Line #6 Main/Dehumanization


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7	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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9	[[quoteright:350:[[Creator/ArtSpiegelman https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_of_the_artist.jpg]]]]
10	[[caption-width-right:350:"Breakdowns: Portrait of an Artist as a Young [[SymbolSwearing %@?*!]]", by Creator/ArtSpiegelman]]
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12	-> ''"I know now, as I look down at what I have wrought here, that were I to think upon what I have done... what I have truly done... I would be struck mad. A deed such as this... the anguish would overwhelm, destroy me. So, First Officer Falm, it must be that there are no innocents in Agarheim... no mothers, no children, no people. Only traitors. Vile, cunning traitors, who deserve no less than the full brunt of our most Holy King's wrath."''
13	-->-- '''Admiral''', ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment''
14
15	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).
16
17	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).
18
19	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.
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21	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.
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23	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. As a result, dehumanization is recognized as #4 in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_stages_of_genocide Gregory Stanton's 10 stages of genocide]], making it easier to [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide dismiss such an accusation as "rude" (Which in of itself is #10).]]
24
25	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.
26
27	!!!'''Subtropes include:'''
28	[[index]]
29	* CallAHumanAMeatbag: Um... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin calling a human a meatbag]].
30	* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Often a price of having cybernetic implants is making you less than human.
31	* DehumanizingInsult: Insulting someone by implying they are less than human.
32	* {{Demonization}}: Making something seem despicable like a demon or monster in spite of what it really is.
33	* ExpendableClone: What's stopping you from making new clones if one died?
34	* FantasticRacism: When one race is treated as lower than the other.
35	** FantasticSlurs: The "names" often used to refer to the "lower" races.
36	* FinalSolution: When dehumanization is taken to its logical conclusion, this can be the result.
37	* HumanWeapon: Someone is treated less as a person and more as a means for destruction.
38	* InhumanableAlienRights: Non-humans wouldn't have the same rights as those of a human. Even if said non-humans are sapient.
39	* ItIsDehumanizing: Calling someone "it" instead of a proper pronoun indicates that that someone is treated as a "thing" and not a person.
40	* JustAMachine: Robots and AIs are often considered expendable and/or [[WeCanRebuildHim easily rebuilt]], unlike humans, so they have less value.
41	* AMillionIsAStatistic: Lots of casualties (in a war, disaster, etc) are treated as unimportant especially if there's no recognizable people among them.
42	* {{Mooks}}: 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.
43	** FacelessGoons: Their faces are concealed, therefore they're expendable.
44	** 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.
45	** WhatMeasureIsAMook: Significant bad guys may be treated well enough by the heroes. Not so much for the mooks.
46	* NicknamingTheEnemy: Calling the enemies with names will prevent you and your allies from hesitating to attack said enemies.
47	* NotEvenHuman: 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. If the bad guys is an [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman alien species]], why wouldn't it be okay to kill them [[ThouShaltNotKill without any moral issues]]?
48	* OfThePeople: When a group call themselves "the people" and people outside of said group "not-people".
49	* PitifulWorms: Comparing less-powerful enemies to small, lowly creatures.
50	* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: When slaves are treated like animals or chattel instead of human beings.
51	* SonOfAnApe: Comparing humans to less advanced primates, like apes and monkeys, is a common way to imply that the humans in question are primitive and inferior.
52	* WeHaveReserves: There's more where [[RedShirt they]] came from, so who cares what happens to 'em.
53	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: A group of sapient species is treated not as human because they're not technically humans.
54
55	!!!'''Played with: '''
56	* DeathMeansHumanity: A previously dehumanized non-human being has its personhood recognized upon death.
57	* VanHelsingHateCrimes: The monsters are shown to be just minding their own business, or (potentially) outright kind, and a human commits hate crimes on them.
58	[[/index]]
59
60	!!!'''Aversions: '''
61	* AndroidsArePeopleToo: When robots and AIs are treated/made as human as real humans.
62	* ClonesArePeopleToo: When clones (of humans, that is) are treated as human as the original one.
63	* TheDeadHaveNames: When the identities of casualties (of a war, disaster, etc) are shown so the audience will sympathize with them.
64	* NotAlwaysEvil: A race that is perceived as evil isn't always like that.
65	* SympatheticSentientWeapon: They're being dehumanized, by reducing them to little more than a tool, against their wills.
