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* The {{Deryni}} are often spoken of this way by their human foes.
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* The {{Deryni}} Literature/{{Deryni}} are often spoken of this way by their human foes.
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See also [[Not Even Human]], which implicitly leans on many of the concepts associated with this trope by making the enemies ''genuinely'' non-human in order to justify violence against them.
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See also [[Not Even Human]], NotEvenHuman, which implicitly leans on many of the concepts associated with this trope by making the enemies ''genuinely'' non-human in order to justify violence against them.
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See also [[Not Even Human]], which implicitly leans on many of the concepts associated with this trope by making the enemies ''genuinely'' non-human in order to justify violence against them.
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!!Aversions:
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* During the climatic confrontation in the ComicBook/{{X-Men}} graphic novel ''God Loves, Man Kills'', Rev. Stryker points to Nightcrawler and exclaims:
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* During the climatic confrontation in the ComicBook/{{X-Men}} ComicBook/XMen graphic novel ''God Loves, Man Kills'', Rev. Stryker points to Nightcrawler and exclaims:
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** The ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' {{Lampshades}} this idea using the goblins, a sentient human race, as exemplar for FantasticRacism. The goblins are viewed as animals and vermin, and it takes a real shift in attitudes to get them recognised as a sentient race deserving the same rights that are accorded to men, dwarfs and trolls. But any indignity can be inflicted on them, including torture and slavery.
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** The ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' {{Lampshades}} this idea using the goblins, a sentient human race, as exemplar for FantasticRacism. The goblins are viewed as animals and vermin, and it takes a real shift in attitudes to get them recognised as a sentient race deserving the same rights that are accorded to men, dwarfs and trolls. But any indignity can be inflicted on them, including torture and slavery.
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* In ''Literature/AncillaryJustice'', the captured enemies whose bodies are taken over by a spaceships AI are referred to as "units". [[spoiler: The protagonist, who is such an AI, is also treated as nonhuman, and seems to be okay with this; though it's hard to tell whether she's just resigned. She does show a preference for people who treat her like a person.]]
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the \"real\" one?
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* ClonesArePeopleToo: When clones (of humans, that is) are treated as human as the real one.
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* ClonesArePeopleToo: When clones (of humans, that is) are treated as human as the real original one.
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* In ''BattlestarGalacticaClassic'' the Cylons were originally supposed to be aliens. They were changed because executives thought that "killing sentient robots" was more child-friendly than "killing aliens." Basically trading one issue of dehumanizing with another.
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* In ''BattlestarGalacticaClassic'' ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic'' the Cylons were originally supposed to be aliens. They were changed because executives thought that "killing sentient robots" was more child-friendly than "killing aliens." Basically trading one issue of dehumanizing with another.
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* Several episodes of ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' played this straight, but the episode "Hearts and Minds" [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] it by having the "bugs" turn out to be humans from a rival corporation; the soldiers had been [[BrainwashedAndCrazy drugged to see the enemy as disgusting aliens]] so that they would [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman feel fewer qualms]] about killing them. The soldiers from the rival corporation were similarly drugged.
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* Several episodes of ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' played this straight, but the episode "Hearts and Minds" [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] it by having the "bugs" turn out to be humans from a rival corporation; the soldiers had been [[BrainwashedAndCrazy drugged to see the enemy as disgusting aliens]] so that they would [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman feel fewer qualms]] about killing them. The soldiers from the rival corporation were similarly drugged.
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* FinalSolution: When dehumanization is taken to its logical conclusion, this can be the result.
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No Real Life Examples Please as per the RL section thread in the Long Term Projects forum.
[[noreallife]]
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[[AC: RealLife]]
* In the weeks leading up to the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 of Tutsis by Hutus, talk radio was fanning the growing hate by referring to Tutsis as "inyenzi", or "cockroaches" in the local language. This was also shown in the movie ''Film/HotelRwanda'' which was based on events surrounding the massacre.
* Jews and Gypsies were often referred to as "vermin" in various Nazi German propaganda. People of Slavic origin were considered "fit only for extermination or enslavement" by Nazi racial standards.
* In Japanese culture, questioning someone's humanity or their right to be treated as a person seems like a recurring theme.
** Taken UpToEleven in UsefulNotes/WorldWar2, where Imperial Japanese propaganda would depict POWs, Chinese, Koreans, and other non-Japanese people and cultures as subhuman.
* The military often preaches to their troops that their enemies are less than human, to lessen the emotional impact of slaughtering them. Often times there's also the unintentional invocations of this, where soldiers don't shoot at their enemies because they're not human, but only because they're told to shoot at their designated targets. This has varying degrees of success.
* In the modern world one of the reasons for Universal Human Rights legislation is to counter this mentality. People who get riled up when certain less than popular groups such as terrorists or sex offenders are protected under these laws are failing to understand the purpose of them - it's to prevent the "slippery slope" effect that if you say ''this'' group of people aren't worthy of human rights then [[PrecedentExcuse there's nothing to stop you]] saying that ''that'' group aren't either and neither are that group over there and... etc. etc. so the laws apply universally.
* Many slave owners - past and present - often dehumanize their slaves to remove the guilt of abusing them.
