We should all be very alarmed by the WH news posts calling immigrants "animals". This is how people get normalized into the kind of thinking that allows them to justify genocide. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/05/21/white-house-feeds-trump-base-with-news-release-doubling-down-on-ms-13-animals/?noredirect=on

I should clarify, since it's pointed out elsewhere that I did a bad job summarizing this: https://twitter.com/sandhawke/status/999301442165932032

Trump didn't say all immigrants were animals, but directly called MS-13 members "animals" and "vicious animals". This comment doesn't necessarily apply to all immigrants one could say, however it's been Trump's modus operandi to paint immigrants and entire ethnic groups under the guise of criminals, and I think there was a strong implication of this.

@cwebber

Even if they're criminals, calling them animals is wrong anyway

They are still human beings

Dehumanization is dehumanization even when applied to a smaller group

@catonano @cwebber Doubly so when there's pretty strong evidence that people are getting flagged as gang members just so there's an excuse to deport them.

So saying "I was just talking about MS-13" is a distinction without a difference when you also have said "all brown people are probably MS-13 anyway."

@gamehawk @catonano And I guess that's why I didn't bother to be clearer about Trump's statement originally. I was called out on being imprecise by someone I respect though, and that made me question if I should have worded things differently.