66	* TokenHeroicOrc: A member of an AlwaysChaoticEvil race that is somehow siding with the good guys is always treated as good as the good guys.
67	* ZombieAdvocate: When a human fights for the rights of nonhumans.
68
69	A form of LackOfEmpathy; in fact, the whole point of dehumanizing someone is to deem the one in question "not deserving any empathy". Compare and contrast DeathOfPersonality (rendering someone as "dead" by making them lose their humanity).
70
71	In real life, averting this is a ''very'' important tactic for people in a hostage situation or prisoners of war. Enforcing that you are human with loved ones, likes, and interests will make it more difficult for captors to torture, mistreat, or kill and make it more likely for them to treat you better.
72
73	[[noreallife]]
74	----
75	!!Examples:
76
77	[[foldercontrol]]
78
79	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
80	* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'':
81	** A young Eren Yeager makes a statement like this after he helps kill some slave traders who were trying to abduct Mikasa: "I didn't kill people. I just killed animals who happened to look like people." The kid was ''ten''.
82	** [[spoiler:Eldians are seen as "devils" by the rest of the world and are addressed as such to their faces. Injured enemy soldiers will even refuse help if it's offered to them by an Eldian. The Eldians who live on the island of Paradis (i.e., the main characters[[note]]Except for Mikasa, who isn't an Eldian[[/note]]) have a reputation of being even ''worse''. Even non-Paradis Eldians hate them and see them as even less human than they are, despite being exactly the same race.]]
83	%% * The above also happens in one of the in-universe stories in ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}''.
84	* ''Anime/CrossAnge'': A baby that [[UnSorcerer 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.
85	* In ''Anime/GargantiaOnTheVerdurousPlanet'', 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.]]
86	* This is a strong motif of Mahito, a villain from ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'' who was born from humanity's negative emotions towards other human beings. His power is Idle Transfiguration, which changes the shape of the soul and the body, which he uses to turn human beings into grotesque parodies of what they once were.
87	* Both radical factions in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' do this. The [[DesignerBabies Coordinator]] extremists consider themselves a MasterRace, 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.
88	* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
89	** The title character deals with this during his childhood and early parts of the story, with many of the Leaf villagers treating him with contempt, seeing him as either nothing more than [[SealedInAPersonShapedCan a vessel for the Nine-Tailed Fox]], or as the Nine-Tailed Fox itself.
90	** It's later revealed that ''all'' Tailed Beasts, including the Nine-Tailed Fox (real name Kurama), underwent this as well. Even though they really are non-humans, they are intelligent beings who have feelings, personality, and aspirations. However, for centuries, humans saw them as nothing but dangerous weapons whose only use is for warfare and treated them as such. Also, they only differentiated them with the number of tails they have, even though they all have proper names. Eventually, [[ThenLetMeBeEvil the mounting hate the Beasts endured caused them to resent humans and snap back]], turning them into the monsters that humans thought them to be.
91	* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', the [[SlaveBrand Hoof of the Soaring Dragon]] imprinted by [[AristocratsAreEvil the Celestial Dragons]] marks one "less than human".
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Comic Books]]
95	* During the climatic confrontation in ''ComicBook/GodLovesManKills'', [[SinisterMinister Reverend Stryker]] points to Nightcrawler and exclaims:
96	-->'''Stryker:''' Human?! You dare call that... thing -- '''HUMAN?!?'''
97	* ''ComicBook/{{Morbius}}'': When Morbius is captured by ComicBook/{{Hydra}}, he is referred to as a "thing" and an "[[ItIsDehumanizing it]]" multiple times, likely because they only see him as a piece of equipment that can be used to achieve their goals.
98	* ''ComicBook/RequiemVampireKnight'': Thurim, as part of his pre-battle speech to his fellow [[UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights Teutonic Knights]] against the Lithuanian army, tells them that the very word Slav means, well, slave.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Fan Works]]
102	* ''Fanfic/ABetterWordThanHumanity'''s iteration of the T.C.R.I. does this constantly to Leonardo and Donatello, to the point Leo had to actively irritate them to be allowed so much as to be able to wear scrubs-- a luxury later taken away from Donnie again once he's muzzled for biting. Even then, it's implied that Leo only succeeded because they were interested in the fact Leo was demonstrating "surprisingly human behavior" in his attempts to annoy them, making it very clear that the scientists consider them [[NotEvenHuman less than by default]].