* In the weeks leading up to the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 of Tutsis by Hutus, talk radio was fanning the growing hate by referring to Tutsis as "inyenzi", or "cockroaches" in the local language. This was also shown in the movie ''Film/HotelRwanda'' which was based on events surrounding the massacre.
* Jews and Gypsies were often referred to as "vermin" in various Nazi German propaganda. People of Slavic origin were considered "fit only for extermination or enslavement" by Nazi racial standards.
* In Japanese culture, questioning someone's humanity or their right to be treated as a person seems like a recurring theme.
** Taken UpToEleven in UsefulNotes/WorldWar2, where Imperial Japanese propaganda would depict POWs, Chinese, Koreans, and other non-Japanese people and cultures as subhuman.
* The military often preaches to their troops that their enemies are less than human, to lessen the emotional impact of slaughtering them. Often times there's also the unintentional invocations of this, where soldiers don't shoot at their enemies because they're not human, but only because they're told to shoot at their designated targets. This has varying degrees of success.
* In the modern world one of the reasons for Universal Human Rights legislation is to counter this mentality. People who get riled up when certain less than popular groups such as terrorists or sex offenders are protected under these laws are failing to understand the purpose of them - it's to prevent the "slippery slope" effect that if you say ''this'' group of people aren't worthy of human rights then [[PrecedentExcuse there's nothing to stop you]] saying that ''that'' group aren't either and neither are that group over there and... etc. etc. so the laws apply universally.
* Many slave owners - past and present - often dehumanize their slaves to remove the guilt of abusing them.
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* AlwaysChaoticEvil: A group of people/race is portrayed as always evil so the heroes can beat them up without impunity.
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* AlwaysChaoticEvil: A group of people/race is portrayed as always evil so the heroes can beat them up without with moral impunity.
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* Done intentionally in ''TheTurnerDiaries''. The novel is centered around a group of [[VillainProtagonist Neo]] [[DesignatedHero Nazi]] [[WesternTerrorists terrorists]] trying to start a race war.
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* Done intentionally in ''TheTurnerDiaries''.''Literature/TheTurnerDiaries''. The novel is centered around a group of [[VillainProtagonist Neo]] [[DesignatedHero Nazi]] [[WesternTerrorists terrorists]] trying to start a race war.
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* This is the entire point of the anti-Semitic movie ''The Eternal Jew'' (1940). It was created by the Nazis in order to justify the FinalSolution to the German public.
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* Done intentionally in ''TheTurnerDiaries''. The novel is centered around a group of [[VillainProtagonist Neo]] [[DesignatedHero Nazi]] [[WesternTerrorists terrorists]] trying to start a race war.
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* Jews and Gypsies were often referred to as "vermin" in various Nazi German propaganda. People of Slavic origion were considered "fit only for extermination or enslavement" by Nazi racial standards.
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* Jews and Gypsies were often referred to as "vermin" in various Nazi German propaganda. People of Slavic origion origin were considered "fit only for extermination or enslavement" by Nazi racial standards.
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** Taken UpToEleven in UsefulNotes/WorldWar2, where Imperial Japanese propaganda would depict POWs, Chinese, Koreans, and other non-Japanese people and cultures as subhuman.
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* ''ComicBook/RequiemChevalierVampire''. Thurim, as part of his pre-battle speech to his fellow [[UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights Teutonic Knights]] against the Lithuanian army, tells them the very word Slav means, well, slave.
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* ''ComicBook/RequiemChevalierVampire''.''ComicBook/RequiemVampireKnight''. Thurim, as part of his pre-battle speech to his fellow [[UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights Teutonic Knights]] against the Lithuanian army, tells them the very word Slav means, well, slave.
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* In ''Literature/TheSorceresssOrc'', orcs are treated this way. People think of them as a sort of slightly more intelligent animal, even though they hire them as mercenaries. The moment when the protagonist decides to invite her orc bodyguard into her home because it is raining outside is a turning point in the story; she half expects him to vandalize her furniture, instead he asks intelligent questions about the security of the apartment.
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* In ''Film/SilenceOfTheLambs'', Buffalo Bill [[ItIsDehumanizing refers to his victims as "it"]].
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* In ''VideoGame/Bioshock'', citizens of Rapture are taught that the poor and lower classes are "parasites".
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* In ''VideoGame/Bioshock'', ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'', citizens of Rapture are taught that the poor and lower classes are "parasites".
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* In ''VideoGame/Bioshock'', citizens of Rapture are taught that the poor and lower classes are "parasites".
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* Many slave owners - past and present - often dehumanize their slaves to remove the guilt of abusing them.
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** And let's not forget the Daleks.
---> '''Dalek Sec: [[AC: This is not war - This is pest control!]]'''
---> '''Dalek Sec: [[AC: This is not war - This is pest control!]]'''
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* In the modern world one of the reasons for Universal Human Rights legislation is to counter this mentality. People who get riled up when certain less than popular groups such as terrorists or sex offenders are protected under these laws are failing to understand the purpose of them - it's to prevent the "slippery slope" effect that if you say ''this'' group of people aren't worthy of human rights then [[PrecedentExcuse there's nothing to stop you]] saying that ''that'' group aren't either and neither are that group over there and... etc. etc. so the laws apply universally.
