One of the tactics of propagandists, you know… people and organizations bent on twisting your mind and opinion to their will, is to dehumanize the alternate opinion to diminish contrary viewpoints.
This happens on all sides, but I will tell you about one specific example that is dividing our province even today.
A few years ago the ruling conservative party here in Alberta set out on a political junket and struck upon the idea of dividing the people in half by claiming that there were “real” Albertans and… well, you decide the other half of that equation.
It was not a claim based on evidence or any valid merit. It was a claim based on a gut inclination, telling one group, largely rural, that they were more valuable than the other group, largely urban. It was meant to divide. It was meant to enrage. It was meant to control.
Control?
Control the so-called “real” people for the sake of spreading misinformation through the cracks of the flattery, maybe. Control the so called “real” people by sweetening the toxic ideas with a bit of sugarcoating, probably.
Years later I am still encountering that exact divisive rhetoric online. Folks who were enamoured with being “picked” to be on the “real” team not just leaning into their favourite child syndrome but using it as a lever to dismiss contrary opinions. Failing to challenge their own role in a misinformation machine. Ignoring the pleas of family, friends and neighbours reaching out to them to rethink their radicalization.
“You’re not real so you don’t count.” They say, and dig themselves a little deeper into the control of their flatterers.
This is just my example, how my government is dividing my home with misinformation but it happens all across time and geography. It has been a tool of countless regimes and every dark movement in history.
But… if the crux of your argument is that the other side is not worthy of an opinion, then you’ve already lost something greater than the argument.