It takes a special kind of stupid, a special brand of Trump Derangement Syndrome, to declare that absolutely no one is an animal, as we see from the Washington Post’s E. J. Dionne finally jumping in
It’s never right to call other human beings “animals.†It’s not something we should even have to debate. No matter how debased the behavior of a given individual or group, no matter how much legitimate anger that genuinely evil actions might inspire, dehumanizing others always leads us down a dangerous path.
This is why we need to reflect on the controversy over exactly whom President Trump was referring to as “animals†during a roundtable discussion last week at the White House with state and local officials from California on so-called sanctuary laws.
On its face — and this is certainly how Trump wants us to view things — this is an argument about whether the media distorted his intent by reporting what he said out of context.
It’s never right? How about when we call people “party animals” or “political animals”? Not OK? Or how someone is an animal in bed? Or, how about “A person without human attributes or civilizing influences, especially someone who is very cruel, violent, or repulsive.” Would it be wrong to call these people animals?
- Osama bin Laden (and the rest of al Qaeda)
- Joseph Stalin
- Adolph Hitler
- Joseph Mengele
- Vladimir Lenin
- Mao Zedong
- Pol Pot
- Idi Amin
- Albert Fish
- People who saw other people’s heads off
- Members of ISIS
- People who burn other people alive
- People who commit mass shootings
That’s just a short list. Feel free to add your own. Though E.J. is saying it’s wrong to call them animals, because it’s “dehumanizing.”
No one wants to be put in a position of seeming to say anything good about gang members. Yet Trump’s strategy of dehumanization must be resisted across the board. We cannot shy away from what history teaches. Pronouncing whole categories of people as subhuman numbs a nation’s moral sense and, in extreme but, unfortunately, too many cases, becomes a rationale for collective cruelty.
I have no trouble branding people, such as the ones in the above list, as animals. How about you? Are you good with it? Dionne seriously provides one of the best examples of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