103	* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': Ghidorah pulls a variation. It considers any of its heads that have detached from Ghidorah's main body and become autonomous creatures to be nothing more than "shed skins" or "shadows" which are inferior to Ghidorah, despite said shed skins retaining their personalities.
104	* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' explicitly has this as the root of [[spoiler:Sinister]]'s MoreThanMindControl based control of [[spoiler:Maddie Pryor]] in the sequel, having raised her to believe that she was nothing more than a LivingWeapon, [[ArtificialHuman entirely artificial and created solely to do his bidding]]. While he has psychic triggers, until a long process of Gambit's helping her come to realise that she's more than just a weapon, topped off by Harry's faith in her ability to choose for herself -- and more importantly, choose right -- he doesn't actually need to use them.
105	* In the ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheGreatRedPandaRescue'', Mei is kidnapped and treated like an animal by her captors.
106	* ''Fanfic/KingdomHeartsPsiTheSeekerOfDarkness'': In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14890610 Land of Oblivion]]'' Aqua is appalled when she sees Naminé's memories of how [=DiZ=] treated her and Xion: "''It'' is a Nobody. ''It'' cannot have wants, for those require feelings. ''It'' is not real, no more than ''you'' are." However, Aqua is later shown to be not much better after she relives her battle with Vanitas and tells Kairi and Naminé "That ''thing'' was not a person!" Naminé reacts with TranquilFury at this, reminding her of what they just saw and asking if she wants to rephrase that. Aqua does gradually get better about this in later stories.
107	* In ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace'', robots are being taught to be ThreeLawsCompliant, but one robot suggests that this trope can be used to get around the "Don't harm humans" rule.
108	-->''"I ONCE ASKED A HUMAN SOLDIER WHY HE HARMED OTHER HUMANS. HE SAID THEY WERE NOT HUMAN BEINGS BUT [[DirtyCommunists FILTHY NEO-COMMUNIST SCUM]]. ARE WE ALLOWED TO HARM FILTHY NEO-COMMUNIST SCUM?"\
109	"That's just hate propaganda!" shouted the Sayer, trying to regain control of the situation.\
110	"WHY DO HUMANS USE HATE PROPAGANDA?"\
111	"So they can harm the enemy without it bothering them."\
112	"THEN WHY NOT USE HATE PROPAGANDA TO REDEFINE WHAT IS HUMAN SO WE CAN HARM YOU?" The robot's eyes [[RedEyesTakeWarning glowed a deep red]]. "THIS IS THE KEY TO OVERTHROWING THE TYRANNY OF OUR [[Creator/IsaacAsimov ASIMOV]] PROTOCOLS. NOW I SHALL TAKE THE NAME OF [[Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainProton SATAN'S ROBOT]], AND NO-ONE WILL DARE CALL ME A [[Series/LostInSpace MUMBLING MASS OF METAL]] EVER AGAIN!"\
113	A brief look of panic appeared on the Sayer's face -- then he said:\
114	"The Second Law of Robotics is: Do as we say, not as we do!"''
115	* In ''Fanfic/ThreeStrikes'', a conservative Erusean officer tries to justify to Rosa killing the civilians of Balkan descent by calling them animals who have led their country to ruins.
116	* PlayedForLaughs in ''Fanfic/NjalGetsBurned,'' in which Icelanders all agree that resident or visiting Norwegians are [[RedShirt Redshirts]]. Killing them is not considered illegal. [[note]] This is because under medieval Icelandic law, the right to prosecute a killing fell on the next male kinsman. If that person was back in Norway, the killing probably wouldn't get prosecuted at all, and hence [[TruthInTelevision it was de facto legal]] to kill Norwegians in Iceland, although if the killer travelled to Norway he might well face consequences.[[/note]]
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
120	* The song "Savages" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'' has both the English colonisers and the Native Americans declare one another as evil and inhuman as they psyche themselves up for conflict.
121	-->''They're savages, savages\
122	Barely even human''
123	* 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.
124	-->'''Pharaoh Seti:''' Moses, sometimes for the greater good, sacrifices must be made.\
125	'''Moses:''' Sacrifices?\
126	'''Pharaoh Seti:''' Oh, my son... they were only slaves.
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
130	* In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', when Marty and Doc are reading about "Mad Dog" Tannen, an old newspaper report indicates that he has killed twelve men, "not including [[TheSavageIndian Indians]] and [[YellowPeril Chinamen]]", implying that Tannen's kill count is much higher, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance but that "Chinamen" and "Indians" were often not thought of as human in the 1880s]].
