Inflammatory hate speech catalyzes mass killings including genocide,
according to scholars, survivors and, notably, some former
perpetrators. By teaching people to view other human beings as less
than human, and as mortal threats, thought leaders can make atrocities
seem acceptable – and even necessary, as a form of collective selfdefense.
Such speech famously preceded the Holocaust,
the 1994
genocide in Rwanda,
and other intergroup mass killings,
and unfortunately it is still rife in many countries at risk of collective
violence, such as Nigeria, Myanmar, Egypt, and Greece.