• abbadon420@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m convinced my dog isn’t a person, my chickens aren’t people and even the worms in my garden aren’t people. But I would never treat any of those as brutally as the Belgians treated the Congolese. It is absolutely bey9nf my comprehensionsl.

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        A better statement would be the Belgians dehumanized the Congolese.

        It’s the opposite of what you do right now with animals, treating them as a pet and something that can suffer is humanizing them.

        It’s why we say we cannot tolerate intolerance - to allow any dehumanization allows for this stuff to happen.

    • PugJesus@kbin.socialM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Many of these atrocities were carried out by their ‘fellow’ Africans in the employ of the Belgians, though the atrocities were generally ordered (or, gruesomely, regulated) by the Europeans. Sadly, people can seemingly dehumanize anyone, regardless of how they look.