Dehumanization.

yesterday was 9/11 when tragedy occured. there are groups which make different claims about how any why events transpired on that day but most fail to see the bigger picture. apathy toward our fellow man is ultimately responsible. the root of the problem is not seeing people as people, or dehumanization. i've been on the internet for a long while and i notice it a lot. people mistreating others because they are faceless entities. i do it a lot as well. truly it is tragedy. the greatest tragedy. our emptahy comes from our ability to relate to one another. our caring, love, sympathy, sorrow, all stem from our ability to relate. look around at things we dont relate to, we generally dont care for it or appreciate it. our world has no emotion, no face, no feeling, we dont relate to it. our ability to relate coems from our understanding. the more we learn about something the more we understand, as we truly understand something we are able to see the similarities between ourselves and it. thus, we relate better and treat it better. this is even key in movies, relatability in a character is key for us to like the character. just ask anybody who makes movies or shows. on the internet, we dont see a person or a face usually, we just see something we are engaging with. when you talk to people in real life, you see a face and your mannerisms and behaviour changes. this ability to relate or rather, lack thereof is responsible for dehumanization. hitler used this strategy to garner support for killing the jews. that and a mob mind tactic. when we are in a group we can adopt a different mindset very easily, this is evidenced by riots, football games, military, gangs, and more. hitler used nazi propaganda to influence the public into thinking the jews were evil, worthless, scummy, useless, deserving of death. hitler got these big rallies together and the crowd adopted the hivemind. they were riled up by hitlers words and his message stayed even after the rallies were over. he said the german people were a master race and the propaganda said the jews were scum of the earth which made them unrelatable to how the german people saw themselves. how we identify ourselves is also key in relating to others. the nazi's saw the jews not as people, but as trash, and this dehumanization paved the way for nazi's to have no empathy for the jews and thus, they were able to commit the atrocities with ease. all forms of dehumanization stem from ignorance. like i said before, as we understand more and more about something, we begin to relate better. and empathy follows. dehumanization is also responsible for what happened 10 years ago on this day, the nature of extremism is divisive, with any view, one can separate it into two extremes which allows for a "us and them" mentality, essentially saying "we are completely different from them! its us against them! we are right they are wrong!" religious extremism is a perfect example of this and is responsible for 9/11. the muslim religion isnt necessarily extreme, but the culture that has been built upon it is necessarily extreme. they are for the most part, brought up believing that no other religion is true and that they are the one true religion. again, us and them mentality which was caused by the divisive nature of exremism which in this case was applied to religion. they didnt see us as people, they couldnt relate because their views had no tolerance for any other view, they were completely stubborn in allowing acceptance of anything else except their world view to exist. their religion is their identity. we identify ourselves in groups. their group was their identity and everyone outside their group was completely unrelatable to them because they were taught that the existence of other views was directly challenging them and they took it as a attack on their identity. this was met with fierce opposition and their incapacity to relate was key to this and ultimately resulted in the death of many.

the same can be said for any non-accidental death of anybody. in order to kill each other, we must have no empathy for the one we kill. if we have no empathy then it stems from our ignorance aka lack of understanding of them. ignorance is the ultimate evil in the world, it leads to stupidity, sociopathy, dehumanization, destruction, and ultimately, will be the death of the human race if allowed to run rampant. 

always remember that everybody is a person, they may be stupid, they may be horrible indeed, but their bad attributes most likely stem from ignorance. and if we arent willing to help them understand to correct their ignorance, then we are no better than them because we are committing the same crime they are. allowing our lack of understanding of them and why they are the way they are to corrupt how we treat them. just insulting them will only divide you two even more. it will only feed their misguided views, treat people with respect, help enlighten those who are ignorant and apathetic toward others by treating them with respect and like they are actual people. it may take a lot of time but in the end, its worth it because one less ignorant person may influence others as well. and if we correct the ignorance that causes tragedies like 9/11 one bit at a time, eventually, tragedies even nearing such a magnitude will be vanishingly rare if not non-existent. as we stop these groups and merge together as one group, humanity, human progress will skyrocket because we will have very little problems with each other.

key things to do:

treat others as if they are you, how you wanted to be treated. 

remember that people are people. 

remember our faults result mostly if not completely from our ignorance.

understanding, empathy, ultimately erasing ignorance is key to the survival and progress of the human race.

remember to put a face on others when talking to them, remember they are people. (this is similar to #2). 

try to understand others, try to enlighten those who are ignorant.

lastly, some people will never be cured of their ignorance, these people are most likely older, their views have been constantly reaffirmed their whole life. it would be like trying to break concrete with a spoon. you could technichally do it but it would take years.