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* In the modern world one of the reasons for Universal Human Rights legislation is to counter this mentality. People who get riled up when certain less than popular groups such as terrorists or sex offenders are protected under these laws are failing to understand the purpose of them - it's to prevent the "slippery slope" effect that if you say ''this'' group of people aren't worthy of human rights then [[PrecedentExcuse there's nothing to stop you]] saying that ''that'' group aren't either and neither are that group over there and... etc. etc. so the laws apply universally.universally.
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Typical cases
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Typical cases cases:
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!Examples
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* The above also happens in one of the in-universe stories in ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}''. '''ZCE'''
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%% * The above also happens in one of the in-universe stories in ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}''. '''ZCE''' ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}''.
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[[AC:Film]]
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Dehumanization is the denial of someone's status as "human" or "person", whether by assimilating them to animals or things, especially of the harmful and disgusting sort, for the purpose of thus denying them the rights and the sympathy that come with "true personhood", and deliberately ignoring the target's individuality (i.e., the creative and interesting aspects of his or her personality).
Dehumanization can occur discursively (e.g., idiomatic language that likens certain human beings to non-human animals, verbal abuse, erasing one's voice from discourse), symbolically (e.g., imagery), or physically (e.g., chattel slavery, physical abuse, refusing eye contact).
Dehumanization may be carried out by a social institution (such as a state, school, or family) or via an individual's sentiments and actions. Dehumanization can be [[InnocentBigot unintentional]], especially on the part of individuals, as with some types of ''de facto'' racism.
State-organized dehumanization has historically been directed against perceived racial, ethnic, national, or religious minority groups. Other minoritized and marginalized individuals and groups (based on sexuality, gender, (dis)ability, class, or some other organizing principle) are also susceptible to various forms of dehumanization.
The concept of dehumanization is related to infrahumanization (i.e. calling someone "sub-human"), delegitimization, moral exclusion and objectification. Dehumanization occurs across several domains, is facilitated by status, power, and social connection, and results in behaviors like exclusion, violence, and support for violence against others. Will often lead to a GuiltFreeExterminationWar.
Related is the practices of stereotyping, which is basically assigning certain traits to certain group of people. It may overlap with dehumanization in some cases, but just as often it doesn't.
[[index]]
Typical cases
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: A group of people/race is portrayed as always evil so the heroes can beat them up without impunity.
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Lots of casualties (in a war, disaster, etc) are treated as unimportant especially if there's no recognizable people among them.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Often a price of having cybernetic implants is making you less than human.
* {{Demonization}}: making something seem despicable like a demon or monster in spite of what it really is.
* ExpendableClone: What's stopping you from making new clones if one died?
* FantasticRacism: When one race is treated as lower than the other.
** FantasticSlur: The "names" often used to refer to the "lower" races.
* InhumanableAlienRights: Non-humans wouldn't have the same rights as those of a human. Even if said non-humans are sapient.
* ItIsDehumanizing: Calling someone "it" instead of a proper pronoun indicates that that someone is treated as a "thing" and not a person.
* JustAMachine: Robots and AIs are often considered expendable and/or [[WeCanRebuildHim easily rebuilt]], unlike humans, so they have less value.
* {{Mook}}: A group of grunts whose purpose in the story is to be slain en masse, and they're made to be as unsympathetic as possible.
** FacelessGoons: Their faces are concealed, therefore they're expendable.
** RedShirtArmy: Same thing applied to good guys' army. Downplayed in that they can be sympathized with, but because they lack importance they're still the guys to be killed in place of the real characters.
** WhatMeasureIsAMook: Significant bad guys may be treated well enough by the heroes. Not so much for the mooks.
* NicknamingTheEnemy: Calling the enemies with names will prevent you and your allies from hesitating to attack said enemies.
* NotEvenHuman: If the bad guys turn out to be of a species [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman mindless and alien]], it's okay to kill them [[ThouShaltNotKill without any moral issues]].
* OfThePeople: When a group call themselves "the people" and people outside of said group "not-people".
* OneWingedAngel: monstrous and inhuman forms in general are easier to kill from an emotional point of view.
** ScaledUp: rule of the EvilOverlordList: "Never turn into a snake; it never helps." ReptilesAreAbhorrent, so turning into one makes killing easier.
* WeHaveReserves: There's more where [[RedShirt they]] came from, so who cares what happens to 'em.
* WhatMeasureIsANonhuman: A group of sapient species is treated not as human because they're not technically humans.
* YoureInsane and YouMonster: if your enemy is beyond reason and/or redemption, you don't need to hold back anymore.
Subversions
* AndroidsArePeopleToo: When robots and AIs are treated/made as human as real humans.
* ClonesArePeopleToo: When clones (of humans, that is) are treated as human as the real one.
* TheDeadHaveNames: When the identities of casualties (of a war, disaster, etc) are shown so the audience will sympathize with them.
* NotAlwaysEvil: A race that is perceived as evil aren't always like that.
* SympatheticSentientWeapon: They're being dehumanized, by reducing them to little more than a tool, against their wills.
* TokenHeroicOrc: A member of an AlwaysChaoticEvil race that is somehow siding with the good guys are always treated as good as the good guys.
* ZombieAdvocate: When a human fights for the rights of nonhumans.
