Daily writing prompt

On what subject(s) are you an authority?

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I made it my business, from middle school on, to learn about both the Civil War era and the Third Reich.

I read everything I could about these eras because it apalled me that both the Southern Confederacy and the Third Reich were based on brutality and dehumanization. How did Germans and southerners justify it to themselves? How did it get to the point where people — who could otherwise be personally kind and decent — believed destroying other human beings, either through slavery or simple extermination, was not just okay, but moral and just?

This led me to read as much as I could about propaganda and how it normalizes atrocity.

Which led me to be alert when I saw how dehumanization worked around me, whether among my neighbors justifying the My Lai massacre (“They were all COMMIES, so…”) celebrating the deaths at Kent State, (“They were all HIPPIES so…”) or dismissing the murders of civil rights workers (“They were all TROUBLEMAKERS from the north so…”)

Now I hear “They are ILLEGALS, so…”