Think about this. The racist police officers who killed George Floyd had the exact same mindset that you do. They thought that they could treat him as less than human because he was a criminal. Fox news, yes, the MAGA channel, ran with a story that tried to justify his murder because he was a suspected criminal. How do you feel sharing moral values with them?
InformalTrifle@lemmy.world 7 months ago
That’s completely misrepresenting what I said. Don’t put words in my mouth. Suspected of a crime, then it should be proven beyond doubt and then punished. Guilty of bombing people, abusing kids? Don’t deserve any dignity in my opinion
mriormro@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Even the worst people imaginable are still people. They think, they feel, they experience, they are sentient.
The moment you begin to dehumanize people is the moment you’ve slipped past the point and when you become capable of truly horrific things.
Sternhammer@aussie.zone 7 months ago
Well said.
I’d also point out that dehumanising a subgroup is a powerful technique used to manipulate people. Tell people who to hate and you can get them to go along with anything while they’re focused on the scapegoats. Popular scapegoats include:
Any time someone is demonising a group theres a good chance they’re just trying to manipulate you.
InformalTrifle@lemmy.world 7 months ago
So allow them to be free and commit truly immoral crimes? Because locking them up is not very dignified
mriormro@lemmy.world 7 months ago
You can separate offenders from the general population in dignified, humane ways.
There’s a difference between humanely housing, feeding, treating, and overseeing people we may consider as bad actors and simply throwing them into a concrete box for the rest of their lives. There’s also a difference between that and, say, torturing and maiming those same people as punishment.
The more you dehumanize the people that you may see as bad or unwanted, the easier it is for you to accept or even want the latter. I hope, in the future, you can see that empathy and dignified treatment of all people (not just ‘the good ones’) aren’t such reprehensible ideas.
dustyData@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Oh, OK. A bunch of prison deputies would be so happy to hear that you support their sexual abuse of immates.
InformalTrifle@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Keep making things up. Constructive discussion
dustyData@lemmy.world 7 months ago
What, suddenly you don’t like the implications of your own moral values?