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Dehumanization
Dehumanization is the attitude of conceiving of others as less-than-human creatures.
With that boilerplate definition of dehumanization, we began this work.
In Part 1 of this series, author and philosopher David Livingstone Smith gave us a masterful overview of how dehumanization works, its utility in fascist movements, and why he knew in 2015 the danger that Trump presented to the US and the world.
Smith spoke about a 1941 paper by a British author that documented how Hitler’s speeches used three techniques: depression, othering, and the ‘manic solution.’ So after Hitler depressed the audience about how bad things were, then told them they were not responsible — Hitler blamed the ‘communists and the Jews’ — they were then invited to join the Nazi party, the ‘manic solution.’
“Trump’s first speech, and many of his subsequent rally speeches, followed that pattern to the letter,” David explained.
He also spoke about how when ‘experts’ include criminal propagandists, think Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goering, they have the power then to define reality. US Media has spent a decade giving propagandists air time, that’s 10 years of malicious liars defining reality for us.
In a book I’m reading which I will tell you about the moment I am given the greenlight, I just learned that if a leader is already operating in a world where truth no longer matters, lies then function as acts of dominance. (More on that soon).
In Part 2 of Understanding Dehumanization, we focus on beliefs about race and the reason why dehumanized people are often portrayed as monsters.
“I’m one of these philosophers who doesn’t believe in race. I think that race was a white supremacist invention, at least, race as it’s practiced in Europe and the United States, it’s fictional. These racial categories actually don’t make any biological sense, but I don’t think they make social sense either. Race, in my view, was an invention, a creation to legitimate oppression and violence and exploitation of people whom it was convenient to harm.”—David Livingston Smith, Understanding Dehumanization, Part 2, Bette Dangerous Podcast Ep95
Yeah, read that quote twice.
Another of his quotes from Part 2 include:
“Dehumanization is racism on steroids.”—DLS
In Part 2, he also explains why dehumanized people are portrayed as monsters.
“Monsters are fictional, they’re creations of the human imagination.”—DLS
Before our Part 2 interview, which took place June 23, 2026, I told David that I’m on strike from pull quotes. I was adamant that people read every word of my reports, and no longer rely on me bolding their way to the most salient points. By the end of our interview, I’d flagged the three pull quotes above, determined to preview them in advance of putting out the print version of the podcast. That’s how important I think this work is — my strike lasted less than 24 hours lol.
In addition to the podcast series, you can read my first report featuring David’s work in my recent Hot Type column, which focuses on the White House’s cruel and malicious ‘They Walk Amons Us’ propaganda video.
In Part 3 of our series, we will be focusing on ways to resist dehumanization.
Thank you to the thousands of Bette community members who took the time to listen to this podcast and to share the series with your networks.
A print report featuring excerpts from Understanding Dehumanization, Part 2 to follow.
And save the date: Smith will be our guest at Bette’s Happy Hour on June 30, 11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern. Look for that invite in coming days.
Guest Bio:
Described as “a philosopher seeking not just to interpret the world, but to change it” by the Times Literary Supplement, Smith is the author of 10 books. He won the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf Prize for nonfiction (awarded jointly with Yale historian David Blight), the 2023 Joseph B. Gittler Prize awarded by the American Philosophical Association for outstanding contributions to philosophy of the social sciences, the 2024 Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution, awarded by Phi Beta Kappa and the American Philosophical Association (awarded jointly with Cornell philosopher Kate Manne), and was shortlisted for the Nayaf Al-Rodhan Prize for Transdisciplinary Philosophy, awarded by the Royal Institute of Philosophy in the UK.
All of these awards were for his work on dehumanization. He is frequently interviewed in the national and international media on dehumanization, race, racism, national and international affairs, and related topics. He has given presentations at such venues as the 2012 G20 economic summit, where he spoke on dehumanization and mass violence.
Before transitioning to philosophy, Smith was a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and Freud scholar, and director of the MA program in psychotherapy at Regent’s College in London, England. Smith is a professor of philosophy at the University of New England in Maine, and he will be spending the 2026/27 academic year as the Tage Danielsson Professor at Linköping University, in Sweden.
You can find links to his books and published works here and for his Substack, go to Dehumanization Matters.
More links here related to Part 2’s topics:
Race
https://newlinesmag.com/argument/the-trouble-with-race-and-its-many-shades-of-deceit/
MAGA dehumanization
Monsters
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