757
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

The reason you don't dehumanize people who commit atrocities isn't (mainly) because they deserve more empathy. It's because it's important not to forget that these atrocities are committed by everyday humans. Normal I have a wife and kids, I joined the army as a kid out of high school or after being a warehouse clerk for a few years, I coach soccer in the summers, basic-ass humans.

When we dehumanize people like that it blinds us to the fact normal people can commit atrocities when sufficiently radicalized and trained to dehumanize others. It blinds us to the dangers posed by these ideologies when they're in their initial stages.

When we dehumanize people like that it also mentally prepares us to accept when atrocities are committed against them, or even to become complicit in doing so.

You don't humanize them for them. You do it to protect you and everyone you love from the dangers of dehumanizing others.

this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
757 points (96.3% liked)

World News

39019 readers
2257 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS