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.
The esteemed Mr Dionne claims to be a Catholic, should be familiar with Luke 3:7:
Jesus use the same formulation, in Matthew 12:34, referring to the Pharisees:
Of course, the very Catholic Mr Dionne would not outlaw abortion. Perhaps he isn’t quite as Catholic as he claims to be.
And “no human being is illegal.” They want to let just anybody walk across our border without permission, but if you walk into their house without permission, oh what a ruckus!
Ho Chi Minh
Hideki Tojo
Oskar Dirlewanger
Lavrenti Beria
Saddam Hussein
Ah, yes, the list just goes on and on.
Putin
Kim Jong Un
Anders Breivik
Timothy McVeigh
Duterte
Eric Rudolph
Pinochet
Mohammed Pahlavi
Technically, all humans are animals. By the liberals denying that fact, they are denying evolution. Also, not giving human characteristics to hominids is another way of saying that people are not acting in a civilized manner and can be discredited in like manner. The democrats, Jeff, and all the other idiot progressives are just playing word games, for no reason or gain. I am sure it makes them think they are intelligent, yet it is another example that they lack that capacity. I don’t desire to help the progressive/communist, but it would seem that at some point they need to endorse the positive and up lifting aspects of our country and participate in these actions.
I spent just shy of 8 years working for the DOC. Trust me, there is a significant segment of society that are nothing more than animals that see you as nothing more than prey. Failing to recognize that would make you the limping animal at the back of the pack on the Serengeti Plain.
saw somewhere that a journalist called trump an animal