View source for Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence

{{trope}}
Bob is not free, or so he thinks. On the contrary, he consider himself to be very oppressed. Because there is a certain kind of people that he doesn't like, and they... ''exist''. He's not free to kill them or otherwise remove them, thus he's not free at all.

At best, this is [[Played for Laughs]], often running on [[Rule of Creepy]]. (In this version, the "oppression" may come in the form of [[I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!]] and be portrayed as real). At worst, it may make the character come across as a [[Complete Monster]].

In either case, death-threats or "[[Would Be Rude to Say Genocide|liberation]]" is optional. Whining about how the open existence of other people in itself infringes on one's freedom is enough. Note that it however does ''not'' count to claim that the other group may pose an actual threat in the future.

An [[Evil Overlord]] of the [[Manipulative Bastard]] kind may use this trope as a strategy to cling to power, directing his subjects yearning for freedom into a racist yearning for "[[Final Solution|liberation]]" from the existence of another ethnic group.

Sometimes done by [[Racist Grandma]], [[Heteronormative Crusader]] or [[Troubled Sympathetic Bigot]]. The latter may have homophobia or islamophobia as [[Hollywood Personality Disorders|an actual]] clinical [[The Mentally Disturbed|phobia]] rather than just [[Aggressive Categorism|categorism]].

When this destructive hatred is not focused solely on one group but every human being, it's [[Kill All Humans]]. The next step up is the [[Absolute Xenophobe]], who wants to destroy all other sentient life, human or otherwise. The final one is the [[Omnicidal Maniac]], who wants to kill and destroy literally ''everything''.

{{noreallife|We all know that some people think this way in Real Life. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|Let's just leave it at that]].}}

{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In ''[[Chick Tracts]]'', the [[Straw Loser|non-Christians]] do this quite often. They feel insulted, threatened, even oppressed... not by how the Christians treat them, but by their very existence. Of course, the Christian characters are always loving and righteous [[Soulsaving Crusader]]s, never this trope. They never have any negative feelings towards Gays, Catholics or whatever... It's just that they find it unfortunate that they all deserve to get tortured and raped forever in hell and will get this well-deserved punishment soon enough.
* In ''[[Bitchy Bitch]]'' and ''[[Bitchy Butch]]'', this trope is a stock complaint from various versions of [[The Fundamentalist]], feeling oppressed by the existence of Atheists and Gays and so on. Even when the Atheists and Gays are simply minding their own business. ''Especially'' then, actually, since they thus send the heretical political message that they somehow deserve to exist.
** In ''[[Bitchy Butch]]'', we also have Butchy herself, with these feelings against men and heterosexuals.

== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[The Killing Fields]]'' depicts the Khmer Rouge's application of these principles to those of Vietnamese descent and "intellectuals," a category that included urban professionals and people who wore glasses.
* ''[[Hotel Rwanda]]'' depicts the genocide in that country as a consequence of this logic.
* ''[[I Shot Andy Warhol]]'' is about Valerie Solanas, who apparently came to believe this about all men and consequently published the infamous S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto.
* Part of what distinguishes ''[[The Matrix]]'s'' [[Big Bad]] Agent Smith from his fellow Machines is his belief that human beings are, by their very existence, a destructive virus that must be eradicated. He later [[Omnicidal Maniac|extends this view to all of existence]], his former masters included.
* Somewhat unusually, the ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequel films make this actually true about the Sith; until they're all wiped out, everyone else is threatened by their detrimental effect on "the Balance of the Force."

== [[Literature]] ==
* In the neo-Nazi novel ''[[The Turner Diaries]]'', the Aryan race is finally "liberated" as the protagonists let atomic, biological and chemical bombs rain over the entire planet, exterminating over 90% of mankind. [[Author Tract|This is portrayed as a happy ending]].
* In ''[[Guards! Guards!]]'', most of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night feel like this in their low-grade, resentful way. Notably, this is played for ''laughs''.
{{quote|'''Brother Plasterer''': I reckon my brother's been oppressing me with this new flashy carriage of his. I mean, ''I'' haven't got a carriage. That's oppression, that is.}}
* Another Orwell example occurs in ''[[Animal Farm]]'', where one of the revolution's slogans is "Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad." It's horribly subverted later in the story, however, as  {{spoiler|the ruling class of pigs essentially become human, and teach the sheep to chant "Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better."}}
* An example of this attitude in sixth-century Ostrogothic Italy, as recounted in L. Sprague deCamp's novel ''[[Lest Darkness Fall]]'':
{{quote|"You don't like the Goths?"
"No! Not with the persecution we have to put up with!"
"Persecution?"
"Religious persecution. We won't stand for it forever."
"I thought the Goths let everybody worship as they pleased."
"That's just it! We Orthodox are forced to stand around and watch Arians and Monophysites and Nestorians and Jews going about their business unmolested, as if they owned the country. If that isn't persecution, I'd like to know what is!" }}
* In ''[[Good Omens]]'', R.P. Tyler appears to be one of these, but lacks the passion to do anything but send letter after [[Strongly Worded Letter]] to the local newspaper complaining about everyone and everything that annoys him by its presence - including the fact that the paper doesn't publish all of them because if they did they wouldn't have any room in the Letters to the Editor section for anyone ''else's'' letters.
* Some [[Cosmic Horror]] stories have their human characters [[Go Mad from the Revelation]] that an [[Eldritch Abomination]] ''exists'', in defiance of rationality or experience, even if said Abomination isn't demonstrably trying to harm them.
* In [[Harry Turtledove]]'s alternate history [[Timeline-191]], the Freedom Party (a Confederate [[Expy]] of the Nazis) advocates a CSA "free" of any black population.
* In [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Tempest]]'', a Puritan bringing a young woman through France explains how oppressive it is, in that people who want to purify the Church—by forcing Puritanism on Catholics—are prevented from doing so. How can Puritans be free if they're not allowed to force other people to be Puritans?
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'' has a personal, rather than a racial, example during [[The Reveal]] that  {{spoiler|Snape's hatred of Harry's father was totally justified.}} When asked "what has he ever done to you?", {{spoiler|James Potter's}} response was "it's more the fact that he ''exists''".
** That example aside, the more general [[Fantastic Racism]] against "Mudbloods" has a lot of this, especially in ''Deathly Hallows''.