Played with:
* VanHelsingHateCrimes: The monsters are shown to be just minding their own business, or (potentially) outright kind, and a human commits hate crimes on them.
[[/index]]
Compare and contrast DeathOfPersonality (rendering someone as "dead" by making them lose their humanity).
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!Examples
[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* In the film ''Film/{{Casshern}}'', the concept of [[NoTrueScotsman "True Humans"]] appears; some ancestral race of superior beings who are entitled to treat baseline humans as disposable.
* The above also happens in one of the in-universe stories in ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}''. '''ZCE'''
* In ''Anime/SuiseiNoGargantia'' this is the Galactic Alliance's rationale for their galactic war with The Hideauze (intelligent, space-dwelling squid-like creatures), and their harsh living conditions and governing of the human race. [[spoiler: It turns out later that the Galactic Alliance knew the Hideauze were once humans who changed themselves with genetic engineering to be able to live in the harsh conditions of space. This was hidden from lower ranking soldiers like Ledo. It's justified again later because the Hideauze are so far gone, and dangerous that they threaten the humans with extinction. If they don't fight it would be impossible to survive and still maintain their humanity, and society.]]
* In ''Franchise/OnePiece'', the [[SlaveBrand Hoof of the Soaring Dragon]] imprinted by [[AristocratsAreEvil the Celestial Dragons]] marks one "less than human".
* Both radical factions in ''Anime/GundamSEED'' and ''GundamSEEDDestiny'' do this. The [[GattacaBabies Coordinator]] extremists hold themselves as a SuperiorSpecies, meant to lord it over the rest of humanity, while [[MugglePower Blue Cosmos]] insists that the Coordinators are an abomination that needs to be exterminated to preserve "our blue and pure world." Most of the series' {{Heel Face Turn}}s occur when a Natural or a Coordinator is given the chance to view the other side as human beings.
* ''Anime/CrossAnge'': A baby that rejects magic is an aberration, subject to forcible removal from society, a "Norma", not "human." This distinction is so well-taught to the aspiring heiress to the throne, she even clings to it for some time after, ahem, an abrupt career change.
[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* ''ComicBook/RequiemChevalierVampire''. Thurim, as part of his pre-battle speech to his fellow [[UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights Teutonic Knights]] against the Lithuanian army, tells them the very word Slav means, well, slave.
* During the climatic confrontation in the ComicBook/{{X-Men}} graphic novel ''God Loves, Man Kills'', Rev. Stryker points to Nightcrawler and exclaims:
--> Human?! You dare call that...thing--'''HUMAN?!?'''
[[AC:Film]]
* A famous quote by Creator/AlfredHitchcock:
-->''"I was once quoted as saying that actors are cattle. My actor friends know I would never be capable of such a thoughtless, rude and unfeeling remark, that I would never call them cattle. What I probably said was that actors should be treated like cattle."''[[note]][[http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/08/01/all-actors-are-cattle/ He actually did say "actors are cattle" on several occasions]].[[/note]]
* In ''Film/MinorityReport'', Anderton says of the three Pre-Cogs "It's better if you don't think of them as human."
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', Moses spends the majority of his childhood ignoring the plight of the Hebrews who slave for Egypt. However, when he discovers that he himself is actually Hebrew, and that his father the Pharaoh ordered the wide-scale death of Hebrew children, he can no longer ignore his morals.
--> '''Pharaoh Seti''': Moses, sometimes for the greater good, sacrifices must be made.
--> '''Moses''': Sacrifices?
--> '''Pharaoh Seti''': Oh, my son...they were only slaves.
* ''Film/TheProducers''
-->'''Leo Bloom:''' Actors are not animals! They're human beings!
-->'''Max Bialystock:''' They are? Have you ever eaten with one?
[[AC:LightNovels]]
* In ''LightNovel/FateZero'', a serial killer of women and children finds that their "art" was incinerated and demolished by a third party, and cries to the heavens "Who could do this and still call themselves human?!" There are other places where this pops up.
[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Literature/{{Discworld}}
** In ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'', this topic is discussed repeatedly. The protagonist makes a particularly vivid reflection that the literal straw men they stab in training do not serve the purpose of training them in combat (they are soft, and don't fight back) but in making them forget that, unlike them, a human, when stabbed, will bleed, and cry, and more than straw might fall from their wounds.
** The ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' {{Lampshades}} this idea using the goblins, a sentient human race, as exemplar for FantasticRacism. The goblins are viewed as animals and vermin, and it takes a real shift in attitudes to get them recognised as a sentient race deserving the same rights that are accorded to men, dwarfs and trolls. But any indignity can be inflicted on them, including torture and slavery.
* In ''Literature/TheForeverWar'', the soldiers are mentally conditioned to view the enemy Taurans as sub-human, by invoking false memories of Taurans burning cities, eating children, and raping women. The soldiers know the images are fake, as no one has even ''seen'' a Tauran before their battle, but they still work to send them into a bloodthirsty frenzy, to the point that their mission to capture a Tauran fails because the soldiers slaughter them all.
* ''Literature/HaloHuntersInTheDark'': During the expedition several of Captain Richards' soldiers are lost. She realizes she hadn't even bothered to learn their names and quickly scans the nametags of the others, but finds it's easier to keep relaying battle orders if she doesn't register them as human. (By the narrative Richards is treated as a competent leader but a bit of a racist.)
