Language is The First Step Towards Dehumanization

Words have the power to reshape how we see each other. They can strip away humanity or restore it, depending on how we wield them. This raw, urgent episode dives deep into how language becomes the first battleground where human dignity is won or lost.

When certain words keep appearing—invasion, flood, illegals, infestation—they aren't random choices. They're calculated terms designed to frame people as problems rather than humans with stories. I break down how these war words and pest control terms create psychological distance that makes further violence possible. Before raids tear families apart, before policies separate children from parents, the groundwork is laid through language that strips away empathy.

What's most heartbreaking is hearing this dehumanizing language from within our own communities. Phrases like "I did it the right way" or "that's not our problem" aren't neutral statements—they're active attempts to deflect responsibility and disassociate from our shared humanity. But as I explain through both personal reflection and cultural analysis, deflection isn't protection, disassociation isn't neutrality, and silence is never innocence.

This episode calls you to action: pay attention to the language in the news, in your group chats, at your family gatherings. When someone says "illegal," correct them. When harmful jokes normalize dehumanization, interrupt them. The virus of dehumanizing language doesn't discriminate about who it eventually harms—we're all connected, and our words matter. Join me in this necessary conversation, and stick around for next week when we dive deeper into how this rhetoric takes root within our communities.

This is the book I reference in this episode:

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism―Understanding the Social Science of Cult Influence

*By the way, I’ve linked the book Cultish in the show notes using my affiliate link—so if you decide to grab a copy through that link, I’ll get a small kickback at no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win: you get an incredible read, and you help support the show just a little. Gracias in advance!

Hey hey—it’s your girl Johanny Ortega, a.k.a. J.E. Ortega if you’re feeling spooky 👻 I’ll be at the 7th Annual LATINA Fest on June 1st in downtown L.A. with copies of Mrs. Franchy’s Evil Ring AND a physical sneak peek of The Ordinary Bruja! Come through to the Author’s Corner for books, brujita vibes, and cafecito. Get tickets on Eventbrite!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Language and Dehumanization
• 7:42 War Words and Their Dangerous Power
• 10:45 How Dissociation Enables Violence
• 15:18 Language from Inside the Community
• 19:51 Deflection Is Not Protection
• 24:13 Call to Action and Next Episode Preview

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Oh we could, we could fly. Welcome back to have a Cup of Johnny. This season isn't about hustling harder. It's about coming home to yourself, to your voice, to your breath, to the quiet truth that you're still here and you're not starting over. You're starting again. This is your space to reflect, reset and remember who we tell you. So pour your cafecito and let's begin.

Speaker 2: 0:37

Before violence ever happens to a body, it happens in the mind, and the way we get there is through language. Hola vasitos, welcome back to have a Cup of Joani. I'm Joa and today's episode is not light. I know I said June is going to be this soft theme and you know what? In a way, that episode from last Wednesday fits right in and it can continue to be that way, because being soft and open and still and within that pause, prepares us to embrace our entire humanness, to embrace the world and our environment around us. So in a way, I take some of that back. Let me scroll that back a little bit. This is all aligned but, to be brutally honest and transparent with you, this episode is not as light as the previous one, but it is necessary because I can't talk about softness, I can't talk about healing identity or magic, as what I wrote in the Ordinary Bruja, without also talking about what happens when language is used to erase all of that. You know and you will see that, and I can't wait for the Ordinary Bruja to come out, because you are going to see this in fiction form, through the lens of social horror and magical realism, but here in the podcast we're going to talk about the real life aspect of it. So saying that this episode is called Language is the First Step Toward Dehumanization, and I want you to really sit with that title right now, because before violence ever happens to a person, before policies are passed, before doors are kicked in, before raids rip families apart, violence happens in the mind. And you may be asking how do we change what people see in their minds? How does that get in there in the first place? Well, let me answer that for you Through words, through language. And yes, you're getting this from an author, from a writer, from someone who reads a lot, and one of the books that I've talked about before on my podcast and on social media is the book Cultish how language really can not only bring people into a cult, but put people into a coldish mindset. Okay, so I'm going to put that book in the show notes so that way y'all can reference it as well. And that book is on audiobook format as well, all right, so y'all can digest it that way. It's also on ebook and it's also on physical hardback and paperback. Okay, so if you wanna learn a little bit more about what we're talking here, I want you to reference that book and read it, okay, and then you can come back to me on my social medias or an email and let me know what you got out of that, but you're gonna hear some of that here on this episode, okay.

