After reading Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen’s Feb. 3 letter, I was aghast. I will leave it to others to check his “facts.” I want to concentrate on his tone and dehumanization of people.
I believe Glenn is a lot like me. We are proud to be Americans. Proud to live in Minnesota. We support our local sports teams. I will support the Hutchinson Tigers, and I expect Glenn to support the Glencoe-Silver Lake Panthers. Neither of us would call each other names for the other’s support of their local team. It is called respect.
But when it comes to politics it seems dehumanizing the “opponent” is the order of the day. Calling them names, demeaning their views, attaching cliche labels to them is the way to prove your point. The accuser believes dehumanizing their “opponent” elevates one to a higher moral ground, so their attacks are more justified. That is the tactic of bullies and dictators. Those who can't rely on facts to prove their point use this technique. Bluster might be another term for this froth. But are they really an “opponent,” or simply another human with a different point of view?
I heard a summary of a book by David Smith, "Less than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others." The book describes dehumanization and how it has been used over the centuries to put people down in attempt for another human to hold power over them, or in some cases exterminate them.
For example, our country was very protestant during our founding years, and people dehumanized the new immigrant population, Irish Catholics. Making cartoons describing Irish as subhuman to reinforce this point. We did the same to Native Americans by calling them savages in order for us to justify our treatment toward them. We dehumanized Africans to the point where congressmen even used Biblical texts to justify slavery. Hitler dehumanized Jews to justify the Holocaust. The examples, unfortunately, go on too long to list them all.
Democrats and liberals are not evil. They died for this country too. They worship, own businesses and are just as much an American as any Republican, Independent or any other represented party. Mr. Gruenhagen has no authority to define others. Nor does anybody, for that matter. I suggest the Leader not publish any letters that attempt to define their opposition in dehumanizing rhetoric. This includes damning real journalists for doing their job.
When Mr. Gruenhagen talked about new immigrants he said, “They will bring in large amounts of crime, sex trafficking and public health issues.” This is another attempt to dehumanize a fellow human being. This same rhetoric was probably used toward Mr. Gruehagen’s family when they were immigrants. But that was not passed down or it was purposefully forgotten by newer generations. The immigrants today are not any different from our relatives who left deplorable conditions for a better life in a great country.
If this country is to heal, we need to deal with each other in a respectful manner. Starting with not calling people with different viewpoints names, not using defaming rhetoric, and not dehumanizing them. We should be able to have civil discourse, understanding those with differing views are more like us than not. This should be true for letters to the editor and in your conversations with friends.
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become the monster." To attack others' faith, patriotism, and attempting to define them with hostile rhetoric is dehumanizing. You are not proving your point, but rather you are becoming the very monster you claim to want to rid.