* A great literary classic by Osamu Dazai is titled ''NoLongerHuman''.
* In ''{{Literature/Salammbo}}'', the priests of Baal-Moloch make [[spoiler:throwing Carthaginian children to be burned alive as HumanSacrifice]] easier by getting the crowd to yell with them "They are not men but oxen!".
* The {{Deryni}} are often spoken of this way by their human foes.
** In ''Deryni Checkmate'', Archbishop Loris asks Warin de Grey, "You would kill Morgan without chance to repent his sins?" Warin replies, "I doubt there is hope in the Hereafter for the likes of him, Excellency. The Deryni were the spawn of Satan from the Creation. I do not think salvation is within their grasp." Warin later tells Morgan much the same thing to his face, admitting that Morgan will be granted time to confess his sins before he is killed against Warin's "better judgement": "Personally, I feel that such is a waste of time for your kind; but Archbishop Loris disagrees."
** Years later, in ''The King's Justice'', Loris tells Duncan [=McLain=], "I do have a care for your soul though--if Deryni even have souls, of course."
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''BattlestarGalacticaClassic'' the Cylons were originally supposed to be aliens. They were changed because executives thought that "killing sentient robots" was more child-friendly than "killing aliens." Basically trading one issue of dehumanizing with another.
* In ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]: Redemption'' a bunch of ChildSoldiers are being trained to kill by presenting them with a trussed up enemy and denying his humanity, calling him a "cockroach" and having them [[BattleChant chant]] "Kill the cockroach!"
* The Reavers in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' are a race of insane people who have been poisoned during an experiment on live human subjects. In effect they are the sci-fi equivalent of undead beings and the reason they are dehumanized is because they are in fact physically dehumanized.
* Several episodes of ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' played this straight, but the episode "Hearts and Minds" [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] it by having the "bugs" turn out to be humans from a rival corporation; the soldiers had been [[BrainwashedAndCrazy drugged to see the enemy as disgusting aliens]] so that they would [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman feel fewer qualms]] about killing them. The soldiers from the rival corporation were similarly drugged.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E9TheSavages The Savages]]", this is how the Elders of the city view the savages native to their world. They regard the savages as sub-human and have no qualms about using them in machines that drain them of their life energy and nearly kill them to keep their own society going.
* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack''. Caputo, trying to toughen up Fischer, tells her to not think of the prisoners as human beings in one episode.
* Discussed occasionally on ''Series/{{Bones}}'' where either someone is upset with Brennan for treating remains as anthropological curiosities instead of as former people, or conversely Brennan giving advice to think of the former people as remains in order to suppress the emotions of (for example) autopsying a friend.
[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K''
** Imperials and Chaos have the same view of each other: blind fools clinging to false gods and weaklings only good for extermination. Some SpaceMarine chapters have this view of normal humans, whether allied or fallen to Chaos.
** Tangentially used by the Imperial Guardman's Uplifting Primer. Of course their foes ''aren't'' human, but it still makes them out to be inferior to the basic human, and doesn't hesitate to make up "facts" like Tau being descended from bovines and stampeding at loud noises and orks being easy to defeat in close combat. An updated edition features Tau sympathizers which it claims are easily recognizeable as degenerate subhumans (other than a tendency to wear braids and sometimes paint themselves blue, they're no less healthy that the regular humans), reminiscent of Nazi sub-racial distinctions.
[[AC:VideoGame]]
* In ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', [[spoiler:Walker gets ''less'' dehumanizing as the story progresses. He starts with neutral, technical, professional expressions, distancing himself from what he's doing and making it seem like something simple and clean. "Target confirmed." "Tango down." By the end of the story, he's relying on moral condemnation and sheer spite to keep him going: "GOT THE FUCKER!" "AND STAY DOWN!". He's not removing targets anymore, he's killing people.]]
* VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}} [[spoiler: has a true BigBad who considers the people of Bionis merely part of the cycle of life and death, a vehicle for his continued existence as a god.]]
[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''
** In the Japanese dub, "You killed Kenny! You bastards!" is rendered as "You killed Kenny! You aren't human!"
** One memorable Cartman quote from the episode "Die Hippie Die" was "Hey! They are not people, they're hippies!" and later uses a DrillTank on them. The entire episode treats hippies like an exponentially-growing termite invasion
[[AC: RealLife]]
* In the weeks leading up to the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 of Tutsis by Hutus, talk radio was fanning the growing hate by referring to Tutsis as "inyenzi", or "cockroaches" in the local language. This was also shown in the movie ''Film/HotelRwanda'' which was based on events surrounding the massacre.
* Jews and Gypsies were often referred to as "vermin" in various Nazi German propaganda. People of Slavic origion were considered "fit only for extermination or enslavement" by Nazi racial standards.
* In Japanese culture, questioning someone's humanity or their right to be treated as a person seems like a recurring theme.
* The military often preaches to their troops that their enemies are less than human, to lessen the emotional impact of slaughtering them. Often times there's also the unintentional invocations of this, where soldiers don't shoot at their enemies because they're not human, but only because they're told to shoot at their designated targets. This has varying degrees of success.