Speaker 2: 4:20

So saying that I keep seeing the same words over and over in social media and comment sections and I know for my mental health I need to stay out of the comment section on Instagram, but God, it's so tempting and I just go through it and keep reading it until it's just like I get this burning sensation of anger, of frustration, of defeat, and I need to stop doing that. It's getting to me. But not only do I see this language, these words, in the comment sections, I also see it in the headlines, on panels, in the news, in mouths of people who should know better and also, let's be honest, and people who don't want to know better at all. And these are words like invasion, flood surge, infestation, illegals, wave, disease, alien burden, criminals, threat. And let me ask you something and be serious, because I know sometimes when I ask people, they want to be sarcastic and joking in order to either be contrary to me or win the argument. Quote, unquote argument. But be serious. Do you use these kind of words to describe someone you care about? And I can tell you that if you were serious about it and you weren't using these words in a sarcastic manner, the answer will be no, that you don't, because those words that you just heard me say are not words that we use to describe humans.

Speaker 2: 6:17

Those are war words, those are pest control words. Those are words that we use to frame people as problems, not as people. You see, those are words that can get people to act. You see, those are words that can get people to act, especially surge, invasion, infestation, wave. You know, these are. That's why I say these are war words. We're getting someone to act when we're describing other human beings using these words. Understand that. And I want you to sit with that really quickly, because this kind of language is not accidental, it's not, it's not at all. Okay, oh my God, read cultish. Okay, this kind of language is calculated, it's deliberate, but most importantly, it is so dangerous facitos.

Speaker 2: 7:22

Because once someone has been linguistically reduced to a surge, to a disease, to a wave, you no longer feel compassion when they drown in a river. Once someone is called a disease when they drown in a river. Once someone is called a disease, you no longer feel sorrow for them when they're removed from a classroom. Why? Because they're a disease. So now the disease is gone from your classroom. So now you rejoice. There's one less thing for you to worry about. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 7:57

Once someone is labeled illegal, you don't ask why they're here. No, you start asking how can we get rid of them? Because they're not meant to be here, they're illegal. You see what I'm saying? Dissociation is really the first act of violence. You don't need a weapon, you don't need a baton, you don't need your fist, you don't even need the law. You just need enough people to stop seeing someone as human. That's it. And then violence will occur in such a peaceful manner, with people just looking and not acting.

Speaker 2: 8:46

And all you needed were those words, that language, that cultish language. Because that's what it does. It scrapes empathy out of our vocabulary. It inserts, instead of empathy, fear, where there should be context as well. It replaces story, the entire story of that human being, and it reduces it to just a stereotype. It to just a stereotype that language is meant to build in us, versus them, without even having to say it without ever saying just that or naming who us really is and them who they are. You know, you don't even have to do that because through this language you are separating. You're saying that over there it's illegal, this is legal, and then people, they hear that over and over, then they start using it, it is introduced into their vocabulary and through that conceptualization of that word and how it's used, they draw their own definition. So you see what I'm saying, so you don't even have to name it. After the word is circulated enough, you don't have to name it because people will take the context, will remember how it was used, will remember with who it was used and they will draw their own definition and go from there and continue to parrot that word in the same way. And that's how violence gets passed in the most peaceful and still kind of way.

