by Kathie MM
The ultimate weapon is psychological. It’s the “othering” of people and planet. It’s the deciding by people in power that some lives matter and some don’t. It’s treating people who aren’t in your ingroup as exploitable commodities or enemies or both. It’s setting against each other the many groups lumped together in the power elite’s outgroup.
How does an authoritarian government get large masses of people to take arms against each other, to kill and rape, to revel in cruel and inhumane behavior? Terrifying them (feeding phobias) to the point where they’ll do anything to escape their fears is an effective beginning, but then it’s crucial to convert that terror into rage and carefully identify the desired target for the rage—igniting racism, ethnocentrism, colorism, heterosexism , and all the other manipulable isms.
But—it’s not enough to identify targets; power brokers must convince members of selected outgroups (e.g., poor whites, Protestants) that it’s morally acceptable and justifiable to destroy members of other targeted outgroups (people of color, Jews, Muslims). Moral disengagement provides a great set of tools—i.e., dehumanizing the designated enemy, providing pseudo-moral justifications for inhumane behavior (it will make the world safe for democracy), using euphemistic language to describe horrendous deeds (collateral damage), making advantageous comparisons (much better to kill a few thousand than give them the opportunity to attack), minimizing or displacing responsibility (just trying to clean up someone else’s mess), misrepresenting or minimizing consequences (only the aggressors will be hurt), and–everyone’s favorite–blaming the victim (they started it).
Please remember, you can:
* counter dehumanization by appreciating humanity (and our mother earth);
* overcome pseudo-moral justifications by advancing principled moral arguments;
* reject euphemistic language by telling it like it is;
* give thumbs down to advantageous comparisons by providing better alternatives;
* reject displacement of responsibility by taking the moral road yourself;
* resist misrepresenting counterproductive consequences of violence by drawing attention to its realities; and
* avoid blaming the victims, focusing instead on the negative consequences of victimization.
You can do it.