80. How Can We Be so Cruel (Part 1)?

In this episode, Marcus and Esme try to answer the question, “how is it that people are capable of being so cruel to one another?” Drawing on philosopher David Livingstone Smith’s groundbreaking work, they explore how political leaders, military institutions, and propagandists have learned to tap into some of our most primal instincts to overcome our sense of compassion and empathy through the process of dehumanization. Smith shows that dehumanization isn’t just an insult or a slur; it’s a psychological and political technology people and governments use to amass power through the fear of existential threats posed by the least likely sort of villain there is: our neighbors and community members. 

 

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Sources for this episode include:

• Smith, David Livingstone. Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others. St. Martin's Press, 2011.
• Smith, David Livingstone. On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It. Oxford University Press, 2020.
• Robinson, Nathan J. “The Extreme Danger of Dehumanizing Rhetoric.” Current Affairs, August 22, 2024. https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-extreme-danger-of-dehumanizing-rhetoric 
• Walsh, Dylan. “Imagined Otherness: Why We Dehumanize Our Political Opponents.” Phys.org, May 29, 2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-otherness-dehumanize-political-opponents.html. 

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