{"id":2715,"date":"2026-04-01T08:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/?p=2715"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:15:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:15:45","slug":"power-language-and-the-dehumanization-of-the-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/2715\/power-language-and-the-dehumanization-of-the-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Power, Language, and the Dehumanization of the “Other”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Two<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Words. The architecture of power begins here. Not with bombs, not with armies, but with permission – the permission to see others as less than human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The language of leadership is never just about \u201cstyle.\u201d It is never just \u201cauthenticity.\u201d Words are blueprints. They are the architectural drawings for how power will be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when President Donald Trump – in the midst of an active conflict – boasts that the U.S. has \u201cblown the shit out of Iran\u201d and declares \u201cthe hard part is done,\u201d it is not a lapse in etiquette. It is the blueprint for erasing millions of lives from moral consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t a one-off remark. It follows weeks of threats to \u201ccompletely obliterate\u201d power plants, oil infrastructure, desalination systems – the machinery that keeps civilians alive. This is not just rhetoric. It is a linguistic strategy designed to make destruction feel decisive, justified – even routine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shield of the Unfiltered<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This kind of language is often defended as \u201creal.\u201d As \u201cunfiltered.\u201d As if stripping away polish reveals truth. But in the corridors of power, it does the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It functions as a shield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It allows a leader to step around the weight of human consequence by turning war into theater – a performance of toughness where the only thing that matters is who sounds strongest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When conflict is described with the flippancy of a bar fight, something critical happens: reality disappears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image of a family without water\u2026
The darkness of a city without power\u2026
The slow, quiet panic of systems failing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of it is replaced by a single narrative: someone \u201ctaking care of business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That distance is not accidental. It is the point. Because once the language shifts, reality has room to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Rhetoric to Reality<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Look closely at the targets. Not just bunkers. Not just silos. We are talking about the grid. The pumps. The fuel. The literal mechanics of staying alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the conversation moves from military installations to infrastructure – electricity, water, fuel – the strategy itself has already changed. This is no longer a battle between armies. It is pressure applied to the conditions required for human life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when that destruction is framed as something already accomplished – \u201cwe\u2019ve blown the shit out of them\u201d – it does something even more dangerous:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It closes the moral conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns an ongoing humanitarian crisis into a finished job.
It transforms suffering into a checkbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Target hit. Checkbox marked. Humanity ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine the pumps stopped, the lights went out, the hospitals ran dry. And yet the language says: mission accomplished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It tells the public there is nothing left to question – only something to accept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Language of the “Chore”<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We are now hearing a new phrase creep into the discourse: \u201cmowing the lawn.\u201d The defense will be that they are only talking about \u201ctargets,\u201d not people. But you cannot mow a nation\u2019s infrastructure without cutting down the lives attached to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a domestic, clinical metaphor for mass destruction. Grass grows; you cut it down. Routine. Mindless. Disposable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we use the language of gardening to describe missiles, we are not talking about targets – we are talking about human lives as weeds. Lives that can be trimmed, cleared, maintained, discarded. Lives made insignificant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Historical Precedent: The 1924 Blueprint<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

None of this is new. Before a group can be excluded, harmed, or erased, it must first be defined as existing outside the boundaries of empathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw this clearly in the Immigration Act of 1924 – often called the Reed-Johnson Act. That law did not come out of nowhere. It was built on years of language that categorized people as threats, as outsiders, as fundamentally different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a law built on the idea that human value could be calculated by a quota – that some origins were \u201cdesirable\u201d and others a \u201cbiological threat.\u201d It wasn\u2019t just a travel policy; it was a declaration of who was fully human in the eyes of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language came first. Policy followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because once division is normalized in speech, it becomes enforceable in law. The mechanism does not change – only the context does. Define a group as separate. Diminish their humanity. And the protections they rely on begin to disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once that boundary is drawn, power no longer needs justification. It only needs a target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigative Empathy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So the question is not whether this language is \u201crude.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is: What is it preparing us to accept?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are watching a \u201cmight makes right\u201d framework move from the edges of discourse into the center of it. A system where volume replaces substance, aggression replaces accountability, and spectacle replaces truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And once that becomes the standard, the consequences do not stay contained to one conflict. They reshape how power itself is understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

True authority is not demonstrated by how effectively someone can erase the humanity of others. It is demonstrated by how firmly someone can recognize it – even when inconvenient, even in conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because once that recognition is gone, the shift is complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stop seeing people.
We stop seeing families.
We start seeing numbers.
Targets.
Infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in that shift, we start seeing \u201cacceptable losses\u201d as ordinary\u2026 inevitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Related: Tehran\u2019s Black Rain and Broken Futures: Why Oil Must Be a \u201cNo-Go Zone\u201d in War<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

War: The Reality Behind the Rose-Colored Glasses<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201c47-Year War\u201d: Did the U.S. Actually Start It 73 Years Ago?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dirt is Speaking: From Cyrus the Great to the 2026 Fight for Human Rights<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Me We Too<\/a> polls:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They really shouldn’t be minimizing war and the mass casualties with phrases like “mowing the lawn”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not surprised anymore when Trump says phrases like “blown the shit out” … and “fuck” – so vulgar<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not talk like that.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Targeting a civilian population’s water systems and power plants is a war crime.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US and Israeli strikes on Tehran\u2019s oil infrastructure should be illegal \u2013 it is so dangerous and unhealthy \u2013 they are targeting civilians without \u201ctargeting\u201d civilians.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump is very power hungry.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think Trump should have started the Iran War.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

War should be a last resort \u2013 not first resort.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to mention, it was totally illegal for Trump to unilaterally decide to wage war \u2013 that is what Congress is for.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Trump should not have ripped up the Iranian agreement in 2018.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump shouldn\u2019t have said he has the Iranians\u2019 back and will support and help when he does not have any plan to do so.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iranian people are some of the strongest people in the world #freeiran #iranrevolution #womenrights<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A whole World War Three is about to happen but people are worried about who got what filler injected<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wow to this: White House defends Hegseth\u2019s comments that media coverage of U.S. troop deaths are intended to make Trump \u201clook bad\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump makes himself look bad.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump is the biggest liar.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most hilarious thing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said: President Trump does not lie.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is ridiculous that Trump expects to be involved in who Iran chooses as their next leader.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump obviously does not care about democracy or freedom in Iran<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump just cares about whether he can control Iran\u2019s leader or not and tell them what to do (like in Venezuela)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House video promoting the Iran bombings by using \u201cCall of Duty\u201d and in another video a Pitbull song with Marco Rubio is so gross. They are way too nonchalant on what war is.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words. The architecture of power begins here. Not with bombs, not with armies, but with permission – the permission to see others as less than human. The language of leadership is never just about \u201cstyle.\u201d It is never just \u201cauthenticity.\u201d … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[482],"tags":[1914,1135,1090,1018,851,537,247,1903,1906,1916,860,1372,1096,1909,1907,1917,1910,1911,1123,1908,1913,1915,875,1904,1641,1912],"class_list":["post-2715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","tag-accept","tag-accountability","tag-authority","tag-dehumanization","tag-donald-trump","tag-empathy","tag-humanity","tag-immigration-act-of-1924","tag-infrastructure","tag-infrastructure-targeting","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-language","tag-linguistic-strategy","tag-might-makes-right","tag-military-metaphors","tag-morality","tag-mowing-the-grass","tag-normalization","tag-other","tag-permission","tag-political-rhetoric","tag-power","tag-reed-johnson-act","tag-rhetoric","tag-threat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2715"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2730,"href":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715\/revisions\/2730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mewetoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}