We Have To Stop Dehumanizing One Another

Have you ever seen the videos showing the knockout game where a person will get sucker punched for absolutely no reason? We all feel sorry for the person getting hit, do we not? What about the pictures people post (usually on Facebook) showing examples of animal cruelty and condemning it? Then we get even more viscerally upset don't we? Why? It is because animals are pure creatures, and our pets love us unconditionally. Also, we see some people as pure evil; no one looks at an animal that way. So, one could argue that, generally speaking of course, we sorta kinda like animals more than our fellow human beings sometimes.

Anyway, back to the knockout game. Ever wonder how people can be so cruel? I believe there are a few things in play, but in this blog post I want to focus on just one - the dehumanization of people. We can see others as misguided, ignorant, obnoxious, or even pernicious, but we have to listen to them first. When arguing politics, for example, stop assuming that just because someone is a registered Republican that they are some racist, homophobic, xenophobic, hick with a cowboy hat and a gun, thumping his Bible all the while chomping on a cigar. We should also not assume just because someone is a registered Democrat that they are a baby killing, Che Guevara t-shirt wearing, unpatriotic atheist who gets high in between abortions. Caricatures dehumanize people. Hear him or her out first, try to see where they are coming from, empathize with them, put yourself in their shoes, and then rebut them if you honestly disagree - simple.

Now, this is not to say that generalizations are necessarily bad. Generalizations can be accurate and, as it turns out, often times necessary. Why do health care practitioners take age, race, and gender into consideration when assessing a patient? It is because from these descriptors they can better diagnose the problem and determine how bad of a problem it is. Most liberals vote Democrat and most conservatives vote Republican. Does anyone dispute that? I rest my case.

We have to stop thinking, "It is us versus them." Instead, it is just us. We should see our fellow American as our brethren, and our fellow man as a human being. And no, I do not play by the rules of Justin Trudeau's speech police. That is another thing, we have to stop trying to control people's language with political correctness vis-a-vis various compassionate organizations. They tell us that we cannot oppose or argue with their premises because by their own definition they are the compassionate one so thus we become cruel if we do not agree to fall in line.

I will leave you with the words of my beloved Prince, "Love 4 one another is the only way."