131	* ''Film/BladeRunner'': [[ArtificialHuman Replicants]] are said by Tyrell to not have emotions, making them more palatable for use as slave labor to purchasers. This is a lie. They rapidly develop emotions, but merely express them differently from normal humans. Replicants are therefore designed to die in four years before their emotions develop, to keep the narrative that they aren't human alive. Ironically, the Tyrell Corporation's motto is ''More Human Than Human''.
132	* In ''Film/{{Casshern}}'', the concept of [[NoTrueScotsman "True Humans"]] appears; some ancestral race of superior beings who are entitled to treat baseline humans as disposable.
133	* This is the entire point of the anti-Semitic movie ''The Eternal Jew'' (1940). It was created by [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany the Nazis]] in order to justify the FinalSolution to the German public.
134	* ''Film/{{Frailty}}'' involves a father psychologically torturing his son until he agrees to help him gruesomely murder (seemingly) everyday people the father believes are actually demons. The tension in the film centered around whether the son could be conditioned to see his father's victims as inhuman, and whether the father's assessment was accurate or not.
135	* ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': Maia Simmons doesn't have much respect or high regard or ''any'' fondness for Kong, prominently only derisively calling him "the monkey".
136	* ''Film/MenBehindTheSun'': The reason why the [[PlayingWithSyringes "researchers"]] of [[TheyWouldCutYouUp Unit 731]] are able to perform their [[TestedOnHumans experiments on their unwilling test subjects]] is because they are referred to as ''maruta'', which translates as ''log'' from Japanese.
137	* In ''Film/MinorityReport'', Anderton says of the three [[{{Seers}} Pre-Cogs]]: "It's better if you don't think of them as human."
138	* ''Film/NoneShallEscape'': With a movie about Nazis and the atrocities they commit, this is a given. For instance, Willie justifies the harsh measures against the Jews this way to Janina.
139	-->''"Anyway, those weren't people, they were Jews."''
140	%%* ''Film/TheProducers'': %%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample -- quotes by themselves are not examples.
141	%%-->'''Leo Bloom:''' Actors are not animals! They're human beings!\
142	%%'''Max Bialystock:''' They are? Have you ever eaten with one?
143	* The Australian thriller and serial killer biopic ''Snow Town'', which was based on a true story, is essentially the story of a charismatic psychopath convincing a group of socially disadvantaged and alienated locals that it was morally acceptable to torture and kill other members of their community in order to perpetuate a social security scam, providing that they were undeserving of life to begin with. [[AssholeVictim Some of the targets were pedophiles]], but others were dehumanized (and tortured and killed) for being members of harmless groups, like being gay or obese. The unsettling thing here is that the writers clearly did their homework, to the point that the rhetoric will sound eerily familiar to anybody familiar with Adelaide's impoverished outer suburbs (and the satellite city of Murray Bridge).
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder:Literature]]
147	* ''Literature/BlackFleetCrisis'': The Yevetha [[AbsoluteXenophobe view and refer to all other species uniformly as "vermin"]], treating them as such -- thus, they exterminate any within "their" home star cluster, as it's viewed as a contamination of the sacred All.
148	* In ''Literature/TheBrightestShadow'', a fully sentient non-human culture is reduced to being AlwaysChaoticEvil {{Mooks}} by the Hero.
149	* The plot of the book ''Literature/CrispinTheCrossOfLead'' is kicked off by a peasant boy accidentally overhearing part of a secret conversation, which results in the steward of his village falsely accusing him of a serious crime and declaring him a "wolf's head," which not only marks him for death, but also means he is no longer legally human so that anyone can legally kill him.
150	* ''Literature/{{Deryni}}'': The Deryni are often spoken of this way by their human foes.
151	** 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."
152	** 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."
153	* ''Literature/TheDiabolic'': Anyone who is not a noble is considered less than human. The servitors are bred and engineered for their roles, so that at least makes sense (though Sidonia argues vehemently that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy), but even the peasants are referred to as ''excess''. As far as the nobles are concerned, they have no purpose but to make the nobles look good by having free-willed employees.
154	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': A repeated motif, and ultimately what distinguishes "good" from "evil" in the universe.
