Intersectionality and the Oppression Pyramid

Or just maybe people don’t like being demonized, silenced or threatened regardless of their gender or skin color.

This is classic “dehumanization of the enemy”, putting forward a theory that white males don’t think like human beings or react like they do. Because white males aren’t people, and don’t react like people or have the same motives as people. So when they apparently act like people there must be some hidden nefarious reason for it.

It reminds me of strategic bombing in WWII, when both sides simultaneously indiscriminately bombed the other side because that would somehow break their will, while at the same time being outraged and more determined when the enemy did the same to them - and never even considered the inconsistency. The scale is different of course but the psychology is the same; treating the Enemy Other as not thinking or reacting like a human.

Which of course leads to the people doing the dehumanization to completely misread their opponents, and being blindsided when they do in fact act like human beings.