{"id":5875,"date":"2010-07-02T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T10:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=5875"},"modified":"2010-07-02T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T10:00:09","slug":"dehumanizing-your-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/07\/dehumanizing-your-opponent\/","title":{"rendered":"Dehumanizing your opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Conservative commentator Michael Gerson draws some lines that cut through both existing parties and potentially every ideology:<\/p>\n

One of the most significant divisions in American public life is not between the Democrats and the Republicans; it is between the Ugly Party and the Grown-Up Party.<\/p>\n

This distinction came to mind in the case of Washington Post blogger David Weigel, who resigned last week after the leak of messages he wrote disparaging figures he covered. Weigel is, by most accounts, a bright, hardworking young man whose private communications should have been kept private. But the tone of the e-mails he posted on a liberal e-mail list is instructive. When Rush Limbaugh went to the hospital with chest pain, Weigel wrote, \u201cI hope he fails.\u201d Matt Drudge is an \u201camoral shut-in\u201d who should \u201cset himself on fire.\u201d Opponents are referred to as \u201cratf \u2014 -ers\u201d and \u201c[expletive] moronic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThis type of discourse is an odd combination between the snideness of the cool, mean kids in high school and the pettiness of Richard Nixon rambling on his tapes. Weigel did not intend his words to be public. But they display the defining characteristic of ugly politics \u2014 the dehumanization of political opponents.\n

Unlike Weigel, most members of the Ugly Party \u2014 liberal and conservative \u2014 have little interest in keeping their views private. \u201cMy only regret with Timothy McVeigh,\u201d Ann Coulter once said, \u201cis he did not go to the New York Times building.\u201d Radio host Mike Malloy suggested that Glenn Beck \u201cdo the honorable thing and blow his brains out.\u201d Conservatives carry signs at Obama rallies: \u201cWe Came Unarmed (This Time).\u201d Liberals carried signs at Bush rallies: \u201cSave Mother Earth, Kill Bush.\u201d Says John Avlon, author of \u201cWingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America,\u201d \u201cIf you only take offense when the president of your party is compared to Hitler, then you\u2019re part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rhetoric of the Ugly Party shares some common themes: urging the death or sexual humiliation of opponents or comparing a political enemy to vermin or diseases. It is not merely an adolescent form of political discourse; it encourages a certain political philosophy \u2014 a belief that rivals are somehow less than human, which undermines the idea of equality and the possibility of common purposes.<\/p>\n

via Michael Gerson \u2013 The Ugly Party vs. the Grown-Up Party<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wanting your opponents dead or sexually humiliated and comparing them to vermin or diseases is, indeed, a long-standing trope of the vilest rhetoric.\u00a0 It was a commonplace of Nazi propaganda, comparing the Jews, for example, to vermin, who thus need to be exterminated.\u00a0 OK, maybe you can find examples of Luther talking this way about the pope, but that hardly excuses it.\u00a0 The key point is that such rhetoric dehumanizes your opponents, and if you do not consider them human, then it is, in fact, easy to kill them, sexually humiliate them, exterminate them like vermin, or wipe them out like diseases.<\/p>\n

I think you can be an extremely militant and argumentative conservative or liberal while still avoiding this fault.\u00a0 Can we agree that it is wrong to dehumanize our opponents?<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conservative commentator Michael Gerson draws some lines that cut through both existing parties and potentially every ideology: One of the most significant divisions in American public life is not between the Democrats and the Republicans; it is between the Ugly Party and the Grown-Up Party. This distinction came to mind in the case of Washington […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,25,36],"tags":[1436,1747],"class_list":["post-5875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-language","category-politics","tag-michael-gerson","tag-political-rhetoric"],"yoast_head":"\nDehumanizing your opponent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Conservative commentator Michael Gerson draws some lines that cut through both existing parties and potentially every ideology: One of the most\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/07\/dehumanizing-your-opponent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dehumanizing your opponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Conservative commentator Michael Gerson draws some lines that cut through both existing parties and potentially every ideology: One of the most\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/07\/dehumanizing-your-opponent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-02T10:00:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/07\/dehumanizing-your-opponent\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/07\/dehumanizing-your-opponent\/\",\"name\":\"Dehumanizing your opponent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-02T10:00:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-07-02T10:00:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Conservative commentator Michael Gerson draws some lines that cut through both existing parties and potentially every ideology: One of the most\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/07\/dehumanizing-your-opponent\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/07\/dehumanizing-your-opponent\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/07\/dehumanizing-your-opponent\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dehumanizing your opponent\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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