By Dr. David Laing Dawson
The manner in which the Nazi’s dehumanized the Jews over more than a decade has been thoroughly studied. It was a long process of referring to Jews as animals, vermin, subhuman, dangerous, corrupt, and evil. It gradually brought some citizens to revel in the final solution, and inured the rest to what was happening.
Trump and MAGA have managed to do this to “illegal aliens”, to “illegal immigrants” in a much shorter time. And just as the dehumanization of Jews spread easily to Gypsies, mentally handicapped, homosexuals, communists and others, so has the dehumanization of “illegal criminal aliens” spread to “aliens”, immigrants, and “naturalized citizens.”
Trump, Noem, Desantis tour the facility and make jokes about what will happen to those incarcerated there if they try to escape. They are pleased with the inhumane conditions, the cages in a tent at sea level in a mosquito and midge infested subtropical swamp.
The formal name for this concentration camp (deportation camp) is forgotten, and signs go up with the nickname, Alligator Alcatraz. We are no longer just inured to the dehumanizing cruelty, but we find it entertaining.
As bad and disheartening as this is, for some time now, Trump has been dehumanizing the mentally ill at the same time, in the same way. The number of times he has strung the following words together in a speech or press conference must reach into the hundreds:
Killers, criminals, people who stab you with a knife in the street, animals, from jails, prisons, and mental institutions, and insane asylums. “Do you know what an insane asylum is? It’s a mental institution on steroids.”
And of course, Hannibal Lecter, the late great Hannibal Lecter. Direct from an insane asylum. So now the mentally ill are not just associated with killers, criminals, animals, but with cannibalism.
We must work hard to ensure this infection does not spread north. And hope the growing resistance to MAGA will make a difference. God help us all.
Editor’s Suggestion
If you are as depressed as Dr Dawson and many of us are and you live in or near Hamilton, Ontario, than I suggest you attend his latest play at the Hamilton Fringe Festival. The Fortune Teller – “about to start a séance, her teenage niece bursts in. “My mother says I have to live with you now.” A client comes in, who wants to contact his late wife. The niece’s no-good boyfriend turns up. And that’s just for starters. A knockdown farce that has some clever things to say about youth, love, the Great Beyond, and the Here and Now.”
In addition to being a psychiatrist (retired), artist, novelist and author, blogger and film maker David’s plays have entertained many for a number of years now.
