DEHUMANIZATION by Connie Criscitello

Dehumanization is what concerns me most. I see it everywhere I look in America today. I have spent days reading about it trying to understand why we do it and how we can change it.


Dehumanization of others is a product of group think and mob mentality. I see it from the left and the right. The masses have completely lost their ability to see members of opposing political ideology as human beings. They consistently classify one and other as part of the larger group; a group that they have vilified as immoral, stupid and evil. Hence dehumanization begins.

How to turn it around? Two things I came across in my reading to end the cycle of dehumanization, which, by the way, always leads to something akin to genocide.

First is to stop believing in hierarchies. Second, STOP seeing people ONLY as part of a hated group.

People need to be seen as individuals because that's what they are.

The left has a negative view of conservatives and truly believes each one of them is exactly the same.  The same can be said about conservatives who believe every liberal is the stereotypical whiny social justice warrior.

Neither side ever stops to consider, in the US, you are talking about tens of millions of people that belong to each side. Each one of these people has a unique set of values and morals. Pretending we can know a person by what political party he or she adheres to is narcissistic, irrational, and dangerous.

The reason the belief in hierarchies is a contributing factor to the dehumanization of others is because politicians and others manipulate the masses into becoming "mob-like."

It is thought that only 5% of a mob actually controls what the mob thinks, so stop worshiping government. They are trying to control you and it's working really well.

I don't know if you realize you are dehumanizing people, but other than the voluntaryists and libertarians I know, most other people are dehumanizing others every day, simply by identifying people as conservative or liberal.

I hope you give the idea some thought...it's important...very important!