I’m pretty sure there’s a sum of you out there who have watched a video or some sort on YouTube and read the numerous comments in the designated section below. Obviously depending on the community, there is still a chance that you’ll encounter some insulting phrases similar to:
“You uneducated swine.”
“Disgusting [rude word]”
“It’s people like you…”
“[Very insulting curse word]”
And what most of you will think is,”Of course you’re going to read this, it’s the Internet!” Now, my topic won’t revolve around how potentially hurtful words can be (that can be some other time), but instead I want to talk about why we say these hurtful statements. We are the first generation to be born where technology and worldwide communication are at our feet. We are linked with one another, yet when people don’t quite agree with our views, some instantly go straight to typing dehumanizing insults. Why is that?
There isn’t a real explanation, so I will provide a theory of mine. The U.S. has been in countless wars and the main one I would like to talk about is the Vietnam War, otherwise known as the first “Televised War.” It was also full of “uncensored” media of the war and even if there were some censorship, it was much less than previous wars or later ones. Knowledge of body counts, film footage of destruction and blood, and even interviews that had soldiers and citizens speaking in an ill manner towards the people of Vietnam.
A lot of racial slurs were said and easily got around because of the media, whether it be 
the paper, radio or t.v. The reason for it was to dehumanize the people of Vietnam, that way there was a just cause to go to war with them. Due to the constant use of such slurs, it made some people believe that not only were natives of Vietnam and other ethnicities throughout the world nonhuman, but also inferior (especially since they didn’t fit the role of a white man).
Of course I’m not saying racial slurs weren’t an issue before. They’ve always been an issue since the beginning of empires, however, those slurs weren’t easily passed around like media had done. During this war, the main conflict was South Vietnam against North 
Vietnam (U.S. influence on capitalism vs. U.S.S.R. influence on communism), and because views didn’t align, it was fairly easy to pass along horrible statements as differences grew. Isn’t all of this similar to the way people insult each other on the internet now-a-days? A person sees a comment he or she doesn’t quite agree with, so what do they do? They dehumanize them with insulting names in order to give a just cause for thinking that their opinions or thoughts are superior. Maybe this “televised” war, is what influenced our nature towards each other when it comes to the media.
A Blog For The Mind 
I definitely agree that the media has given the millennial generation much more ability to connect with people from all over the world. You’d think that being able to connect on a global scale would help some people realize that we are all people, regardless of ethnicity or culture, but apparently dehumanization still plays a big part in the world. I never really thought about how YouTube or social media comments were mean to dehumanize other people; I merely scrolled past the insults and banter, never really giving them a second thought. But it’s interesting to note how online comments reflect some people’s dehumanizing mentality, and it’s even more interesting to try to unearth when global dehumanization became so widespread. I feel the Vietnam War definitely played a huge role in influencing people to dehumanize others in order to justify a war. And now, when it comes to wars fought with words, this trend of dehumanization continues, and I’m afraid that it will continue as long as some people feel they are superior to others, simply due to skin color or differences of opinion.
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I really do agree with your viewpoints. I feel like it’s so unfortunate that nowadays, all people can really do or dedicate their time to is just giving out racial slurs to others of different ethnicities. Just because they are “different” from them, they feel as if it’s okay to say these types of insults to others, without really being aware of how triggering it might be, and still continue to be insensitive. It’s heartbreaking to know that this has been happening since the beginning of time, but to be in the 21st century and still realize that we maybe haven’t really learned any lessons when it comes to this kind of situation.
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