• foggy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’ll take a middle road here

    It’s not good to dehumanize people. Even ones who commit atrocities.

    Dehumanization is how we got here, it’s not a good path back, unless we wanna go in circles.

    It’s subtle, but important, for us to keep human the worst humans. We need to keep salient that these atrocities are being committed by our own to our own humans. That we are all capable of it.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      1 year ago

      I agree with you. Furthermore, it’s a step down the path of genocide. If your opponent is not human, why do they deserve human rights? They’re a dangerous animal. You wouldn’t let a dangerous animal live.

    • at_an_angle@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      While I do agree with you, the more information that comes out of this war and what Russian soldiers do to the citizens of Ukraine, the less empathy there is.

      And I’m empty. After hearing about the rape and murder of men, women, and children by Russian hands.

      Fuck em. Those aren’t humans. Those are monsters.

      • foggy@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        No, they are humans, just like you.

        Like it or not, there is nothing within you that is not within them. You are fully capable of commiting those very acts.

        Humans are evil. There are no monsters.

        Until we can all agree on this, atrocities will continue to occur.

        The downvotes just tell me that humans are doomed to repeat history.

      • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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        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.