• interolivary@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        That’s the thing though. They’re not monsters, they’re regular humans, just like eg. the Nazis were.

        Which I think is honestly a lot worse. The “average person” is perfectly capable of committing unspeakable atrocities, as long as they can be convinced the targets are Others, not in their in-group.

        We really fucking suck as a species

          • interolivary@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Yeah that’s a valid viewpoint.

            Personally I think calling someone a monster just makes them sound like they’re not quite human, or that they’re somehow “set apart” from regular humans. That’s how you get the comments like “seems most people can’t recognize a monster when they see one” somewhere in this chain

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Most people who support shit like this aren’t monsters, but the people who systematically target out-groups for political purposes are, and I reckon that includes most of the people who actually pass legislation.

          The trick is to convince people to quit putting monsters into positions of power, but it seems most people can’t recognize a monster when they see one.

          • interolivary@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            1 year ago

            They’re hard to recognize because they look like regular people, which is what they are. The problem with them isn’t that the voters don’t see them for the bigots they are; they vote for them because of the bigotry.

            People seem to often severely underestimate how downright evil a huge chunk of the population is. There’s no convincing them to not vote for bigots because they specifically want bigots.