I heard an interview with one of the victim’s family’s lawyers on the radio last week. They described going from incredulity to shock and outrage as each case was examined in court and the defense’s tone and arguments got more and more accusatory and belligerent. The anesthetist is apparently the one common factor in all the deaths.

Of course, it’s part of their job to garner sympathy in whatever way possible.

Scary stuff all around.

I dunno if you’re referencing The Fable of the Dragon Tyrant or if you just happened to have a similar train of thought as it’s author.

Good thing I never deleted my linkedin, that should be much cleaner than fediverse accounts

It’s very crazy. Sadly this isn’t the first time it’s happened, and as a behavior it tends to get passed on from generation to generation.

See the Romans calling all non-romans “barbarians”, the numerous falsehoods used to justify European colonization of the rest of the world and the chattel slave trade, the decade or so of virulent antisemitism that the Nazis helped build up before they ever built the first gas chamber, etc. See also Radio Genocide in Rwanda for a more recent example, or how spokespeople from the Israeli government compared Palestinians to cockroaches and other vermin in the days after the October 7 Hamas-led attacks.

Nine times out of ten, it is no accident but rather intentional propaganda. Someone (or some group) decides that they need what others have, and sets about preparing their fellow humans to be ok with taking it.

In a sense, it’s precisely because it is so awful a thing that we have gotten so skilled at doing it [to each other]; if you can dehumanize someone it’s a lot more feasible to take their stuff for yourself. And it can be very tempting to take the easy way out and take from others instead of figuring out how to provide for yourself.

Not to mention it is easier to write off a being’s inherent wants or needs if you are convinced they are lesser than you, and in many Western societies we have an existing cultural legacy of “god gave humans the earth to inherit as their dominion” which predisposes us towards deciding for other beings what their existence should be like without ever considering that the being in question gets a say.

Sorry if this became a bit of a ramble, I’ve been hung up on the issue of dehumanization ever since learning about how the Nazis rose to power in grade school and realizing that nothing was being done in society around me to prevent that sort of thinking from taking hold [again].

If I had to guess, I would say the main difference is you (still) see non-israelis as being just as human as Israelis. Whereas Netanyahou has probably dehumanized them to be less than cockroaches in his own psyche.

Pretty easy to sleep at night if you’ve convinced yourself you’re “cleaning up vermin” 🤮

It gives me no pleasure to learn that the business imitating japanese idol agencies was abusing their position and financials in relation to their “talent”.

Does this make “be gay, do crime” easier or harder now?

I think I would have more sympathy with those focusing on the “not all men but always a man” sign if this weren’t in the context of a woman being drugged by her husband and then said husband inviting about 50 random men to rape her, over 10 years.

One of the worst times to advocate for men’s rights/issues is when everyone is talking about the heinous crimes a bunch of men have done. Especially if the comments you’re leaving are focusing on how women rape just as much as men do, etc.

Late to this thread, but this is disturbingly similar to the media-bashing a French-Palestinian politician has received recently.

She tweeted something along the lines of “time for an uprising” before attending a conference. The following week+ of interviews with her party colleagues were filled with “did you know uprising in Arabic is intifada?! Why is your colleague calling for violence?!?!?!”

Her name is Rima Hassan if you’re interested.