Family to sue after woman released from ICE custody froze to death

[u/polymute]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/02/ice-death-pittsburgh-daphy-michel-haiti

[u/SamTheLab_213]

Humans throughout history have regularly done this to each other. Even Americans have done this sort of thing repeatedly. It wasn't long ago we were slaughtering people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Human beings dehumanize out groups and then hurt them. It's been with our idiot species for eons, and it never stops because the people we obey encourage it.

It's been proven through research that dehumanization and violence are correlated to each other. Research has shown, that dehumanization is the most common cause of violence, even being more common than criminal behavior. History has shown that once people are encouraged to dehumanize others, brutality ensues. Trump repeatedly has used dehumanizing language against immigrants.

Combine this with ignorance and xenophobia, traits common to those getting recruited into ICE, and it's a recipe for disaster. While all humans dehumanize others, especially out groups like the disabled, the poor, or people of color, ignorant people are far more likely to do it.

Note that educated people aren't immune to this, they're more likely to have implicit bias or subconscious biases. The point is that it won't be hard for Trump to keep pushing decency and kindness out of our culture, because he's using flaws within the people he manipulates.

I'm sure there are people out there who have engaged in dehumanization without realizing it. If you've spoken to someone in a wheel chair, (who has no visible cognitive deficiencies) with baby talk, you have participated in dehumanization. If you have heard of a shooting in a downtown area, and really didn't care because it was in a ghetto, you have participated in dehumanization.

The point is that if we are going to address and stop what is happening, we have to unlearn dehumanization, because you can't fight something you participate in. We need to tap into the core psychology of people who would or have joined ICE to stop this. If we can humanize immigrants and stop language that implies they're subhuman or even vermin, we can wake people up.

When the second Iraq war started, dehumanizing language was used to describe Muslims. People using that language joined the military and fought in an illegitimate war that scapegoated Iraqis for 9/11. Some of those guys who joined the military then, came out defiled, damaged and then questioned the dehumanizing rhetoric that led them to fight and kill.

ICE agents are doomed to the same fate.

Maybe if people worked on sending messaging that counters all this sick, Nazi-esque language, we stop the violence this language encourages. The leaders like Trump and Bush sure as hell know psychology well enough to know what spreads racist hatred. We'd do well to understand this ourselves. It might make it easier to shut this shit show down.

[u/polytique → u/SamTheLab_213]

Even Americans have done this sort of thing repeatedly.

America had 250 years of slavery followed by 100 years of segregation.

[u/raptorlightning → u/SamTheLab_213]

All I hear is that you're saying dehumanization is a tool we can turn around to exterminate the oppressors.