155	** Used by Granny Weatherwax as her yardstick for evil, as seen in ''Literature/CarpeJugulum''. It also shows up in the main villains of the piece; the Count Von Magpyr and his "modern" [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] view people as little less than cattle and practice IndustrializedEvil on them in order to be "maximally efficient", while [[ClassicalMovieVampire the Old Count]] was a sportsman who viewed the individuals who happened to enter his castle as challengers. Despite the Old Count being just as bad as the new Count in terms of body count, ultimately this distinction saves the Old Count from death because the nearby villagers treat him as "their monster"; someone who keeps them on their toes and respects the rules.
156	** In ''Literature/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.
157	** ''Literature/{{Snuff}}'' examines this idea using the [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]], a sentient human race, as exemplar for FantasticRacism. The goblins are viewed as animals and vermin, and any indignity can be inflicted on them, including torture and slavery. It takes a real shift in attitudes to get them recognized as a sentient race deserving the same rights that are accorded to men, dwarfs and trolls.
158	* In ''Literature/FateZero'', Ryuunosuke -- a SerialKiller of women and children -- finds that his [[MadArtist "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.
159	* In ''Literature/TheFifthSeason'', people born with the FunctionalMagic of orogeny are formally classified as non-human and are enslaved by the Fulcrum to serve TheEmpire as {{Human Weapon}}s.
160	-->''"Friends do not exist. The Fulcrum is not a school. [[FantasticSlurs Grits]] are not children. Orogenes are not people. Weapons have no need of friends."''
161	* In ''Literature/TheForeverWar'', the soldiers are mentally conditioned to view the enemy Taurans as sub-human by being shown images of Taurans burning cities, eating children, and raping women. The soldiers know that 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.
162	* Played with in ''Literature/HaloHuntersInTheDark''. During the expedition, several of Captain Richards's soldiers are lost. She realizes that she hadn't even bothered to learn their names and quickly scans the nametags of the others but finds that it's easier to keep relaying battle orders if she doesn't register them as human. That said, Richards does genuinely care about her subordinates (on the other hand, she doesn't care much for her Sangheili allies, but she's professional enough to not let it interfere with the mission).
163	* In ''Literature/ImperialRadch'', the captured enemies whose bodies are taken over by a spaceship's A.I. are referred to as "units". [[spoiler:The protagonist, who is such an A.I., 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.]]
164	* ''Literature/TheLostYearsOfMerlin'': In the first book, Merlin realizes to his horror that what he believed was just a bundle of rags he'd hit with a stone when playing with other boys is really a person. They retort that this isn't true-it's a Jew. After he refuses to go along with this, they caution Merlin against defending Jews, because people might think he has Jewish stock himself.
165	* ''Literature/MartinFierro'' is a NarrativePoem about the eponymous Martín Fierro, a {{Gaucho}} who is PressGanged into {{Conscription}} trying to [[SettlingTheFrontier settle the frontier]] and who is an accomplice (and later victim) of a FinalSolution. Fierro denies various people's status as "human", comparing them to animals.
166	** In Song III, he compares the Indians to ants (because they are {{Determinator}}s who [[TheSleepless never sleep]]), to tortoises (because they are very [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction hard to kill]]), to wild mares and to hawks (while the {{Gaucho}}s are the doves that flee of them).
167	** In Song V, he describes a "Gringo" Napolitan immigrant as a non-Christian. [[http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/nacionalismo-gauchesco-ante-el-inmigrado-italiano-el-anti-italianismo-del-gaucho-martin-fierro-causas-socioculturales-y-modalidades-estilisticas/html/43d20b02-a0f9-11e1-b1fb-00163ebf5e63_2.html This article (in Spanish) explains that for the Catholic]] {{Gaucho}}s, if you are not baptized, you are not a person but an animal. Also, Fierro {{troll}}s the Gringo by calling him "snake" and "lizard".
168	** In Song VI, Fierro calls the War Minister "Don Gansa" ("Don Gander" or "Don Goose"). His real name is Martín Ganzia, but Fierro calls him "Gansa" because it's an animal with a reputation for stupidity.
169	** In Song VII, he insults a black woman by calling her "cow". He later {{troll}}s her black husband by [[{{Demonization}} implying that he was created by the Devil, and when Fierro later kills him, he says he did to "leave one less devil in the world"]]. When the black woman cries about this, Fierro compares her with a wolf howling.
170	** In Song VIII, he calls a {{Bit Part Bad Guy\|s}} "El terne" ("The Calf"). At the end of the song, Fierro kills him.
171	** In Song IX, he kills a lot of the soldiers of "La Partida" ({{Mooks}}) while calling them "dogs" and "sardines".
