The term used by the nationalist/racist/Trumpers that is a screaming red flag

[captain queeg]

It’s not in widespread use, but I’ve heard it even bandied by border agents; subhuman. When I hear that I know they are channeling their Nazi predecessors. The favored term used by the nazis and unbelievable these fools today have sunk to that level. Once you convince yourself these other people who look or speak differently than you are not really human it releases you from moral responsibilities.

That is how those running the current concentration camps can do it. I’ve seen the question posted here several times; how can they treat children so cruelly? I was sitting in the doctors office recently when a child started crying. Not whining, which would drive me crazy, but crying in pain and fear. It pulled on my heart strings in an elemental, instinctive way. I believe most people would feel that way under normal circumstances. However, if I had myself convinced she wasn’t even human it would be easier to discount (though seeing and hearing an animal in pain isn’t easy to take either). Anyway, when I hear these assholes refer to aliens or immigrants or whatever as subhuman I don’t ignore that’s the word they chose to use. They are saying what they really think which as far as I am concerned makes them less than human.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Nazis in Germany 1930 & genocidal inciters in Rwanda both used exactly that term. . . . nt

[Scarsdale]

2. Sadly, the rest of the world

views us all as belonging to that cult. After all, we DID elect tRump. Or did we? Surely there are enough decent people left to stand up to these cruel, inhuman gop members? Incidentally, the owners of these camps receive $700 A DAY for each child!!! No wonder they pack them in, and give few comforts. These kids will be scarred for life, separated from their mothers. This is taxpayer money being spent on this, surely we have some say in how the money is spent?

[47of74]

3. We deserve it too.

This country is a shithole and bound for hell.

[Scarsdale]

5. It did not take the gop

long to prove how incompetent they are, did it? They SUCK at government. The only thing they excel at is raising $$$, padding their own bank accounts. Does not matter if it is $$$, rubles or any other foreign currency. tRump is a total ass, but he has the gop backing him to the hilt. There has to be something in it for them, apart from cash.

[Celerity]

7. they are not incompetent at all in what their project is

The project is

1 To dismantle and destroy the regulatory/civil rights state except for the parts their paymasters can grift off, for example the war/security/surveillance state, and the parts that are under regulatory capture.

2 Use their tripartite white nationalist/fundie/corporatist empowerment for the consolidation of their power bases (both high and low) and conversely, the balkanisation/atomisation/dis-empowerment of their opposition within the collective body politic. That leads to potential further electoral gains (backstopped by systemic voter suppression, fraud, and gerrymandering) at all levels, from local to national, which then translates via structural interlocks into control of the judiciary. All of that aids in the manifestation of multivariate, multilevel self re-enforcing feedback loops for their goals.

[pangaia]

19. That is certainly IT.

[Beartracks]

20. There's nothing wrong with government that getting Republicans out of it can't fix. n/t

[luvtheGWN]

9. Americans' use of the word "alien" to describe people (like me)

who were not born in the US is also derogatory. But I agree -- subhuman is the very worst. That is how the American landowners regarded their slaves -- it made it SO much easier to treat them like animals.

[gopiscrap]

18. yup I was born in Germany and have been called an alien many times

even inspite of passing my US Citizenship test

[Alwaysna]

12. WE didn't elect him; Russia did. We elected a Democrat.

[Takket]

16. Follow the money

Drumpf and his buddies are making big $ off this. Take the $700, give them a pack of Ramen Noodles and pocket the rest.

[mwb970]

4. I have frequently used this word to describe trump and members of the trump party.

They have no empathy for others. They disdain logic and facts. They are unable to be analytical and to think critically. When proven wrong, they believe the falsehoods more strongly than they did before. They believe in impossible, insane myths and conspiracy theories and steadfastly refuse to believe obvious, scientifically proven facts. Their main motivator is not love, not logic, but overwhelming fear.

In ALL of these ways, trump and his cultists fall short of being fully human. They are missing huge swaths of what it means to be a human being. Confronted with this, am I wrong to use the word "subhuman"?

[Roy Rolling]

6. I have never heard that in "legitimate" media

I'm familiar with the word's historical etymology, I just don't see it used "in polite company". It's limited to cult usage.

And as I think more, if the word were to gain more popular acceptance and usage, it would expose those who use it as ignorant racists. Expanded use of the word carries risk.

Just sayin'.

[mercuryblues]

8. An easy way to make these people

"subhuman" is to deny them the basic necessities to live. 1 bottle of water a day, forcing many to drink out of toilets, no access to clean clothes, no soap, sleep on floors, no blankets, no toothbrushes, food with worms, raped, lice infestations, no diapers for babies, no medicine, sleep depravation, physical abuse,

But by no means are we to call these places concentration camps. Is it ok to call them torture centers, where they hold and mistreat humans of a certain ethnicity?

[Takket]

17. Laura Ingraham says they at better than summer camp!

[ProfessorPlum]

10. comparisons to insects and/or rodents are also dead giveaways

[Wounded Bear]

11. De-humanizing is always a leading and necessary step...(PC alert, some ugly terms used)

For the military, it starts in boot camp, and continues after. When I went in (1970 ) the enemy were "gooks" and "slopes," derogatory terms referencing physical characteristics of East and Southeast Asians. By the time I got out, those references were fading, especially as some Vietnamese immigrants were starting to show up in uniform. Also by that time (mid to late 70's) it was already pretty obvious that the Middle East was coming so the "bad guys" were already being called "towel heads" and "mop heads."

Silly name calling like Trump does are common, long-standing habits folks use to belittle and de-humanize the enemy. After all, if you're being tasked with killing someone, silly shit like that makes the job more "palatable." It's the same for concentration camp guards and "service" personnel. "Following orders" is another easy excuse for basically being an inhuman asshole.

So yeah, the name calling is intentional and functional. And it's a basic tell.

[Perseus]

13. "...really human it releases you from moral responsibilities."

Just to be part of a hate group means you have no morals, these people were released of any "moral responsibilities" a long time ago.

These are criminals, and the criminal mind works in very different ways, criminals do not understand morals, they don't understand human suffering.

I always think of the murderer, I believe it was in California, who kidnapped a 12-year-old girl, raped her, choked her to death, dumped her in a forest, and was found an hour later drinking beer with his pals in a bar. That is the best example I know about how the criminal mind works, they don't understand wrongdoing, they don't have the ability to analyze human suffering, they have no morals.

[VOX]

14. Far-right-wing-nationalist coup. Here, and in many other former democratic countries.

The players all know each other: Bannon, Farage, The Mercer’s, Putin, Brexit; Bannon consults with leaders in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Italy, France, UK, Brazil, etc. Anti-immigrant anxiety is driving numerous formerly democratic governments to swing hard rightward.

In the U.S., some 30%-40% American citizens are embracing white nationalism. These people have driven themselves crazy by listening/watching the fear-and-outrage factories like Fox, Hannity, Rush, et al.

We are now at a place where POC (as has been the case throughout history) are demonized as the source of all problems, along with those who demand a transparent, responsible democracy.

[Nitram]

15. The other word is ANIMALS.