The Ultimate Guide To Dehumanizing Humans

The “Right” Article

For my English summer course work, I have to read articles from different news outlets each week and analyze the political, social, and economic issues they tackle and how. I have tried every time to view every article with a neutral perspective, to see the world through new eyes. However, there are some very major differences between the articles written by left organizations as opposed to right.

The specific article that inspired this post is called, “Are You An Immigrant With A Deportation Sob Story? Thanks Democrats” from The Federalist. The article talks about the current immigrant problem in America. It starts with the story of Patricia Rojas, a woman who was deported even though she had lived in America since 2 years old off various visas. The article then discusses how Americans should not feel sympathy for immigrants.

Red Flags

The first red flag I noticed in this article was the lack of statistics. The author made very bold claims, that immigrants rape and murder American citizens and that immigrant women don’t work and simply live freely. These claims aren’t backed up by any data whatsoever and therefore cannot be given credibility. Furthermore, I would like to add that rape is only a topic of discussion when a minority is charged for it. When a rich white man, such as our president, is charged with the same thing, it’s overlooked or covered up. The double standards alone are enough for me to question the credibility of the right side, let alone the lack of data.

This article not only doesn’t present reliable facts to the reader, but it uses vulgar words and phrases to dehumanize immigrants. For example, in the only statistic the article did include, it used an offensive phrase to describe immigrants: “There are perhaps as many as 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S., and they’re not just mostly adult men anymore.” Calling any human an alien is offensive, and this term should be abolished. In addition, the article compares immigrants to stray dogs. It says that if one comes, multiple will. This is a strategy used to subconsciously make people view immigrants as “less than human.”

Humans

How can some people see others as subhuman? People are people. To actively dehumanize somebody simply for wanting a better life is to lose one’s own humanity.

I’m sick of news outlets being so comfortable to publish such hateful articles. Americans must better at critically thinking, at taking time to analyze what they’re reading instead of blindly following abhorrent words. These texts enable a reduction of empathy in society. They take advantage of peoples’ fear and regurgitate misinformation to divide America further. Immigrants are not “aliens” or “stray dogs”, like these hateful news organizations say they are, they are people.

They are human.