I can get behind murder. I feel like this, to some extend, is a genuine part of human behaviour. Even the horrific aftermath of such. But genocide truly feels inhuman to me. So I can never fundamentally understand how in history, civilizations went from point A to point B to Point Genocide. Any thoughts on this?
You begin by classifying anyone you don’t know as “the others”… They’re not like you. They don’t share your values. Their ways are weird.
If you use that language with your citizens long enough, it slowly seeps in that those people aren’t really people at all. Eventually, killing them isn’t killing humans, it’s just getting rid of vermin; poisoning rats or bug-bombing your home.
You see politicians doing it every day. They’re not humans…they’re “illegals”, is probably the most modern example. But it’s insidious, and pervasive. Slowly and deliberately inuring a populous to greater and larger acts of inhumanity.
The short answer is that it doesn’t just happen. It’s a culmination of a process that ends with one group of people completely rejected the very humanity of another group. After that, who cares if they die.