Other Definitions
dehumanization (dict)
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DehumanizationDehumanization refers to subvert and overt acts, either individually or as part of a systematic campaign, which assert a separation of a particular group as belonging to an "inferior" class of people. Dehumanization is a negative phenomenon that has been studied by historians and sociologists alike. It is generally considered to be a necessary condition for a government of any democratic country to carry out a war, since the voting public is generally unwilling to support mass murder. A successful dehumanization campaign of the "enemy" enables people to dissociate the concept of war from that of murder and overcome their normal opposition to murder. Even in dictatorships, carrying out war without a prior dehumanization campaign (or preexisting racist beliefs) is difficult. The Holocaust of WW2 is thought to represent the apex of dehumanization's negative repercussions. Anthropologists Montagu and Matson famously wrote that dehumanization might well be considered "the fifth horsemen of the apocalypse" because of the inestimable damage it has dealt to society. When people become things, the logic follows, they becomes dispensable - and any atrocity can be justified. Methods of dehumanization In democracies, dehumanization of an "enemy" requires different propaganda techniques to those in dictatorships. The empirically supported propaganda model of Herman and Chomsky shows how corporate media are able to carry out large-scale, successful dehumanization campaigns when that is in the interests (profit-making) that the corporations are legally obliged to maximise. Government-controlled media, in either democracies or dictatorships, are also capable of carrying out dehumanization campaigns, to the extent with which the population is unable to counteract the dehumanizing memes. See also
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