Speaker 2: 10:33

And here's the part that's the hardest for me to say and that is that some of this language is coming from inside the house, from inside the community. And the entire reason why I'm making this podcast to be transparent with you is because of everything that I keep seeing on social media how yesterday, friday morning, there were raids in downtown LA, a place that brought me so much joy not too long ago, a place where I was in community at the Latina Fest, where I felt such calmness and stillness and joy, and just yesterday it was being suffocated with terror. It was being scared senseless by these raids. So, yes, I'm going to talk about it. Yes, I woke up at 4.30 thinking about it and, like I said, I woke up at 4.30 thinking about it. And, like I said, it frustrates me to my core to see how this language comes from other Latinos self-hating Latinos at that, and, as well, some other marginalized groups as well From people saying things like and listen to this language. Well, I did it the right way. That's not our problem. My parents came here legally. They should have known better. This isn't about us. I didn't vote for that.

Speaker 2: 12:13

And that's just to name a few of the comments that I wrote down as I was scrolling through the comments section of some of those social media posts. And I want to pause right here. Let's do a quick pause so that way I can say something loud and clear, because these phrases here, because these phrases here, these phrases are meant to deflect and to disassociate. Okay, but deflection is not protection, disassociation is not neutrality, and silence is not innocence. And I go back and I'm not trying to sell this book y'all, but the whole reason why I write the books that I write, the whole reason why I wrote the Ordinary Bruja, is to show that silence doesn't save anyone. No, it does not. On the very opposite, it drowns us in guilt and horror. You see, that is what the whole book is about.

Speaker 2: 14:31

Because of comments like this that I keep seeing from self-hating Latinos disassociating from their identity, disassociating from their problem, and I put that on my book and I was like, okay, let me draw this main character where she's been trying to hide from herself, from her identity, from the magic in the world that's around her. And what happens when she silences and looks away from that, deflects, disassociates? Well, her whole entire world goes to crap and she has to unearth all of that. Y se tiene que excavar from that hole that her entire family line built. You know she has to unearth herself from that hole. You know Her entire family just dug that entire grave 10 feet deep. Because they didn't talk about it, because they thought that silence was innocent. I don't know. Me voy a hacer la loca, so it's okay. So, because I don't know. It's not my problem, you see, but the reason why it's in my books is because I've seen it in real life and I keep seeing it in real life.

Speaker 2: 15:50

So I'm going to say these phrases again because I want you to be aware of them, to catch them, and to catch it from yourself as well. If you say it Well, I did it the right way. Well, what's the right way? Well, good for you that you are at the right time, at the right place to do it that way. That's not our problem. I beg to defer. That's everyone's problems, because, as human beings living on the same patch of soil, we are all interconnected. My parents came here illegally. Great, great, your same luck is not the same as someone else's, your situation is not the same as someone else's. And I dislike this phrase so much because it happens to me quite a lot when people try to invalidate my experience by saying well, it didn't happen to me, that can happen to me and something different can happen to you, just like two siblings can live in the same household and experience two different parents. You see, oh, they should have known better. Really they should.

Speaker 2: 17:01

It goes back to like how do you know? How do you know that your same exact life and experience is being lived by everyone else in this world? This isn't about us. It's the same thing as. That's not our problem. Yes, it is. As human beings, we're all interconnected, and if COVID didn't teach us that you must have been living under a rock. I didn't vote for that. Okay, you didn't. But it goes back to we're interconnected. Other people did and, unfortunately, other people are here with us, living in the same patch of soil on this round earth revolving around the sun, you know.

Speaker 2: 17:46

So, once again, deflection is not protection. Just because you say those things does not mean tag, you're it and it's no longer my problem. Disassociation is not neutrality, it is not. You're being complicit, just like silence is not innocent. Instead, silence is being complicit in what is happening, and you're just not saying it.

