It is tempting to believe that dehumanization is an excess of rhetoric-that no one thinks his foe is truly monstrous. David Livingstone Smith argues otherwise, showing that when we dehumanize our enemies, we consider them both human and not. Dehumanization is a genuine psychological response to poli...

It is tempting to believe that dehumanization is an excess of rhetoric-that no one thinks his foe is truly monstrous. David Livingstone Smith argues otherwise, showing that when we dehumanize our enemies, we consider them both human and not. Dehumanization is a genuine psychological response to political manipulation, with harrowing consequences.