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OdiousOutlaw wrote

Seeing people as a job description rather than aknowlaging their humanity is textbook dehumanization.

I fully acknowledge the abstraction of "humanity" in police officers; I fully recognize them as human beings. Even the many, many, many white supremacists in their ranks. I still don't care if they die, their "humanity" means exactly nothing to me; they actively profit off of keeping systems intact that I want destroyed; this makes them my enemy, their function within society dictates their actions and ignoring it is ridiculous.

The reason they don't "just change jobs" is because they have been irreversibly changed by becoming police officers. They can never escape. The government systematcaly traumatizes people before handing them a gun, and having them wander our streets, libraries, schools, and neaborhoods.

Yeah, they're "just following orders", right? This absolves them of all accountability and consequence. Every prison guard is a victim of circumstance.

I was formerly part of the alt right growing up, before a friendly leftist somehow put up with me and helped me get therapy and become a better, healthier person.

Good for you, I guess? These people didn't do that, so you can take solace in the fact that you're a "better person" than them. It's not my job or obligation to make nice with white supremacists/ fascists/authoritarians, nor am I under any obligation to avoid speaking ill of their dead.

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