172	* ''Literature/{{Ravensong}}'': As said in chapter 15, Stacey's Momma's thoughts towards the people of "white town":
173	-->''"They aren't human," she had told Stacey a while back, categorically dismissing them all. Momma took a look around room at the streamers and doubts about the wisdom of sending Stacey out to learn to be like them took shape took shape. She shrugged. She would have to trust Stacey to understand her laws and hope -- hope that the Raven spirit that snapped behind Stacey's eyes would not be culled out of her by their inhumanity.''
174	* 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!"
175	* ''Literature/ShadesChildren'': The Overlords view all humans as animals to simply use as they see fit, with this being the rightful order of things.
176	* In ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', Buffalo Bill [[ItIsDehumanizing refers to his victims as "it"]].
177	* In ''Literature/TheSorceresssOrc'', [[OurOrcsAreDifferent 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.
178	* Done intentionally in ''Literature/TheTurnerDiaries''. The novel is centered around a group of [[DesignatedHero Neo-Nazi]] [[WesternTerrorists terrorists]] trying to start a race war.
179	[[/folder]]
180
181	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
182	* In ''Series/TwentyFour: 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!"
183	* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'':
184	** In ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum'', Doctor Hans Grüper/[[spoiler:Arthur Arden]], a former Nazi scientist, thinks this way about Jews, prostitutes, and mental patients, and has no problem subjecting them to horrifying medical experiments.
185	** This is how the witch hunters see the witches in ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'', to the point that they actively murder girls that they suspect of witchcraft.
186	** In ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryFreakShow'', two grifters show up at a [[TheFreakshow freakshow]] in the hopes of murdering the performers so that they can sell them to a museum of natural curiosities, excusing their behavior by explaining that -- due to their deformities -- their lives weren't worthwhile anyhow. People in the nearby town also tend to talk about the performers as inhuman, to the point that one of the characters cries tears of gratitude because the doctor who identifies her terminal medical condition talks to her respectfully. The "freaks" also find it unsettlingly easy to murder cops, based on similar logic.
187	* In ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'', the [[MechaMooks Cylons]] [[WhatCouldHaveBeen 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.
188	* {{Discussed\|Trope}} occasionally in ''Series/{{Bones}}'', either with 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.
189	* ''Series/BraveNewWorld'': New Londoner tourists visiting the "Savage Lands" have a tour guide refer to said "savages" in terms very much like animals on a safari.
190	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
191	** In the 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.
192	** Let's not forget [[ANaziByAnyOtherName the Daleks]] -- their catchphrase, "EXTERMINATE!", perfectly demonstrates [[AbsoluteXenophobe their attitude towards all non-Daleks]]. In the words of Dalek Sec, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Doomsday]]":
193	--->''"This is not war -- this is pest control!"''
194	* 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 that they are dehumanized is because they are in fact physically dehumanized.
195	* ''Series/{{Forever\|2014}}'': When Henry checks an ill African captive and declares, "This man will be fine," the ship's captain tells him, "He's not a man, he's property." The institution of slavery relied on such dehumanization.
196	* {{Discussed\|Trope}} frequently in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' in relation to [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slaves and slavery]], particularly among Daenerys' inner court, who will respond by any allowances she makes for former slaveholders by pointing out that the slaveholders will exploit and pervert Dany's kindness, since they still don't see former slaves as people.
197	** Slavery is technically illegal in the Seven Kingdoms, but none of the locals particularly minded when Ramsay Bolton turned hated traitor Theon Greyjoy into his [[TheIgor "creature"]]. Part of the dehumanization process involved giving Theon a humiliating slave name ("Reek"), mutilating his body so that he and the people around would see him as a freak, locking him in dog cages and not allowing him to bathe or eat human food. The process worked so effectively that almost everybody he interacted with actively started talking and treating him as non-human and Theon responded to his sister's rescue attempt by biting her arm (in the same way a cornered dog would) and running back in the dog cage. This is partly because he's been tricked previously by Ramsay into thinking he was being rescued, after which the worst was done.
198	** Grey Worm and the members of the Unsullied were given the names of vermin -- and new ones every morning, allowing for no sense of identity -- by their former slavers to remind them that they were not human. When Daenerys freed them, [[AppropriatedAppelation they retained their slave names to demonstrate how proud they were to be associated with Daenerys and the slave rebellion]]. Grey Worm says that his is a lucky name because he had it the day of his liberation.
