Categorizing one’s enemy as sub-human legitimizes increased violence and justifies violation of basic human rights.

Evidence

Dehumanization (Beyond Intractability)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Accusations of extreme wrongdoing can dehumanize scapegoats. — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 82; Dehumanization causes perpetrators to perceive victims as nonhuman and therefore not entitled to moral obligation — Dehumanization increases instrumental violence, but not moral violence; Dehumanization redefines targets as less human, using terms like ‘animals’ and ‘vermin’ to get people to accept or engage in atrocities. — What Is Dehumanization, Anyway? (+9 more)

Related

• Dehumanization redefines targets as less human, using terms like ‘animals’ and ‘vermin’ to get people to accept or engage in atrocities. (similarity 0.86)
• Dehumanization of targeted groups makes violence against them seem reasonable. (similarity 0.81)
• Enemies are dehumanized into vermin before military force can be unleashed (similarity 0.80)
• Dehumanization causes perpetrators to perceive victims as nonhuman and therefore not entitled to moral obligation (similarity 0.79)
• Dehumanizing rhetoric legitimizes persecution across cultures and eras (similarity 0.79)
• Dehumanization entails exclusion from the moral category of human, leaving persons vulnerable to harm with no moral consideration given to their experiences. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Islamophobic tropes become real violence through perceived enemy images #exemplifies (0.85)
• Clash-of-civilizations rhetoric ideologically legitimized both foreign wars and domestic attacks #exemplifies (0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421
• Hate violence can be state-encouraged rather than merely irrational individual deviance #expands (0.60) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 101
• Liberal-humanist endings depend on converting the threatening Other. #expands (0.55)