timberwraith
I try to resist (although I do not always succeed) dehumanizing those who engage in dehumanization/oppression against others because I know that it is too easy for dehumanization to embed itself in more widespread ways in my thinking.
It readily entwines with thoughts entwined with anger and fear, and becomes increasingly easy to apply in any situation.
Dehumanization carries a basic kernel of hatred and anger, "tagging" it for more widespread application in my thoughts and emotions.
timberwraith
And the tendency to dehumanize is a messy process, that reaches for anything it can weaponize against someone or some group that it perceives as a threat, including intersecting marginalized status of someone who is perceived as threatening.
People, threatening or not, usually have intersecting demographic qualities of both power and privilege. And that tendency to weaponize a person's qualities in a process of dehumanizing them doesn't necessarily filter those qualities in "humane ways."
timberwraith
As an example, a cishet woman might feel threatened by male dominance and sexist oppression, and then respond to a sexist/misogynist male assigned person by disparaging their queerness/attraction to men, or perhaps their gender nonconformity.
It's easy to reach for commonly accepted bigoted insults in the process of dehumanizing another person, even when that person is being bigoted against you.
timberwraith
Dehumanization entails a process of establishing superiority/dominance over one's target. Hence, reaching for intersecting forms of oppression/bigotry is all too easy to do in the process because it is a process of establishing superiority and dominance.
timberwraith
I wrote this in response to this post:
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