A phrase that means “feigning being violated”

Question

There was a recent phrase I can't remember for feigning being violated.

I know the word perfidy is sometimes used, but that is not what I am looking for. I remember seeing something on the media and I just can't remember it.

It's like when someone takes offense for something that was never meant offensively, making a big to do about nothing. Similar to positioning oneself to assume the worst in people, never assuming the other person made a genuine mistake.

Think of a person bumping into someone accidentally, and the other person acts as if they have been physically assaulted.

Answer 1

Is it feigned outrage? That has around an order of magnitude more hits than "feigned umbrage" on Google (21K vs. 1.5K) and appears as a phrase used by politicians across the spectrum. For example:

Yet for all these exacting efforts to do a hard and necessary job and to do it right, we hear from some quarters nothing but feigned outrage based on a false narrative. (Dick Cheney, in an op-ed)

And:

In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, President Bill Clinton said there was something “completely disingenuous about the feigned outrage” from conservatives over the MoveOn ad. (via ThinkProgress)

Answer 2

"Feigned Umbrage" sounds sort of clunky and perhaps both words are not commonly used, but I think it perfectly and unambiguously describes the situation, a version of which came to mind yesterday during Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress.

Answer 3

how about: To cry wolf?

As it relates to the taxi example: "Make a mountain of a molehill" or perhaps more on point: "To lay it on thick".

As for Perfidy, i believe it would be acceptable to use Perfidity.

Answer 4

Nouns that might suit your description of a serious and deliberate misreprentation of events:

canard
1. a false or baseless, usually derogatory story, report, or rumor.

or

calumny
1. a false and malicious statement designed to injure the reputation of someone or something:
The speech was considered a calumny of the administration.
2. the act of uttering calumnies; slander; defamation.

Other possible words include fabrication, misrepresentation, distortion, hyperbole, exaggeration, misinterpretation, sensitivity (in descending order of intent to discredit).

For a phrase, what about "take umbrage"?

For further directions to pursue, you could start with lie in a thesaurus.

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LATE EDIT:

playing the victim (Wikipedia):

"Victim playing (also known as playing the victim or self-victimization) is the fabrication of victimhood for a variety of reasons such as to justify abuse of others, to manipulate others, a coping strategy or attention seeking. Where a person is known for regular victim playing, the person may be referred to as a professional victim."

Answer 5

The phrase that best encapsulates this idea that I can think of would be :

Affected offense

Used here - By John Knox, reference - The Works of John Knox, Volume 6

If you are looking for a noun that comes closest, I would say a nitpicker is close, especially in the "pedantic fault-finding" sense of the word.

Nitpicker

Derived from

Nitpicking "Fussy or pedantic fault-finding"