Saman.KWhat is dehumanizing?
As far as I can describe it. Dehumanization: is an act of removing default rights or values that are attributed by one’s morals to treat a person. To treat that person as a subhuman or to associate that person with an evil superhuman.
I will use a not so well-known term “rehumanization”. Rehumanization: is an act of adding back default rights or values that are attributed by one’s morals to treat a person, contrary to the social norm (in the case of that subject). To treat that person as a human or to associate that person with an average human.
When would dehumanization happen?
Just before any war or conflict one or both parties might see each other as less than human or they describe the other party’s actions as amoral/wrong. People tend to dehumanize each other so they justify breaking their own default mode of treating people (breaking rules or morals). Dehumanization tends to not be based on reality. Meaning, it has an overblown or imaginary element in it.
Examples could be:
A: “My neighbor is an evil witch. she has a black cat. And I have heard she killed and eaten her 2-year-old daughter”
B: “have you spoken to her about any of these? are you sure they are true?”
A: “No, I don’t want her witch type to live let alone to be my neighbor.”
I have intentionally used a simple and overblown example to describe it in an abstract way. But dehumanization can become complicated to the point of it being indistinguishable from the objective reality. In the example, person A has portrayed her neighbor as an evil witch that does inhumane acts with no evidence to support her claims. But she is enraged and wants to act inhumanely just like what she imagined her neighbor did to her own daughter.
The dehumanization is the thought process that she has towards her neighbor. If she manages to justify inhumane treatment by reducing her neighbor to less than human, then we say she is dehumanizing her neighbor.
This reaction could come from a moral justification for self-defense. In history people with dogmatic beliefs (linked with moral judgment) but detached from core values, are those who take the stand with a dehumanizing perspective. People use dehumanization to say they had a right to do that inhumane act.
example: “I will kill those evil communists.”
in that example, “evil” was used to dehumanize the communist, as evil is an Idea that people should fight against. Therefore not only opens up an option to fight but it demands fighting as a necessary moral action.
How can we fight against dehumanization?
I think the best way is to rehumanize people. When people are in the dehumanized part of society, I believe they should try to show their human side to the collective and to rehumanize themselves. If one can see people who are being dehumanized I believe one should take it to be their duty to rehumanize them. Just like how it’s people’s good faith duty to make a steelman out of the other person’s weak argument. But rehumanization should not happen at the sacrifice of one’s own life. The person who acts on the dehumanization due to ill thinking or social conformity is solely responsible for the outcome of the action.
I believe everyone should try to give the benefit of the doubt and try to rehumanize people they are in conflict with as a gesture of goodwill.
“The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Join our in-person discussion.
