A way of thinking that we can also describe as "pseudo-speciation". This culminates in the exaggeration of some difference(s) between people (e.g. race, language, religion, etc.) by which adherents divide the social world into an "US" designated to recieve the empathy and comforts of human society, and a "THEM" who frequently may get demoted to subhuman status and against whom "we" may deem violence appropriate. This often occurs implicitly, but may even manifest explicitly. Frequently this thinking gets memetically reciprocated and replicated, whereby the "THEM" may respond accordingly by viewing themselves as an "US", and the other group conversely as a "THEM". This thinking entails different rules and unreasonable expectations of behavior depending on whether one deals with a member of "US" or a member of "THEM", and hence generally leads to hypocrisies in behavior and thinking, not to mention the dangers for violence.

See UTistic?.

JakeSapiens See httpAlabaster's war on the Jews for a good example.


Last edited on Thursday, May 1, 2003 4:03:16 pm.