As our political rhetoric dehumanizes, violence will be the inevitable result
Seeing others as less than human gives us ‘permission’ to treat them that way
The death of Charlie Kirk, the young Christian nationalist became a confidant of Donald Trump and organized tens of thousands of college students to join the MAGA cause, hit me close to home: I live not far from the Utah Valley University campus and have two immediate family members involved with the school, one as an adjunct instructor, the other as a recent graduate.
I was never a fan of Kirk; he represented a type of politics that runs nearly 100 percent contrary to my values and a type of Christianity that I see in conflict with the teachings of Jesus. But I would have never said, and still don’t, that he deserved to die for advocating his causes.
I write this brief commentary at a time when I am still trying to collect and organize my thoughts. As I do, the one word that keeps coming back to me is “dehumanization.” I can’t help but believe that the abundance of dehumanizing rhetoric plays a role in the uptick of political violence that we’ve seen in recent months.
Speaking as a Christian, I’d define dehumanizing rhetoric as any kind of talk that sees other people, including our enemies, as anything less than creatures made in the image of God. Put in secular terms, dehumanization is anything that robs people of inherent dignity, seeing them as something less than fully human. This kind of rhetoric has become inescapable in today’s political and social discourse.
This rhetoric abounds especially, although not exclusively, in the MAGA movement. The rhetoric matters: When we view immigrants as less than human, it becomes acceptable to deport them without due process to dangerous countries. When we view alleged drug smugglers as less than human, it becomes OK to kill rather than arrest them in an act that only be considered a war crime. When we view Democrats as less than human, it becomes OK to sic the military on cities dominated by their party. When we view Palestinians as less than human, it becomes OK to look the other way at genocide. When we look at women as something less than fully human, it becomes OK to joke about sexual assault. When we view members of one political party as less than fully human, it becomes OK to attempt to gerrymander them out of existence. And the list goes on.
And when one side dehumanizes, the other side is tempted to (and does) respond in kind. It’s an endless cycle.
As I write this, we don’t know who killed Charlie Kirk. But it is safe to assume that the shooter saw him as the means to an end rather than as someone with inherent value.
Politically, I feel powerless these days. But I still ask myself: What can I do? What should I do? The answer I keep coming back to is that I can recommit myself to treating others, even those I disagree with, as beings created in the divine image. The most powerful people in the country can engage in the rhetoric of dehumanization and demonization, but I don’t have to join them.
And I can call on those I’ve voted for (and those I didn’t) to do the same. We need to cool the rhetoric. If we don’t, the political violence we saw in Orem, Utah, will become the norm rather than the exception.