Dehumanizing an enemy requires first casting one’s own side as innocent victims

Evidence

Verminisation not only transforms the enemy into a subhuman swarm that cannot be reasoned with, only destroyed; it also makes “us” into victims of its repulsive, invasive agency. As Virilo perspicaciously observed, Aliens itself operated “a bit like a Terrorist attack. Women and children are slaughtered in order to create an irreversible situation, an irremediable hatred. The presence of the little victim has no theatrical value other than to dispose us to accept the madness of the massacres…” — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1453

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Relevant to the sacrifice essay’s logic: victimhood framing produces the moral warrant for one’s own sanctioned violence.
• XREF: connects to: Enemies are dehumanized into vermin before military force can be unleashed — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1451; Dehumanizing the victim precedes atrocity through ‘pathic projection’ of the perpetrator’s own image — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 119; Victims’ aggression gets reframed as the victim’s own deviance (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Victims’ aggression gets reframed as the victim’s own deviance #expands (0.80)
• Dehumanizing the victim precedes atrocity through ‘pathic projection’ of the perpetrator’s own image #expands (0.78) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 119
• Character-conditioned hatred invents victims rather than responding to real threats #expands (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2246