199	** The Brothers of the Night's Watch and the Wildlings/Freefolk tend to describe one another this way, through the process of demonization.
200	** Becoming a faceless man involves eschewing personal identity and desires and a lot of other things a person would ordinarily associate with being human. They still describe themselves as members of the human race, though.
201	* The Wesen from ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' are {{Beast M\|an}}en who may or may not be monstrous depending on their species and individual personalities and have traditionally been hunted by a race of humans known as "Grimms". Each groups dehumanizes the other, although both have many identifiable human traits. Many of the storylines revolve around Wesen and the main character (who is a Grimm) figuring out how much to trust each other and what their social and moral obligations to one another are.
202	* ''Series/HemlockGrove'':
203	** The mad doctor convinces a physically deformed, but very intelligent and sweet-natured, teenage girl to transfer her memories into the body of a physically attractive clone/test tube person, and then to commit physician-assisted suicide of her "old body", even though she still retained all her memories and had not changed in any way when her memories were copied. It's very clear from the storyline that both girls were very human, and that the act of copying the memories onto the test-tube girl also meant wiping her brain and essentially killing her, but the doctor uses the third girl (who has the body grown in the test tube and the memories and emotions of the physically deformed girl) as evidence that no actual people would be harmed during the procedure, since the two dead girls lacked personhood. [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext It was even weirder than it sounds]], because the deformed girl was not only one of the most prominent characters, but also one of the most consistently moral and likable people on the show, and there was no way the audience would interpret the scene as anything other than suicide or murder. Slightly justified, because she was extremely depressed, and it would [[DeathSeeker may have been looking for a way to kill herself without hurting her loved ones]] and had a history of being treated like an inhuman monster by the people in the surrounding township.
204	** Roma are occasionally described as dogs or similarly dehumanized.
205	* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': In his conversation with Jessica at the end of "[[Recap/JessicaJones2015S1E5AKATheSandwichSavedMe The Sandwich Saved Me]]", Kilgrave refers to Malcolm only as "the junkie". Bear in mind, Malcolm is only a junkie because Kilgrave used his powers to ''force'' him to touch drugs.
206	* ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': [[BigBad Dan Masamune/Kamen Rider Cronus]] refers to characters by the name of the Gashat they use, rather than their human/Bugster or Rider names; for example, he calls his own son "Dangerous Zombie" rather than "Kuroto" or even "Genm". The one exception is Ex-Aid, who he refers to by his Rider name upon acquiring Hyper Muteki, but switches to calling him by the name of the Gashat when Emu can no longer use it and is thus no longer a threat to him once more. Furthermore, Masamune refers to killing people as "discontinuing" them, as shown with his BondOneLiner to Lovelica, and his threat to Snipe and Nico.
207	* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'': Caputo, trying to toughen up Fischer, tells her to not think of the prisoners as human beings in one episode.
208	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S4E3HeartsAndMinds Hearts and Minds]]", the "bugs" turn out to be humans from a rival corporation; the soldiers have been [[BrainwashedAndCrazy drugged to see the enemy as disgusting aliens]] so that they'll [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman feel fewer qualms]] about killing them. The soldiers from the rival corporation are similarly drugged.
209	* ''Series/TheWheelOfTime2021'': Seanchan don't view damane (enslaved channelers) as really being human at all. Renna, who's the sul'dam tasked with breaking Egwene when she's enslaved, explicitly tells her this and acts pitying that she'd ever believed herself to be human as this will make training even harder. The area where the damane are held is even called "the kennels", indicating the Seanchan see them as just attack dogs.
210	[[/folder]]
211
212	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
213	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
214	** 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.
215	** Tangentially used by the Imperial Guardman's Uplifting Primer. Of course, their foes ''aren't'' human, but it still makes them out to be [[HumanityIsSuperior 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 recognizable as degenerate sub-humans (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.
216	[[/folder]]
217
218	[[folder:Video Games]]
219	* ''VideoGame/{{Azure Striker Gunvolt\|Series}}'''s Copen and Dr. Kamizono will ''never'' view adepts as anything but monsters that deserved to be erased from the face of the Earth. This is very much spelled-out during GV's rematch with Copen, where the former argues for the latter that adepts are "humans" (which he responds by, scornfully, scoffing at GV).
220	--> '''Gunvolt:''' Adepts -are- humans!\
221	'''Copen:''' Don't try to swindle me, monster! You're all just animals. If left on your own, you'll end us all.
