Dehumanizing language retroactively framed coerced abuse as the victims’ natural animal behavior

Evidence

The shocking photographs of Abu Ghraib guards smilingly abusing and humiliating Iraqi detainees provided a treasure trove of degradation and dehumanization that incited international outrage. Naked detainees were forced to wear leashes and crawl for hours like dogs, to bark to the sound of a whistle, to crawl with guards mounted on their backs like jockeys, to wear women’s underwear, to remain stacked naked with bags over their heads, and to engage in humiliating sexual acts with bestial attributions for the very behavior the guards coerced: “Look what these animals do when you leave them alone for two seconds” (Hersh, 2004). These abuses became a source of amusement in the guards’ otherwise boring prison routines. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 598

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 598
• XREF: connects to: Discourses rationalizing sexism parallel and depend on those justifying harm to animals — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 586; Predatory animal imagery functioned as warning to disloyal subjects; Escalated dehumanization attributes demonic or animal traits when mere subhumanization fails. (+4 more)