This from a New York Times article:
“People are making up stories about ‘the other’ — Muslims, Trump voters, whoever ‘the other’ is,” she said. “‘They don’t have the values that we have. They don’t behave like we do. They are not nice. They are evil.’”
She added: “That’s dehumanization. And when it spreads, it can be very hard to correct.”
Dr. Green is now among a growing group of conflict resolution experts who are turning their focus on the United States, a country that some have never worked on. They are gathering groups in schools and community centers to apply their skills to help a country — this time their own — where they see troubling trends.
They point to dehumanizing political rhetoric — for example President Trump referring to the media as “enemies of the people,” or to a caravan of migrants in Mexico as riddled with criminals and “unknown Middle Easterners.”
I beg to differ. When we conservatives point out that Muslims do not share our values, we are not making up stories about them. We are telling the truth. Our classically liberal, American, Enlightenment values are incompatible with Sharia. That is a fact. It is not an expression of racism, xenophobia, or any sort of bigotry. It is not even a judgment as to the quality of their values.
And because Muslims have different values, they behave differently. This is perfectly obvious, and to point it out should offend no one.
Does every Muslim uphold Sharia? No. The great American Zuhdi Jasser does not. But he is an outlier.
To describe Muslims and their values and patterns of behavior is not to 'dehumanize' them. They are human all right; it is just that their values and views make living with them them difficult if not impossible. There can be no comity without commonality.
'Liberals' make the mistake of thinking that 'deep down' we are really all the same and want the same things. That is plainly false.
Trump exaggerates and is careless in his use of language. He is a builder and a promoter, not a wordsmith. He speaks with the vulgar, but the learned who are not hopelessly biased against him know how to 'read' and 'translate' him. I will give one example, and you can work out the others for yourself if you have the intelligence and moral decency to do so.
"The media are enemies of the people." Translation: the mainstream media outlets with the exception of Fox News are dominated by 'progressives' and coastal elitists whose attitudes and values are at odds with the "deplorable" (Hillary's term of abuse) denizens of fly-over country who "cling to their guns and religion" (Obama's abusive phrase).
The values that patriotic Americans cherish are routinely ridiculed and rejected by left-wing media poo-bahs. In this sense, they are enemies of the people.
Contrary to what 'liberals' maintain, Trump is not launching an attack on the Fourth Estate as such. He is attacking the blatant and pervasive left-wing bias of most of their members, bias which is evident to everyone except those members and the consumers of what cannot be called reportage but must be called leftist propaganda.
Article here.
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