Propaganda

“Dehumanization is aroused, exacerbated, and exploited by propaganda,” writes David Livingstone Smith in his book, "Less Than Human."

There is a lot of propaganda being touted these days about the southern border of the United States.  That the people seeking entry are criminals, drug dealers, rapists, caravans of "invaders" creating a national security emergency are bogus claims, but they serve to ignite in gullible minds the sense that these people are somehow subhuman or less than human.  

“In a speech delivered at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1936, against the background of the gathering storm of fascism in Europe, Aldous Huxley argued that dehumanization is the primary function of propaganda.

Most people would hesitate to torture or kill a human being like themselves. But when that human being is spoken of as though he were not a human being, but as the representative of some wicked principle, we lose our scruples.… All political and nationalist propaganda aims at only one thing; to persuade one set of people that another set of people are not really human and that it is therefore legitimate..." to keep them out. (Excerpt From: David Livingstone Smith. “Less Than Human.”)