There is a strategy at work in America right now, and it is not about policy. It is about dehumanization.
It starts with language.
When you stop calling people people, and start calling them illegals, invaders, vermin, enemies, you are doing something very intentional. You are making it easier for the rest of us to look away when cruel things are done to them. That is not politics. That is dehumanization 101.
This White House understands that perfectly.
When a mother seeking asylum is no longer a mother, but a “border threat,” you don’t have to think about her children.
When a transgender kid is no longer a kid, but a “radical agenda,” you don’t have to think about his depression, his fear, his humanity.
When a journalist is no longer a journalist, but the “enemy of the people,” you don’t have to defend his right to ask hard questions.
When a protester is no longer a citizen using his First Amendment rights, but a “domestic terrorist,” you don’t have to listen to why he is angry.
This is how it works. First you rename them. Then you shame them. Then you blame them for everything that feels broken. Then you tell the country that cruelty is actually strength.
And it is working. Look at us.
We are becoming numb. We scroll past cages, past bans, past raids, past mocking press conferences where suffering is treated as a punchline. We have started to argue about whether certain people deserve basic dignity, as if dignity were something the government grants, rather than something God gave.
I am a Christian. I was taught that every person bears the image of God. Not just the people who vote like me. Not just the people who look like me. Every person.
Dehumanization is not just un-American. It is anti-Christian. Genesis 1:27 says God created mankind in His own image. You cannot love God and despise what He made in His image.
This White House wants us to be afraid of each other. Because fearful people are easier to control than free people. If we are busy hating our neighbor, we won’t notice who is picking our pockets.
But we have a choice.
We can refuse to repeat the language of dehumanization. We can refuse to laugh at the cruelty. We can refuse to call it normal.
We can look at every person, even the person this White House tells us to hate, and say four simple words: “You are still human.”
Because once we lose that, we have lost America. ~OC
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