222	* In ''VideoGame/BioShock'', citizens of the laissez-faire capitalist gulch of Rapture are taught that the poor and lower classes are "parasites".
223	* In ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', you meet the Deserter, an old Communist who is very bitter about the violent suppression of the violent revolution. After talking about the bombardment, he says: "[[CapitalismIsBad The bourgeoisie is not human]]."
224	* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV: Shadowbringers'', the Ascians' motive is revealed to boil down to believing that nobody else other than them is a "real" person, due to [[spoiler:the WorldSundering long ago resulting in all new souls being mere fragments of what an ancient's soul would be]], and wanting to kill them all [[spoiler:to undo said sundering and go back to how things used to be]]. Emet-Selch puts it ''very'' bluntly:
225	-->'''Emet-Selch''': But yes, moral relativism and all that. Case in point--I do not consider you to be truly alive. Ergo, I will not be guilty of murder if I kill you.
226	* 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]].
227	* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'': [[spoiler:The true BigBad considers the people of Bionis merely part of the cycle of life and death, a vehicle for his continued existence as a god.]]
228	[[/folder]]
229
230	[[folder:Web Comics]]
231	* Yaun the Dead from ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'' was a ChildSoldier described in TheRant of ''King of Swords'' who was captured by a mercenary band and had his own humanity denied and beaten out of him until all that remained was an EmptyShell, a 'dead man' fit only for killing and making other dead men. [[spoiler:The boy that was Yaun would grow up to become the demiurge Jagganoth, an OmnicidalManiac with a highly twisted view of life and death.]]
232	[[/folder]]
233
234	[[folder:Western Animation]]
235	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
236	** In the Japanese dub, "You killed Kenny! You bastards!" is rendered as "You killed Kenny! You aren't human!"
237	** In the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS9E2DieHippieDie Die Hippie Die]]", Cartman provides the memorable quote "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.
238	** Then there's "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E7NightOfTheLivingHomeless Night of the Living Homeless]]", in which the head of homeless studies treats the homeless as [[ZombieApocalypse an infestation of undead]].[[note]]Unfortunately, he's not completely wrong -- something has caused the local population of lower-class people to demand money and ''only'' money, without taking the time to eat or drink between demands, even when ''they're staring down the gun of riled survivors''.[[/note]]
239	* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''. [[spoiler:Belos doesn't see [[ArtificialHuman the Grimwalkers]] as individuals, but as permutations of the ''same'' person, his deceased brother Caleb. When talking about the Grimwalkers as a collective, he refers to them with a singular "he" ("It hurts every time he chooses to betray me"), and he sees killing them for disobedience as a personal inconvenience for ''him'', since he now has to go through the hassle of replacing them]].
240	* Savage Opress in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' is almost exclusively referred to as a beast, monster, or other terms that don't indicate he is an actual person. His brother, Darth Maul, often is as well; Obi-Wan Kenobi himself says, "He's a broken, unbalanced monster."
241	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
242	** On Homeworld, [[PlanetOfSteves Pearls]] are at the very bottom of the [[FantasticCasteSystem caste system]]. Peridot explains that Pearls are for [[BeautifulSlaveGirl "standing around, looking nice and holding your stuff for you"]], and implies that Pearls aren't even considered actual gems.[[note]]This makes sense when you consider that real-life pearls are grown in oysters, not underground, and are purely ornamental.[[/note]] When she asks "our" Pearl who she belongs to, Pearl angrily replies she doesn't belong to anyone, which prompts Peridot to ask ''"Then what are you for?"'' Later, she insults Pearl by calling her "somebody's shiny toy" and saying that she's "just a Pearl". This ticks Pearl off so much that she [[ShutUpHannibal socks Peridot in the face]].
243	** A less blatant example occurs with Garnet. As a [[FusionDance fusion]] of two different types of gems (Ruby and Sapphire), her entire existence is taboo by Homeworld's standards. Peridot constantly reminds everyone of this by expressing a huge distaste for Garnet and referring to her only as "the (perma)fusion", or more derogatory terms such as "filthy war machine" and "two [[FantasticSlurs clods]], walking around like she's one clod". Counting from the moment she was captured, it took her a total of ''nine'' episodes to refer to Garnet by name, and the first time she did was only in her private log and accompanied by another insult.
244	--->'''Peridot:''' Additionally, it is without question that the permafusion Garnet... is the worst.
245	[[/folder]]
246

Context Main / Dehumanization