Trump’s “They’re not people, they’re animals” is not being forgotten in the onslaught of news.
Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Pol Pot all called their opponents "parasites" or "vermin" or "animals." Dehumanization is what you do to unwanted social groups before killing them https://t.co/5nMMSZzeP9
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) May 17, 2018
Read this thread if you think “he was talking about MS-13!” is a meaningful response to Trump’s disgusting comment yesterday. https://t.co/2ZS7OAwyUz
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 17, 2018
So I did read it; it’s outstanding. A few highlights:
This is a textbook case of how dehumanizing and racist rhetoric works. The question references a hypothetical MS-13 member. Trump immediately pivots to a vaguer “people trying to come into the country” who we’re “taking out.”
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) May 17, 2018
There’s always some real crime by some specific member of a disfavored group that gets invoked to rationalize the move to talk about the more nebulous “they” who are animals and savages. But the specific case is always a pretext for indulging the generalization.
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) May 17, 2018
On the occasions Trump finds time in his busy schedule to condemn murderers who aren’t brown, the focus is typically on the act, rather on what biological category it puts the perpetrator in.
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) May 17, 2018
When Rob Porter is very credibly accused of beating up women he’s dated, we need to pause and show empathy and consider how it may ruin a good person’s life if the charges are false.
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) May 17, 2018
This hateful language reflects who the president is, not who immigrants are. https://t.co/CmTSkFBVDl
— ACLU (@ACLU) May 16, 2018
Comments
4 responses to “A textbook case of how dehumanizing rhetoric works”
It’s pretty clear that Trump was referring to MS-13.
That’s a vacuous response to what Julian Sanchez said.
The problem is, and Trump has been absolutely consistent about this for decades, every immigrant is MS-13 to him and the dogs who listen for his whistle.
And even the members of MS-13 are human beings. Many of them may be horrible, sadistic, desperate, psychopathic human beings, but human beings they are. Pretending otherwise is giving human beings too much credit, and non-human animals too much agency. In fact, it is only humans, so far as we know, which are capable of the depravity that the Twittersphere uses to try and prove Trump’s point.