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Dehumanization refers to subvert and overt acts which assert a separation of a particular group as belonging to an "inferior" class of people.
Dehumanization is a negative phenomenon that has been studied by historians and sociologists alike. The Holocaust of WW2 is thought to represent the apex of dehumanization's negative repercussions. Anthropologists Montagu and Matson famously wrote that dehumanization might well be considered "the fifth horsemen of the apocalypse" because of the inestimable damage it has dealt to society. When people become things, the logic follows, they becomes dispensable - and any atrocity can be justified.
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