On a much smaller scale today, dehumanization characterizes the rhetoric of leaders who treat with contempt immigrants, poor people, or simply those on the other political side. Be on the lookout for dehumanization in everyday life. You will start to see it. For example, perhaps your favorite newspaper pundit refers to certain people as pigs. The point is to destroy your empathy for the object of his or her derision through dehumanization. Perhaps that seems like no big deal, but make no mistake: You are being manipulated to hate a fellow human being.
