Dehumanizing the enemy

[sueragingroz]

I'm listening to Randi right now and she and a caller are talking about the possibility that the members of the Bush Regime are somehow less than human.

I know that it is very tempting to de-humanize your "enemy" no matter who that "enemy" is, it's a slippery slope. It doesn't matter who does it. It's still wrong.

The only way in my mind that I can understand what Isreal is doing to Lebanon and Palestine is to realize that there is some de-humanizing going on in the minds of the government..

[CuteNFuzzy]

1. excellent point

we are all in this together, however bleak that outlook may seem

[sweetheart]

2. but they *are* less than human

I agree with your point, just we've gotta start by disempowering the criminals.

[DELUSIONAL]

8. The bush/neocon gang has no empathy for others

and that makes them less than human.

When others become just a number -- just collateral damage that certainly implies a lack of empathy.

The bush/neocons have no empathy for the environment for the 'aina (land/earth) thus they are less than human. Without the 'aina for all of us to survive -- the human race may not make it to the next hundred years.

[sweetheart]

9. It pains me every time i see those men

Its like they've got a broken septum in their brains, and they can't feel
anything... and I who *can* feel the things they dont' feel, feel their denial
and their pain doubly for the denial all screwed up in their false smiles
mounted on animals cringing in layers of fear polished to look like armour.

Demon bodies, made up of little scales of fear, utterly harmless in the light,
why do we let them inhabit the bunkers of DC in the dark.

[cali]

3. I agree

We are all humans, and it is a slippery slope indeed to categorize people you oppose as something other than human.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Isn't that the same thing also happening to Israel and Israelis?

You call it a "slippery slope," and it is. However, as you said, it shouldn't matter who does it; it's still wrong.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. Can you clarify that?

Do you mean something along the lines of

"Israelis are being regarded as less than human my the majority/a large minority of Americans/DUers"

or

"The majority/ a large minority of Israelis are coming to regard their neighbours as less than human"?

I think the former is clearly false and the latter worryingly true.

[Behind the Aegis]

10. Clarification....

...."BREAKING NEWS: Another Dead Israeli" -- mocking the death of Israelis

..."The Israelis are too irresponsible to have their own nation."

..."The Israeli killing machine..."

..."Israelis only care about expanding their boundaries."

..."Israelis are committing genocide."

..."Israelis don't care about anyone but themselves."

..."Why are some Americans more loyal to another country?"

..."Israel has no right to exist."

..."Israel was a mistake that needs to be corrected."

..."Israelis are blood-thirsty warmongers and only care about conquest."

Is that enough?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

11. Yes.

It doesn't make your case, but it makes it clear what your case is, which is what I was wondering.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. IT does make the case that some are dehumanizing Israelis!

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. I don't think it does

None of the things you list is an example of *dehumanising*. All are hostile to Israeli actions; many are hostile to all Israeli people, but those that are are based around the unspoken assumption that Israelis are *bad* people, not that they are *not* people. That's a harmful and mistaken assumption, but it's far less bad than the other.

What I have never seen, on DU or elsewhere, is people talking about what the Palestinians should do as though they were the only people involved in the conflict. I very often see people talking the reverse, including - worryingly - people who don't seem to be all that strongly anti-Palestinian.

I think the cause of the problem is probably the same that Israel attracts disproportionately more media attention than Zimbabwe, or Myanmar, or other states committing atrocities: Israeli's are rich and white, and Palestinians are poor and brown.

[genie_weenie]

15. Israeli's are white??? Palestinians are brown???

Ummm, okay what are you basing that on?

[Lefty48197]

5. They are certainly IDIOTS, but human nonetheless.

I do think that Hezbollah has "dehumanized" the Israelis (the Jews anyway). That way, they can feel no remorse about the 1200 or so rockets they have launched at the Jews over the past week.

[genie_weenie]

7. Standard Operating Procedure.

Otherwise it's very hard to convince one cobbler to kill another cobbler...

[bloom]

14. i agree

and it is odd to hear Republicans, (esp. Coulter, Limbaugh, others) dehumanizing liberals - as if they are psyching their base up to kill us.


When you know that the "other side" is dehumanizing you - it is pretty difficult not to turn around and do the same. But that is the sign of strength - IMO.