This statement from Ben resonates with me. I saw a disturbing clip yesterday from Tucker Carlson's recent live audience special with Rosanne Barr. Rosanne Barr goes on an unhinged rant talking about how Hollywood elites “eat people” and spreading other lies and disinformation. Here’s a short transcript of the clip I saw:
Barr: And you know they do that. You know they eat babies. That is not bullshit. It’s true.
Carlson: So it’s not just the dogs and the cats? It’s not just the pets?
Barr: It’s not just the dogs and the cats. They’re full on vampires. And everybody still thinks I’m crazy, but I’m not crazy. They’re full on vampires. They love the taste of human flesh and they drink human blood. They do, Tucker.
Notice how Rosanne uses the ominously vague “they” in her unhinged statements. Also notice how Carlson plays into this vague use of “they” to also include the racist and xenophobic accusation of with his question “it’s not just the pets?” Which is a reference to Trump’s absurd statements during the debate with Kamala Harris, where Trump said that “they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats.” The “they” in Trump’s racist and xenophobic statement refers to immigrants. Rosanne, in her mental instability, goes along with Tucker’s previous statement and becomes more unhinged by claiming all of this new “they” (read: Hollywood elites and immigrants) are “full on vampires.”
This is dehumanization.
This is blood libel.
This is xenophobia.
This is racism.
This is hatred.
This is evil.
And the radical Republican crowd in the video cheered for it. I wouldn’t want to subject anyone to the almost 2-hour live special of nonsense, hatred, and lies. If you want to subject yourself to it you can find the entire show with Tucker and Rosanne on Facebook. You will be able to find enough clips of the specific exchange I mention online just by using the snippets of the transcript I provided above to see for yourself.
This act of dehumanization is setting the stage for evil acts committed by the misguided radical right wing against anyone deemed as the “they” Rosanne and Tucker are talking about.
We saw this with PizzaGate in 2016 when an alleged radical Republican drove 350 miles and shot up Comet Ping Pong pizzeria as a result of a wild conspiracy theory that the establishment was being used by the Clintons as an outlet for child sex trafficking.
This “they” that Tucker, Rosanne, and the crowd are thinking about is ultimately anyone who doesn’t fit the image of the radical Republican’s idea of a “true patriot” - namely anyone that isn’t a white, straight, cisgender, Christian nationalist conservative.
Once you are able to dehumanize one person, you can then dehumanize a group of people. When you dehumanize anyone, you are able to justify any immoral and unspeakable act you want against that person - torture, rape, murder, genocide, etc. - because you no longer see that person as a human being with inalienable rights and worthy of life.