I don’t understand why it’s so easy for some people to completely dehumanize others.
Five minutes of contemplating the idea that human beings are messy and complicated. That it is impossible to know someone whose life you are not part of. And you can make all the assumptions in the world based on one conversation you have no context for, or the artwork they create, the stories they write, the way they decorate themselves, or whatever arbitrary little thing, but at the end of the day....
No one seems to understand neuance anymore. That there is no suck thing as pure good and pure evil. That you can’t lump dozens of different things together just because you can do logic gymnastics.
These are human people. Every single person you talk to and about, is a human being just like you. With the same emotions and number of complications, and problems, and extenuating circumstances. With a life just as messy as yours, that you know nothing about.
It’s become far to easy for people to dehumanize each other. To deify and demonize. Because it makes them feel important. Part of something. Special. They lift themselves up by tearing others down, and they don’t actually care about the thing they claim to be angry about. They don’t care about the consequences. They don’t even comprehend the reality of it all. It’s a game. A fiction. False validation and manufactured self righteousness. They know the buzz words to stir up a mob and they get off on the power of it all.
They don’t care about the impact they are having on the actual human soul behind the fictional image they’re rallying against. The people caught in the crossfire. The real world impact that their petty selfish bullshit has. The people they drag into it. Making others think they’re fighting for a valiant cause, and battling evil, and protecting themselves and their loved ones. But really, they’re manipulating them into hurting people, and causing nothing but damage.
I don’t suppose it would do any good to point out that this is how The Circle was built. And that Valentine went to his grave believing he was the hero.