Speaker 2: 18:11

Because when you use the same language as the state, you're not keeping yourself safe. Pasitos, okay, maybe it's not you. Okay, because if you're listening to this podcast, if you've been listening to me, I doubt wholeheartedly that you fall into this category. Most of you probably do not. But, once again, when you're using this language, you're not keeping yourself safe, you're just making it easier for harm to spread, for harm to spread, and as long, once again, as long as we're all living interconnected in this patch of soil which we are because we're part of the human race, it will spread, it will touch you, it will touch your loved ones. Okay, because you're telling the world this is like what a pick me, kind of like a pick me right, don't come for me, go for them right. And I don't know if y'all have seen those zombie movies, right, and how that works out that eventually you get bitten right Because you can only deflect for so long before harm comes and finds you, because it will. It will Because it's language.

Speaker 2: 19:31

That's what language does. Take it from somebody who uses language to influence emotions out of readers. Okay, I understand that Language is a powerful thing and that's what I'm talking about here, even if you don't agree right with what I'm telling you. Just analyze the language being used. At the very least, analyze the language that is being used and watch. Watch for those words, watch for those phrases. At the very least, watch for the dehumanizing words and watch your mind as you're thinking about them and watch your mouth as you're repeating them, because the more that we say it, the more that those phrases and the words are being spread. It's like a virus, right, spreading throughout the entire community and we all know, right? I take it back to COVID viruses.

Speaker 2: 20:33

Do not discriminate. Think about a zombie apocalypse If you've watched those kind of movies. It does not discriminate, it will come for you, it will find you, because when you let dehumanization in the door, it doesn't ask for papers, it doesn't ask for race, it just asks for your complicity. It asks for you to repeat it. It asks for you to stay silent and don't say anything when you hear other people saying it. When you read it, it just says shh, stay quiet, just repeat it, let it pass on. That's what it does, and I know it's hard. It's easier to just look away to say this has nothing to do with me, right? I'm not Latine, I'm not Latino, I'm not Latina, I'm not Latinx, right? So it doesn't involve me.

Speaker 2: 21:42

But it does, because empathy is not just an emotion, it's a responsibility of the humankind. It's a muscle that we have to keep flexing, especially when it's uncomfortable, and that's why I'm such an advocate of reading diverse books from authors from different cultures, from different races, from different genders, right, different sexual orientation, because it forces you to see a story from another perspective that is not your own. Not your own, and by doing that, you are being shown somebody that is different from you, even if it's a fictional character. You're being forced to see them as human beings in that story, and that is like you going to the empathy gym and working out. We're all interconnected because eventually the language will find you and those words will become action, and that same system that raids one neighborhood will over police yours. So you see, it's all connected because we are all connected. So here's my ask from you for today Start paying attention to the language in the news, in your group chats, in your family gatherings, in the comments at your dinner table.

Speaker 2: 23:25

When someone says illegal, correct them. When someone jokes about a flood of migrants, interrupt it. When someone says they should have done it the right way, ask them what is that and why is it only right for some and not for others? And why is it only right for some and not for others? Because the moment we stop naming the violence in language, we give it room to grow into something worse. Thank you so much for sitting with me on this one, and I hope that you got something from this episode and I hope that you check out the book Cultish that I will reference on the show notes.

Speaker 2: 24:19

Stick around, vacitos, because next week I'm going deeper into this. Rhetoric takes roots within our communities. I'm going deeper Next week. I'm going deeper into how this rhetoric takes root within our communities. We'll talk about internalized biases, classism and the myth of respectability. The episode will be called when we Speak Like the State, because some of us think we're being patriotic, but what we're really being is dangerous. Okay, if this episode made you pause, good, that's the whole point. And if you feel called to share it, talk about it and start asking different questions. We cannot stop the violence if we keep justifying the words that lead to it. Until next time, vasitos, I'm Joa. Stay soft, stay alert and stay human, please. Thank you, bye.

Speaker 1: 25:25

If today's episode spoke to you, share with somebody who's finding their way back too, and if you haven't yet, visit haveacupofjoanicom for more stories, blog posts and the bits that started it all. Thank you for being here. Until next time, be soft, be bold and always have a cup of joani.