The Anatomy of Dehumanising Language

How Words Pave the Path to Violence

I’m Nahid — somatic movement educator, author of Soothe, and guide for people holding themselves together by habit, not choice. They call me the nervous system whisperer, but this isn’t about child’s pose and slow breaths. It’s about rewiring the part of you that still thinks tension is a requirement for success.

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Hello, hope this newsletter finds you well. This newsletter has been brewing for a while. It seems odd to send this on a sunny Friday afternoon in my peaceful garden. The dogs are lying in puddles of shade and panting. I’m in shorts and a tank top. The birds are tweeting. The sky is blue…but still.

A young Indian girl was punched in Ireland. I winced. Indian care workers in Ireland want to leave the hostile environment. I clenched my jaw. A Somalian young man was aggressively questioned by a man on the street who grabbed him by the neck. My shoulders come up to my ears. A Muslim family booking into a hotel with their children and were followed and filmed a bystander to prove…what I don’t quite know. That “they” are every where…? My fists tightened. The slaughter of civilians continue with no end in sight. I can’t breathe. Human life seems to no longer be sacred.

The language used to describe “others” is grooming you to accept these acts of violence.

Language is never neutral. The words we use to describe people, groups and situations don't merely reflect reality, they actively shape it. Throughout history, the systematic dehumanisation of targeted groups through language has served as a precursor to violence, oppression, and genocide. Understanding these linguistic patterns is crucial for recognising when they emerge in our own time and develop strategies to counter them.

Dehumanising language works by stripping away the humanity of its targets, making violence against them psychologically easier to justify and carry out. This process typically follows several key patterns: groups described using animal terminology ("vermin," "rats," "cockroaches," "parasites"); communities portrayed as "infections," "cancers," or "plagues" that threaten societal health; terms like "swarms," "floods," "waves," and "invasions" depicting targeted groups as natural disasters requiring defensive action; and de-individualisation where people become statistics or categories rather than individuals with names, families, and complex lives.

The ongoing violence in Gaza provides a stark example of how dehumanising language targeted at Muslims enables brutality of all brown people. When Palestinian civilians are consistently referred to through depersonalising terms, when their deaths are described in passive voice as if they simply "died" rather than being killed, it becomes psychologically easier for both perpetrators and observers to accept the snuffing out of human beings on a massive scale. Soft tissue, muscles, hearts, brains, bones and nervous systems.

The language used to describe asylum seekers in Western countries follows familiar dehumanising patterns. Terms like "flood," "swarm," and "invasion" transform people fleeing persecution into faceless threats. When hotels housing asylum seekers are attacked, this violence doesn't emerge in a vacuum, it's been primed by years of dehumanising rhetoric.

DARVO: The Abuser's Playbook

The manipulation tactics used by governments and institutions mirror those used by individual abusers. DARVO - Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender - is a pattern originally identified in sexual abuse cases but applies broadly to power-based violence:

Deny: "There is no systematic targeting," "These are isolated incidents."
Attack: Shifting focus to alleged flaws or threats posed by victims. "They brought this on themselves," "They're violent/criminal/undeserving."
Reverse Victim and Offender: Portraying perpetrators as the real victims. "We're the ones under attack," "They're trying to replace us."

This pattern makes us all complicit by confusing moral clarity and creating doubt about who deserves protection.

When we consume, share, or fail to challenge dehumanising language, we become part of the system that enables violence. Our silence signals consent. Every time we allow dehumanising language to pass unchallenged, we participate in creating the conditions where violence becomes acceptable.

How Can You Resist This?

Actively seek out and amplify humanising stories. Pay attention to dehumanising language in media consumption. When encountering such language, name it directly: "That language dehumanises people." Connect contemporary examples to historical patterns. Demand better from media outlets and political leaders. Stop buying the media and products that harm us all. Create spaces where people from targeted communities can speak for themselves. Be in solidarity with your fellow human beings.

The Government-Abuser Connection

The parallels between governmental dehumanising language and individual abuser tactics are striking because they serve the same function: creating psychological conditions where violence becomes acceptable. Both rely on isolation, gaslighting, normalisation, victim-blaming and control of narrative. Recognising these patterns helps us understand that the language of dehumanisation isn't accidental, it's a deliberate tool of control and domination.

Language shapes reality. When we allow dehumanising language to flourish unchallenged, we create the conditions for violence and oppression. The choice is ours, in every conversation, every social media interaction, every piece of content we consume and share. We can be complicit in dehumanisation, or we can be active in resistance. The stakes couldn't be higher because words don't just describe violence, they enable it.

Our humanity is interconnected. When we allow some to be dehumanised, we diminish our own humanity in the process.

I love Audre Lord’s writing, this from her book, When I Dare to be Powerful: And of course I am afraid, because the transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation, and that always seems fraught with danger. But my daughter, when I told her of our topic and my difficulty with it, said. "Tell them about how you're never really a whole person if you remain silent, because there's always that one little piece inside of you that wants to be spoken out, and if you keep ignoring it, it  gets madder and hotter and hotter, and if you don't speak it out one day it will just up and punch you in the mouth from the inside."

A few things

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Stay human,

Nahid x

PS I am off to NYC tomorrow, I’ll send updates in the chat.

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