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struggle4progress

(118,379 posts)
Sat Jun 23, 2018, 05:01 PM Jun 2018

Remember the genocides of the 1990s?

They were fueled by long-term mass-media campaigns, vilifying the victims

How Yugoslavia's Destroyers Harnessed The Media
... Myth, fantasy, half-truths and brazen lies were packaged each night into television news. The conspiracy theories dreamed up by frustrated nationalists in the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s which formed the ideological basis of the Greater Serbian program became the literal truth, and anyone who challenged it was labeled an "enemy of the Serb nation". Every conceivable event from Serb history was dredged up and distorted to feed the persecution complex of ordinary people, who were gradually taken in by the barrage of xenophobia ...

Propaganda, media effects and conflict: Evidence from the Rwandan genocide
... “Allowing the station to broadcast had substantial human costs, with consequences detrimental for the targeted population. In addition, the violence may have had long-term impact on human capital formation, social capital, and political stability” ...


The Nazis, of course, played the same game earlier. Propagandist Julius Streicher was later hanged for his role in the incitement

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Remember the genocides of the 1990s? (Original Post) struggle4progress Jun 2018 OP
The Ten Stages of Genocide by Dr. Gregory Stanton muriel_volestrangler Jun 2018 #1
Definitely helpful heaven05 Jun 2018 #2
That applies to a lot more than just genocide. Igel Jun 2018 #3
We are going to need a lot of rope! ProudLib72 Jun 2018 #4

muriel_volestrangler

(101,421 posts)
1. The Ten Stages of Genocide by Dr. Gregory Stanton
Sat Jun 23, 2018, 05:21 PM
Jun 2018
1. CLASSIFICATION: All cultures have categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi. Bipolar societies that lack mixed categories, such as Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have genocide. The main preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications that transcend the divisions. The Catholic church could have played this role in Rwanda, had it not been riven by the same ethnic cleavages as Rwandan society. Promotion of a common language in countries like Tanzania has also promoted transcendent national identity. This search for common ground is vital to early prevention of genocide.
...
3. DISCRIMINATION: A dominant group uses law, custom, and political power to deny the rights of other groups. The powerless group may not be accorded full civil rights or even citizenship. Examples include the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 in Nazi Germany, which stripped Jews of their German citizenship, and prohibited their employment by the government and by universities. Denial of citizenship to the Rohingya Muslim minority in Burma is another example. Prevention against discrimination means full political empowerment and citizenship rights for all groups in a society. Discrimination on the basis of nationality, ethnicity, race or religion should be outlawed. Individuals should have the right to sue the state, corporations, and other individuals if their rights are violated.

4. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group. In combating this dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. Genocidal societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than democracies. Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech and make it culturally unacceptable. Leaders who incite genocide should be banned from international travel and have their foreign finances frozen. Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished.

5. ORGANIZATION: Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias to provide deniability of state responsibility (the Janjaweed in Darfur.) Sometimes organization is informal (Hindu mobs led by local RSS militants) or decentralized (terrorist groups.) Special army units or militias are often trained and armed. Plans are made for genocidal killings. To combat this stage, membership in these militias should be outlawed. Their leaders should be denied visas for foreign travel. The U.N. should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to investigate violations, as was done in post-genocide Rwanda.

6. POLARIZATION: Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the center. Moderates from the perpetrators’ own group are most able to stop genocide, so are the first to be arrested and killed. Prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups. Assets of extremists may be seized, and visas for international travel denied to them. Coups d’état by extremists should be opposed by international sanctions.
...

http://genocidewatch.org/genocide/tenstagesofgenocide.html

Igel

(35,393 posts)
3. That applies to a lot more than just genocide.
Sat Jun 23, 2018, 06:58 PM
Jun 2018

Actually, it's not a bad description on the whole of the current state of American politics.

Us v them.
Justifying overt discrimination.
Dehumanizing the other.
We lack organization.
But polarization.

I assume there are more than just the one that doesn't apply.

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