Hannah Anderson Quote

When we encounter someone who holds a viewpoint we don’t agree with, we can begin to view their whole existence through the lens of our disagreement with them. Instead of getting to know them and engaging their ideas, we assume that we already know them because we know where they stand on a certain political or religious question. And the degree to which we disagree with them on this question becomes the degree to which we will disrespect and disregard their humanity. They become our cultural enemy with whom we can’t imagine having anything in common. We can’t imagine that they, like us, are people who love their families, walk their dogs, work hard at their jobs, enjoy a good book, and might just be working toward the common good (even if we disagree about what good looks like). By separating ourselves into categories of us and them, we can justify mocking them, misrepresenting their views, and (in extreme cases) condoning violence against them. But when we engage in dehumanizing rhetoric or promote dehumanizing images, writes sociologist Brené Brown, we diminish our own humanity in the process.6