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* The conversation between Jarod (hero) and Mr Raines (villain) in the first season finale of ''[[The Pretender]]'':
{{quote|'''Jarod:''' You stole me from my parents. You {{spoiler|had the FBI kill my brother}}, and now you're trying to kill my family. What have I ever done to you?
'''Mr. Raines:''' You exist. }}
* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', this is how the Daleks feel about ''all other forms of life''.
* Spoofed on ''[[Married... with Children]]'': Al and [[Fun with Acronyms|NO MA'AM]] often spoke this way about their wives or women in general; in turn, Al's [[Straw Feminist]] neighbor Marcy sometimes said the same about men. In the end of a given episode, both sides are typically undermined by [[Hypocritical Humor]].

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* This is how most of the Imperium in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' feels about aliens, mutants and heretics. Granted in their case it's somewhat justified, considering nearly all the aliens are just as genocidal as they are (and the ones who aren't are being manipulated by a caste of mysterious alien sages for who knows what purpose) and mutants are all vessels, willingly or not, for the power of the Dark Gods.

== [[Theater]] ==
* In the Swedish play ''[[Arne Anka - en afton på Zekes]]'' (based on the ''[[Arne Anka]]'' comics), the titular Arne claims in one drunken rant to be a victim oppressed by the existence of beautiful women.

== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'', the Thalmor believe that not just the existence of mankind, but the existence of the ''possibility'' of mankind, keeps the elves trapped in the normal world.
** The scary thing is that they might actually be right.
* In ''[[Day of the Tentacle]]'', the mutated Purple Tentacle rules a [[Bad Future]] where he and his most loyal followers blame all humans for Dr. Fred's creation their "ungainly forms" and so wish to exterminate them all.
* In ''[[Star Control II]]'', this is the motivation behind the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah's extermination campaigns. Much like the Daleks, they consider all non-Ur-Quan life to be abhorrent. They also think they're doing the universe a favor, since they believe in reincarnation and without any other species to be born into, every soul will eventually become an Ur-Quan.

== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Early in ''[[Homestuck]]'', highblood Eridan hated lowbloods and often tried to commission Vriska for doomsday devices so he could kill them all...for no better reason than because, well, they existed. However, it's heavily implied that he never seriously intended to go through with it and that it was all just to keep up appearances and retain the interest of his [[Morality Pet|moirail]].

== [[Web Original]] ==
* Discussed by ''[[Zinnia Jones]]'' in the episode [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlL-edhMILw Re: "Can't Even Go to the Park"] regarding the blog post [https://web.archive.org/web/20130926184100/http://www.acceptingabundance.com/cant-even-go-to-the-park/ "Can't Even Go to the Park"] which gained international infamy for suggesting that the concepts of "freedom" and "Not outlawing the existence of gay people" are mutually exclusive.
* Just about every devout Khersian thinks this way about Mack in ''[[Tales of MU]]''. Considering she's half-demon and Khersis exists to purge the world of demons, and demons feed on humans, there is some justification. But since she's the protagonist, we are sympathetic to her situation. It doesn't help that the characters who most dehumanize demons in the setting are either [[Jerkass]]es like Gloria and Ariadne or the [[Complete Monster]] Mercy.

== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In the 90's ''[[X-Men (animation)|X-Men]]'' cartoon this is more or less the opinion and motivation of Graydon Creed ( {{spoiler|Despite the fact he appears to be a baseline human born to two mutant parents...who were [[Abusive Parents]] [[Freudian Excuse|because of it]]}}). Keeping in mind he says the following as if it were fact:
{{quote|'''Jubilee:''' What did we ever do to you!?
'''Creed:''' [[Slasher Smile|You were born!]] }}

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[[Category:Prejudice Tropes]]
[[Category:The Only Righteous Index of Fanatics]]