Good vs Evil

 My single biggest criticism of the works of Tolkien is just that it is so obvious all throughout the story which entities are good and which are evil (I suppose with the single exception of Saruman, whose treachery is unknown toward the beginning). But everything is black and white. In Peter Jackson's portrayal, all the good guys are handsome or beautiful and all the bad guys are ugly and disfigured. This is a common problem in many TV shows and movies, particularly older ones or ones targeted to children. Real life is not that way. In real life we have people who seem good from one angle or another and might actually be doing something bad in secret, or perhaps the same actions seen as good by one party may be seen as evil by another. 

I was arguing with a stranger on Facebook yesterday and during that argument he stated "If you enter this country illegally, your freedom is irrelevant to us." Honestly, I was shocked by this declaration. Rights which apply to some people but not others are not rights, they are privileges. Freedom isn't freedom unless it applies universally. But I can see that the sentiment this person is communicating here is a common one and the purpose of this post is to denounce it universally. 

I know that this "America first" mentality, this mentality that citizens are better than other people on the planet, is seen as a good thing by many people. There are people who see the value in devaluing the humanity of those born outside our borders. And I am writing this post to state in no uncertain terms that I believe this world view to be truly evil.

I am reminded of an episode of Black Mirror I saw years ago. The main character was a member of the military. He believed himself to be fighting in a war against some scary-looking beasts. At one point, one of them flashed a light at him and apparently that glitched the software that was running his eyes. The effect was that he saw things as they really were instead of what his optic feed had been showing him. He saw the enemy he was fighting and they just looked like people. They had hardware and software in their eyes to make them see things other than what is really there. As he expressed his concerns to his superior officer, he was given the explanation that this approach makes it easier for them to fight the enemy, since seeing something scary is easier to kill than something that looks like you.

This is precisely why I assert, vociferously, that to dehumanize people is evil. The moment your world view allows you to say that a given person or a given group of people do not deserve rights, the moment you start to think of another human being as less than human, you are now capable of any number of horrific acts against that person (or simply excusing or justifying those acts when you see others commit them). 

People talk about Hitler as though he single-handedly killed 6 million Jews. He didn't. His soldiers did.
His secret police did. The people who looked up to him and admired the words he spoke committed all those horrors. It takes cooperation to carry out atrocities on that scale. A lot of cooperation. They were complicit. They carried out the orders. They did the unspeakable things. And I am certain none of them saw themselves as evil while they were doing it. In fact, I am certain they saw themselves as good and their victims as evil. Just as we are seeing now with all of the people being oppressed by the current administration and the agents who are carrying out similar evil acts.

Without popular opinion, a leader cannot maintain control (at least not long-term). The power that Trump has would evaporate very quickly if he was unsuccessful at convincing a decent portion of the population that he's doing the right thing. And that is precisely what he's done, as can be seen by the screenshot I've shared and on virtually any discussion on the internet with a MAGA Republican. They will say the same thing--that it's a good thing we're deporting all the "illegals", that they're criminals and MS-13 gang members, or any other similar justification. 

I have seen people asserting that they know what Trump's doing is great because it's causing liberals to lose their minds. I just can't understand that mentality at all. But it's obviously a similar type of dehumanization--taking satisfaction in angering other people. 

When I was arguing via email with my brother about Trump, he asserted "Trump isn't Hitler". I am willing to agree that he has not yet committed all the atrocities that Hitler did. But he is headed in that direction. He has established concentration camps. One company has made over $4 billion off of setting up concentration camps for Trump. Just as Hitler scapegoated the Jews, homosexuals, and others, Trump is scapegoating immigrants, trans people, and others. The logic is simple--if the people have somewhere to direct all their anger then they're more easily manipulated. "It's the ____ people who are the cause of all your problems. Vote for me and I'll fix it all by getting rid of them."

Immigrants are not cause of all of the societal problems we have in the USA. They commit fewer crimes than citizens do. They usually come here seeking work, wanting to make a better life for themselves. The problems that we face are complex and may have many different causes, but throwing out all the immigrants isn't going to solve those problems, it's just going to make life more difficult for those immigrants. 

Another reason this dehumanization is evil is that once people excuse the behavior, it's now the norm and can be committed freely. Deporting immigrants to El-Salvador prisons under the guise of "they're dangerous MS-13 gang members" makes it acceptable to expand that list of undesirables. Trump has asserted that he wants to deport US citizens to foreign prisons. He's made it clear that he's not going to stop with undocumented immigrants because he has now deported, and tried to deport, many people who were here legally. He's terminated visas for people who were here on visa. He's used deportation to get rid of people who criticize him and disagree with his policies or beliefs. 

It is wrong to view someone as undeserving of human rights. It is wrong to dehumanize people and use any excuse to strip away rights and to assert that "freedom is irrelevant". It is evil. And it deeply saddens me that I need to say that. It's sad how easily people can be manipulated. It's sad how easily freedom can be revoked. It's truly depressing to see so many people support such policy. 

I remember when I read 1984 thinking how ridiculous it was to think of people retracting actual newspapers and replacing the original wording with new wording. But now that we have the internet and electronic communications, that is not only very possible but we're seeing it happen. This administration is whitewashing history. They're removing references that contain certain keywords (such as "diversity", "equity", "inclusion", "gay", etc). They're retelling Black history in a light that makes white people look good. 

It truly scares me to see how fast we're advancing along the trail to authoritarianism. We already have concentration camps, deportations, and disappearances. The propaganda machine is going strong. I can't bring myself to watch right-wing news outlets, but I know they are spouting lies. I know they're parroting the assertion that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member. He has no criminal history. He's not a criminal. Yet the lies are being spread that he is. In the propaganda machine, he's guilty and deserves to be punished. I believe in the due process of law, I believe that we should treat people as innocent until they are proven guilty. I believe that people deserve the right to a fair trial, not to be condemned in the news or by the sitting president on a whim.