, the second from the Carribean) say that government programs make it easier for blacks to become dependent on the system. Al Sharpton gives that perspective that to question government programs for blacks is to trivialize the suffering of victims of the system.
Two books are shown onscreen before this segment- Thomas Sowell's
'CIVIL RIGHTS: RHETORIC OR REALITY?' and Shelby Steele's 'THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER'.

There is a brief conclusion which somewhat clumsily uses a baby as a metaphor for human ambition. This was cheesy and unnecessary. It is true that the episode is light on statistics but this show wasn't on the effectiveness of the government programs or even the number of people involved, it is to show a shift in attitudes on what constitutes victimhood - a somewhat ephemeral concept that has fallen into the legal domain.

This show is very good for starting discussions on the effects of government programs.

A poor excuse for reporting.......2006-09-15

Faced with the possibility of creating an enlightening documentary on modern apathy, John Stossel blows it off in favor of a blatantly lazy and often ridiculous piece of punditry. Throughout the course of the show, Stossel plasters a few frivolous lawsuits across the entire country. Did you or I sue McDonald's? No. But somehow we become a nation of "whiners" by association. He doesn't even look at other countries, or provide a single statistic, as far as I remember. The closest he comes is bypassing the census bureau and walking onto a train for an informal survey of who there was eligible for protection under anti-discrimination laws (basically who is female, over forty, or a minority, something that you really don't need a survey for, but maybe he's just not that perceptive. He never tells us the exact results, either) He goes on to criticize a group of local workers who want a building torn down for making everyone sick, simply because the county had tried some other alternatives which got ridiculous, but didn't work. What did he expect them to do? Give up and keep getting sick and unable to touch their kids? (Some of them couldn't when the disease was at its worst.) He regularly mocks the people he interviews by cutting to another interview with someone who agrees with him and lobbing them softball questions that distort the last person's argument. In order to somehow prove that African Americans won't work low-paying jobs (news to me), he goes around a sea of teenagers to ask a middle-aged man if he would work at McDonalds. Stossel finishes off with some loosely related footage of babies climbing stairs (I kid you not) with some message of how if their parents helped them (like welfare helps the poor) they might lose their initiative and never succeed. I'm not sure how that logic works. This is some of the worst reporting I've ever seen.

The Victimization of the Citizens of the US.......2006-05-30

Stossel brings out many of the false beliefs people have regarding victimhood. Too often, our country seeks to blame others for our misfortune. Stossel brings this out and does so with great clarity without being condescending or judgemental.
If one is interested in becoming a victor instead of just another victim, I strongly urge you to get and watch this video.

description.......2004-11-02

Details
ABC News correspondent John Stossel investigates America's tendency to blame misfortunes on others. From three different angles the "victim mentality" is explored in order to attempt to answer the question: Why should we accept responsibility for what happens to us?

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