Dehumanization, as a psychological and socio-political process, represents one of the most destructive phenomena in human history. It involves the denial of attributes that define individuals or social groups as human, thereby devaluing their moral status and legitimizing violence and cruelty against them.
Now they're trying to arrest me simply because I do not believe in gay rights and abortion. I had the cops called on me. A SWAT team showed up, and I'm now engaged in a shootout. My state has been the number one abortion and gay rights state in the entire country and I've been segregated against for my beliefs.
This was not random violence. This was a planned attack motivated by extremist ideology and inspired by a violent foreign terrorist organization. With this, she promptly raised the profile of both the suspects, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, and of ISIS itself. It hardly seemed to matter that no evidence has surfaced that directly ties these men to the larger movement.
The posts have referred to neo-Nazi literature, ethnic cleansing and QAnon conspiracies, mused about deporting nearly a third of the U.S. population, and promoted lyrics from an anthem bellowed by the far-right militants of the Proud Boys. Their authors are not on society's fringe. They are in the offices of the White House and the departments of Homeland Security and Labor, using official government accounts.
My journey on TikTok Shop started out with a search for "hip hop jewelry." It's an innocuous search query multiple users have likely typed in, hoping to find something to wear. While browsing the cheap jewelry, I was struck by what TikTok's algorithm repeatedly suggested that I might also be interested in: jewelry with blatant Nazi symbolism. TikTok continues to struggle with moderation as its in-app ecommerce store gains traction with younger users.
I lived in Argentina in the mid-1980s, just after the fall of the brutal military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 to 1983. The country was taking its first, shaky steps back toward democracy. It was a time of great hope, but also of grave uncertainty - because while the generals were gone, the political culture that enabled them remained. Like most of the nation, I was captivated by the pioneering trials of the military generals that promised to restore justice.
Last week, far-right streamer Nick Fuentes openly called for the mass criminalization of women and girls. During an episode of his America First livestream on Rumble, Fuentes declared, "Just like Hitler imprisoned Gypsies, Jews, communists - all of his political rivals - we have to do the same thing with women ... They go to the gulag first. They go to the breeding gulags."
Under Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has gone on an explicitly fascist zag as it seeks to recruit 10,000 additional U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Robert Reich and others have detailed in recent weeks how ICE is now actively seeking to recruit extremist young men from gun shows, Ultimate Fight Club venues, rodeos, martial arts centers, and other haunts for men who tend to have a far right political vision.
On a gray Friday afternoon in Washington, D.C., with the nation's capital bracing for a forecast snowstorm expected to arrive Sunday and local officials urging residents to prepare for possible disruptions, Vice President JD Vance stood on a stage near the National Mall and delivered a blistering address attacking abortion rights and LGBTQ+ equality as existential threats to the nation.