the.com/oppressor
The villain who insists the real victim is whoever's complaining about them.
means A person or group that uses power unjustly to dominate, control, or crush others.
from From Latin opprimere — 'ob' (against) plus 'premere' (to press) — literally 'to press against' or 'press down.' The same root gives us 'press,' 'pressure,' and 'compress.' It traveled through Old French 'oppresser' into English by the 14th century, keeping its physical sense of weight bearing down intact — an oppressor doesn't just hurt you, they sit on you.
- requires power
- not just meanness, but leverage to enforce it
- self-perception
- almost never sees itself as one
- survives via
- systems that outlast any single tyrant
- undone by
- the oppressed simply refusing to perform consent