* In the modern world one of the reasons for Universal Human Rights legislation is to counter this mentality. People who get riled up when certain less than popular groups such as terrorists or sex offenders are protected under these laws are failing to understand the purpose of them - it's to prevent the "slippery slope" effect that if you say ''this'' group of people aren't worthy of human rights then [[PrecedentExcuse there's nothing to stop you]] saying that ''that'' group aren't either and neither are that group over there and... etc. etc. so the laws apply universally.
Dehumanization can occur discursively (e.g., idiomatic language that likens certain human beings to non-human animals, verbal abuse, erasing one's voice from discourse), symbolically (e.g., imagery), or physically (e.g., chattel slavery, physical abuse, refusing eye contact).
Dehumanization may be carried out by a social institution (such as a state, school, or family) or via an individual's sentiments and actions. Dehumanization can be [[InnocentBigot unintentional]], especially on the part of individuals, as with some types of ''de facto'' racism.
State-organized dehumanization has historically been directed against perceived racial, ethnic, national, or religious minority groups. Other minoritized and marginalized individuals and groups (based on sexuality, gender, (dis)ability, class, or some other organizing principle) are also susceptible to various forms of dehumanization.
The concept of dehumanization is related to infrahumanization (i.e. calling someone "sub-human"), delegitimization, moral exclusion and objectification. Dehumanization occurs across several domains, is facilitated by status, power, and social connection, and results in behaviors like exclusion, violence, and support for violence against others. Will often lead to a GuiltFreeExterminationWar.
Related is the practices of stereotyping, which is basically assigning certain traits to certain group of people. It may overlap with dehumanization in some cases, but just as often it doesn't.
[[index]]
Typical cases
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: A group of people/race is portrayed as always evil so the heroes can beat them up without impunity.
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Lots of casualties (in a war, disaster, etc) are treated as unimportant especially if there's no recognizable people among them.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Often a price of having cybernetic implants is making you less than human.
* {{Demonization}}: making something seem despicable like a demon or monster in spite of what it really is.
* ExpendableClone: What's stopping you from making new clones if one died?
* FantasticRacism: When one race is treated as lower than the other.
** FantasticSlur: The "names" often used to refer to the "lower" races.
* InhumanableAlienRights: Non-humans wouldn't have the same rights as those of a human. Even if said non-humans are sapient.
* ItIsDehumanizing: Calling someone "it" instead of a proper pronoun indicates that that someone is treated as a "thing" and not a person.
* JustAMachine: Robots and AIs are often considered expendable and/or [[WeCanRebuildHim easily rebuilt]], unlike humans, so they have less value.
* {{Mook}}: A group of grunts whose purpose in the story is to be slain en masse, and they're made to be as unsympathetic as possible.
** FacelessGoons: Their faces are concealed, therefore they're expendable.
** RedShirtArmy: Same thing applied to good guys' army. Downplayed in that they can be sympathized with, but because they lack importance they're still the guys to be killed in place of the real characters.
** WhatMeasureIsAMook: Significant bad guys may be treated well enough by the heroes. Not so much for the mooks.
* NicknamingTheEnemy: Calling the enemies with names will prevent you and your allies from hesitating to attack said enemies.
* NotEvenHuman: If the bad guys turn out to be of a species [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman mindless and alien]], it's okay to kill them [[ThouShaltNotKill without any moral issues]].
* OfThePeople: When a group call themselves "the people" and people outside of said group "not-people".
* OneWingedAngel: monstrous and inhuman forms in general are easier to kill from an emotional point of view.
** ScaledUp: rule of the EvilOverlordList: "Never turn into a snake; it never helps." ReptilesAreAbhorrent, so turning into one makes killing easier.
* WeHaveReserves: There's more where [[RedShirt they]] came from, so who cares what happens to 'em.
* WhatMeasureIsANonhuman: A group of sapient species is treated not as human because they're not technically humans.
* YoureInsane and YouMonster: if your enemy is beyond reason and/or redemption, you don't need to hold back anymore.
Subversions
* AndroidsArePeopleToo: When robots and AIs are treated/made as human as real humans.
* ClonesArePeopleToo: When clones (of humans, that is) are treated as human as the real one.
* TheDeadHaveNames: When the identities of casualties (of a war, disaster, etc) are shown so the audience will sympathize with them.
* NotAlwaysEvil: A race that is perceived as evil aren't always like that.
* SympatheticSentientWeapon: They're being dehumanized, by reducing them to little more than a tool, against their wills.
* TokenHeroicOrc: A member of an AlwaysChaoticEvil race that is somehow siding with the good guys are always treated as good as the good guys.
* ZombieAdvocate: When a human fights for the rights of nonhumans.
Played with:
* VanHelsingHateCrimes: The monsters are shown to be just minding their own business, or (potentially) outright kind, and a human commits hate crimes on them.
[[/index]]
Compare and contrast DeathOfPersonality (rendering someone as "dead" by making them lose their humanity).
----
!Examples
[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* In the film ''Film/{{Casshern}}'', the concept of [[NoTrueScotsman "True Humans"]] appears; some ancestral race of superior beings who are entitled to treat baseline humans as disposable.
