David Livingstone Smith quoted about dehumanization in Vietnamese newspaper

David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, was quoted in the Vietnamese newspaper Laodong on July 29, 2016, in an article about dehumanization.

The article discussed the notion that human beings strip others of their humanity in order to justify persecution and other violent behavior. It explains that ascription of “sub-human” or animalistic characteristics to a group of people is, therefore, the first step in rationalizing the extermination of that group.

The article references examples that Smith gave in his book, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, citing Smith’s assertions that during World War II, Japanese Americans were referred to as rats, at Abu Ghraib prison, Major General Geoffrey Miller ordered his subordinates to treat Iraqi prisoners like dogs,  in 2006 American radio commentator Neal Boortz described Islam as a deadly virus for which a vaccine needed to be sought, Palestinian children sing of Jews as dogs, and an Israeli rabbi referred to Arabs as animals.

Read the article in Vietnamese

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