This article from "The Times of Israel" focuses on how Trump refers to immigrants as "infesting" the U.S., using the exact same terminology as Goebbels did when speaking of the Jewish people in Germany. Goebbels was Hitler's close advisor, and he had a top post in the Nazi government as Minister in charge of anti-Jewish propaganda. Speaking of the Jewish people as rats that carry disease, flood into the country and devour valuable resources, the Nazis dehumanized the Jews before mass murdering them. Goebbels and the Nazis called the genocide the "final solution" to the problem of the "infestation" as if they were not even people involved. This article compares when Trump sent out a series of tweets saying how dangerous the immigrants coming from Mexico are, how they are drug addicts and gang members. Then Trump said that the mass influx of hispanic immigrants was going to "infest" our country, as if these were vermin not people. If people are dehumanized in this way, it becomes less difficult to do terrible things to them, because it's as if they are different from the good people, and their lives are less valuable. Not long after these tweets, Trump's border policy was to separate thousands of children from their parents. Trump ordered border agents to lock then up within chain link fences that were basically cages. In the same way that the Nazis scapegoated the Jewish people as being the reason for all of the society's problems, Trump has a tendency to make U.S. immigrants the reason for all our economic and social problems. Like the Nazis did, Trump also stirs up fear of immigrants "replacing" white people in the U.S. This is a dangerous call to "alt-right killers" who then feel justified in killing immigrants. The recent El Paso massacre is an example where the killer said he did it as a "response to the hispanic invasion of Texas."
https://www.timesofisrael.com/critics-say-trumps-description-of-immigrants-recalls-nazi-propaganda/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/05/great-replacement-theory-alt-right-killers-el-paso
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I also was thinking about similarities between Donald Trump and the fascist rulers during the Rick Steve's documentary. Leaders such as Mussolini was described as using repetitive phrases and simple solutions to complex problems in order to gain support. Trump often has his supporters chant short phrases (drain the swamp, lock her up, build the wall) and suggests he knows how to fix foreign policy with tariffs and will bring in new jobs. Furthermore, Trump lied about how many people were at his inauguration, trying to suggest that the majority of people support him (and thus everyone else should also support him). The propaganda videos showing big crowds at German rallies used similar tactics as well. This is not to say that Trump himself is actually a fascist, but it does go to show how effective these tactics can be in any situation.
ReplyDeleteThis tactic of using dehumanizing diction reminds me of one of those used at Abu Ghraib. Similar to what happened during the Holocaust and to what we are seeing now, at Abu Ghraib, they called the prisoners “dogs.” This dehumanized them and made it harder for the guards to connect and sympathize with them–they weren’t human. This made it easier for the guards to hurt the prisoners and do things they’d never dream of doing to a human.
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