The Inhuman Oppressor

It is entirely possible to advocate for an oppressed minority group without constructing a dehumanized version of an oppressor class. One possibility is to locate the opposition in the hands of a single person or a small group of elites. This is a natural path in a society with an overt dictator, allowing individuals to blame all their misery on that leader. But in a society with diffused power, such as the United States, and one with the level of social, cultural, and political polarization we currently endure, it becomes less plausible to lay the entire blame for societal problems at the feet of one or a few individuals. There has been some effort to promote the idea that there is a top 1% that is responsible for the problems of the 99% ( Aslanidis 2016 ; Pickerill and Krinsky 2016 ; Saez 2018 ), but that movement has largely been limited to very progressive spaces. It is possible not to dehumanize a class of people as oppressors but to envision the hierarchy in society as an unfortunate consequence of impersonal forces. To the degree this may be true, recognizing impersonal forces as a source of oppression does not serve the interests of political identity movements that seek villains to blame and oppose. Opposition to said villains justifies efforts to grab and maintain political power.