It may become the template for dehumanization
On Monday morning, the White House press office released a remarkable statement detailing violent crimes allegedly committed by members of the criminal gang MS-13. That alone isn’t remarkable; President Trump has been railing against MS-13 for months, using it as a foil to bolster his rhetoric about the risk posed by immigrants to the United States.
What was remarkable about the statement was the White House’s enthusiastic embrace of the term “animals” to describe those alleged gang members. Over the course of 480 words, the subjects of the statement were described as gang members nine times and as “animals” 10 times. The statement was direct about its aim, titled, “What You Need To Know About The Violent Animals Of MS-13.”
In an official statement from the executive branch. What next? Calling them vermin?
This is not trivial stuff. This is what the Nazis did, what the Serbian nationalists did, what the Tutsis did, what the Khmer Rouge did. Words matter.
This barbaric language is no laughing matter. It may become the template for dehumanization. They’re already stealing the children of immigrants for warehousing on military bases. We’ve seen this show before. Today it’s gang members who are “animals,” tomorrow it’ll be ________ pic.twitter.com/nwS22BkGaD
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 21, 2018
The opening paragraphs of the official White House statement:
WHAT: The violent animals of MS-13 have committed heinous, violent attacks in communities across America.
Too many innocent Americans have fallen victim to the unthinkable violence of MS-13’s animals.
At the State of the Union in January 2018, President Trump brought as his guests Elizabeth Alvarado, Robert Mickens, Evelyn Rodriguez, and Freddy Cuevas, the parents of Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas. Police believe these young girls were chased down and brutally murdered by MS-13 gang members on Long Island, New York, in 2016. Suffolk County Police Commissioner stated that the “murders show a level of brutality that is close to unmatched.”
In Maryland, MS-13’s animals are accused of stabbing a man more than 100 times and then decapitating him, dismembering him, and ripping his heart out of his body. Police believe MS-13 members in Maryland also savagely beat a 15-year-old human trafficking victim. The MS-13 animals used a bat and took turns beating her nearly 30 times in total.
“Oh, you object to Trump’s calling them animals? We’ll give you animals. Suck it up, pansy liberals!”
It’s politically safer to try to build a wall against some tiny percentage of potentially violent, brown, “outsiders” than to deal with nearly effortless firearms acquisition by demonstrably disturbed white males. If you have to dehumanize all brown people and outsiders in the process, well, eggs, omelettes, etc.
Wait.
Doesn’t “demonstrably disturbed white males” pretty much describe a yuge chunk, indeed the biggest and best part of Trump’s base?
Trump called for the lynching of the Central Park 5, innocent men by the way, in newspaper advertisements.
Reminds me somewhat of Israel’s approach to Gazans. I disticntly recall criticisms of “Protective Edge” being met with something like “yeah but Gazan teens snuck out and murdered three Israelis, so it was all perfectly justified.” The crimes of the few can, and will be used to justify horrors inflicted on that general population group in the name of revenge.
Meanwhile, speaking Spanish in public can get you stopped by Border Patrol.
Coincidentally right after ICE was slapped down by a federal judge for egregiously falsifying evidence to tie a currently-legally-residing Dreamer to “gang activity.”
First call gang members animals, then arbitrarily tie people to gangs. Then do whatever you feel like, without that pesky moral conscience.
But let’s not forget Donald already gave the whole game away. Trump didn’t initially say MS-13 were animals, he said “immigrants we’ve deported” were animals. The MS-13 bit was a clarification that they’ve continued to double down on.
He’s not playing 11-dimensional chess or anything here, he’s just basically reading the Cliff Notes for “Mein Kampf.”
And watching Fox & Friends.