* The above also happens in one of the in-universe stories in ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}''. '''ZCE'''
* In ''Anime/SuiseiNoGargantia'' this is the Galactic Alliance's rationale for their galactic war with The Hideauze (intelligent, space-dwelling squid-like creatures), and their harsh living conditions and governing of the human race. [[spoiler: It turns out later that the Galactic Alliance knew the Hideauze were once humans who changed themselves with genetic engineering to be able to live in the harsh conditions of space. This was hidden from lower ranking soldiers like Ledo. It's justified again later because the Hideauze are so far gone, and dangerous that they threaten the humans with extinction. If they don't fight it would be impossible to survive and still maintain their humanity, and society.]]
* In ''Franchise/OnePiece'', the [[SlaveBrand Hoof of the Soaring Dragon]] imprinted by [[AristocratsAreEvil the Celestial Dragons]] marks one "less than human".
* Both radical factions in ''Anime/GundamSEED'' and ''GundamSEEDDestiny'' do this. The [[GattacaBabies Coordinator]] extremists hold themselves as a SuperiorSpecies, meant to lord it over the rest of humanity, while [[MugglePower Blue Cosmos]] insists that the Coordinators are an abomination that needs to be exterminated to preserve "our blue and pure world." Most of the series' {{Heel Face Turn}}s occur when a Natural or a Coordinator is given the chance to view the other side as human beings.
* ''Anime/CrossAnge'': A baby that rejects magic is an aberration, subject to forcible removal from society, a "Norma", not "human." This distinction is so well-taught to the aspiring heiress to the throne, she even clings to it for some time after, ahem, an abrupt career change.
[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* ''ComicBook/RequiemChevalierVampire''. Thurim, as part of his pre-battle speech to his fellow [[UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights Teutonic Knights]] against the Lithuanian army, tells them the very word Slav means, well, slave.
* During the climatic confrontation in the ComicBook/{{X-Men}} graphic novel ''God Loves, Man Kills'', Rev. Stryker points to Nightcrawler and exclaims:
--> Human?! You dare call that...thing--'''HUMAN?!?'''
[[AC:Film]]
* A famous quote by Creator/AlfredHitchcock:
-->''"I was once quoted as saying that actors are cattle. My actor friends know I would never be capable of such a thoughtless, rude and unfeeling remark, that I would never call them cattle. What I probably said was that actors should be treated like cattle."''[[note]][[http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/08/01/all-actors-are-cattle/ He actually did say "actors are cattle" on several occasions]].[[/note]]
* In ''Film/MinorityReport'', Anderton says of the three Pre-Cogs "It's better if you don't think of them as human."
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', Moses spends the majority of his childhood ignoring the plight of the Hebrews who slave for Egypt. However, when he discovers that he himself is actually Hebrew, and that his father the Pharaoh ordered the wide-scale death of Hebrew children, he can no longer ignore his morals.
--> '''Pharaoh Seti''': Moses, sometimes for the greater good, sacrifices must be made.
--> '''Moses''': Sacrifices?
--> '''Pharaoh Seti''': Oh, my son...they were only slaves.
* ''Film/TheProducers''
-->'''Leo Bloom:''' Actors are not animals! They're human beings!
-->'''Max Bialystock:''' They are? Have you ever eaten with one?
[[AC:LightNovels]]
* In ''LightNovel/FateZero'', a serial killer of women and children finds that their "art" was incinerated and demolished by a third party, and cries to the heavens "Who could do this and still call themselves human?!" There are other places where this pops up.
[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Literature/{{Discworld}}
** In ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'', this topic is discussed repeatedly. The protagonist makes a particularly vivid reflection that the literal straw men they stab in training do not serve the purpose of training them in combat (they are soft, and don't fight back) but in making them forget that, unlike them, a human, when stabbed, will bleed, and cry, and more than straw might fall from their wounds.
** The ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' {{Lampshades}} this idea using the goblins, a sentient human race, as exemplar for FantasticRacism. The goblins are viewed as animals and vermin, and it takes a real shift in attitudes to get them recognised as a sentient race deserving the same rights that are accorded to men, dwarfs and trolls. But any indignity can be inflicted on them, including torture and slavery.
* In ''Literature/TheForeverWar'', the soldiers are mentally conditioned to view the enemy Taurans as sub-human, by invoking false memories of Taurans burning cities, eating children, and raping women. The soldiers know the images are fake, as no one has even ''seen'' a Tauran before their battle, but they still work to send them into a bloodthirsty frenzy, to the point that their mission to capture a Tauran fails because the soldiers slaughter them all.
* ''Literature/HaloHuntersInTheDark'': During the expedition several of Captain Richards' soldiers are lost. She realizes she hadn't even bothered to learn their names and quickly scans the nametags of the others, but finds it's easier to keep relaying battle orders if she doesn't register them as human. (By the narrative Richards is treated as a competent leader but a bit of a racist.)
* A great literary classic by Osamu Dazai is titled ''NoLongerHuman''.
* In ''{{Literature/Salammbo}}'', the priests of Baal-Moloch make [[spoiler:throwing Carthaginian children to be burned alive as HumanSacrifice]] easier by getting the crowd to yell with them "They are not men but oxen!".
* The {{Deryni}} are often spoken of this way by their human foes.
** In ''Deryni Checkmate'', Archbishop Loris asks Warin de Grey, "You would kill Morgan without chance to repent his sins?" Warin replies, "I doubt there is hope in the Hereafter for the likes of him, Excellency. The Deryni were the spawn of Satan from the Creation. I do not think salvation is within their grasp." Warin later tells Morgan much the same thing to his face, admitting that Morgan will be granted time to confess his sins before he is killed against Warin's "better judgement": "Personally, I feel that such is a waste of time for your kind; but Archbishop Loris disagrees."
** Years later, in ''The King's Justice'', Loris tells Duncan [=McLain=], "I do have a care for your soul though--if Deryni even have souls, of course."
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''BattlestarGalacticaClassic'' the Cylons were originally supposed to be aliens. They were changed because executives thought that "killing sentient robots" was more child-friendly than "killing aliens." Basically trading one issue of dehumanizing with another.
* In ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]: Redemption'' a bunch of ChildSoldiers are being trained to kill by presenting them with a trussed up enemy and denying his humanity, calling him a "cockroach" and having them [[BattleChant chant]] "Kill the cockroach!"
* The Reavers in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' are a race of insane people who have been poisoned during an experiment on live human subjects. In effect they are the sci-fi equivalent of undead beings and the reason they are dehumanized is because they are in fact physically dehumanized.
* Several episodes of ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' played this straight, but the episode "Hearts and Minds" [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] it by having the "bugs" turn out to be humans from a rival corporation; the soldiers had been [[BrainwashedAndCrazy drugged to see the enemy as disgusting aliens]] so that they would [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman feel fewer qualms]] about killing them. The soldiers from the rival corporation were similarly drugged.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E9TheSavages The Savages]]", this is how the Elders of the city view the savages native to their world. They regard the savages as sub-human and have no qualms about using them in machines that drain them of their life energy and nearly kill them to keep their own society going.
* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack''. Caputo, trying to toughen up Fischer, tells her to not think of the prisoners as human beings in one episode.
* Discussed occasionally on ''Series/{{Bones}}'' where either someone is upset with Brennan for treating remains as anthropological curiosities instead of as former people, or conversely Brennan giving advice to think of the former people as remains in order to suppress the emotions of (for example) autopsying a friend.
[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K''
** Imperials and Chaos have the same view of each other: blind fools clinging to false gods and weaklings only good for extermination. Some SpaceMarine chapters have this view of normal humans, whether allied or fallen to Chaos.
** Tangentially used by the Imperial Guardman's Uplifting Primer. Of course their foes ''aren't'' human, but it still makes them out to be inferior to the basic human, and doesn't hesitate to make up "facts" like Tau being descended from bovines and stampeding at loud noises and orks being easy to defeat in close combat. An updated edition features Tau sympathizers which it claims are easily recognizeable as degenerate subhumans (other than a tendency to wear braids and sometimes paint themselves blue, they're no less healthy that the regular humans), reminiscent of Nazi sub-racial distinctions.
[[AC:VideoGame]]
* In ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', [[spoiler:Walker gets ''less'' dehumanizing as the story progresses. He starts with neutral, technical, professional expressions, distancing himself from what he's doing and making it seem like something simple and clean. "Target confirmed." "Tango down." By the end of the story, he's relying on moral condemnation and sheer spite to keep him going: "GOT THE FUCKER!" "AND STAY DOWN!". He's not removing targets anymore, he's killing people.]]
* VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}} [[spoiler: has a true BigBad who considers the people of Bionis merely part of the cycle of life and death, a vehicle for his continued existence as a god.]]
[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''
** In the Japanese dub, "You killed Kenny! You bastards!" is rendered as "You killed Kenny! You aren't human!"
** One memorable Cartman quote from the episode "Die Hippie Die" was "Hey! They are not people, they're hippies!" and later uses a DrillTank on them. The entire episode treats hippies like an exponentially-growing termite invasion
[[AC: RealLife]]
* In the weeks leading up to the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 of Tutsis by Hutus, talk radio was fanning the growing hate by referring to Tutsis as "inyenzi", or "cockroaches" in the local language. This was also shown in the movie ''Film/HotelRwanda'' which was based on events surrounding the massacre.
* Jews and Gypsies were often referred to as "vermin" in various Nazi German propaganda. People of Slavic origion were considered "fit only for extermination or enslavement" by Nazi racial standards.
* In Japanese culture, questioning someone's humanity or their right to be treated as a person seems like a recurring theme.
* The military often preaches to their troops that their enemies are less than human, to lessen the emotional impact of slaughtering them. Often times there's also the unintentional invocations of this, where soldiers don't shoot at their enemies because they're not human, but only because they're told to shoot at their designated targets. This has varying degrees of success.
* In the modern world one of the reasons for Universal Human Rights legislation is to counter this mentality. People who get riled up when certain less than popular groups such as terrorists or sex offenders are protected under these laws are failing to understand the purpose of them - it's to prevent the "slippery slope" effect that if you say ''this'' group of people aren't worthy of human rights then [[PrecedentExcuse there's nothing to stop you]] saying that ''that'' group aren't either and neither are that group over there and... etc. etc. so the laws apply universally.
