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A comment on ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants. Parent comment

Re:ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt ill... by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @09:06AM (#46795575)
> Please stop using the word alien to refer to humans

It’s the legally-correct term.

For what it’s worth, I’m a naturalized American. When I was doing my citizenship paperwork, I found the term fun. The word doesn’t dehumanize. Murdering people does.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt ill... by lawn on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @09:11AM (#46795643)
Genocide starts with separating people into them and us, and this process starts with words.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt ill... by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @09:17AM (#46795715)
> Genocide starts with separating people into them and us

This is an unsubstantiated slippery slope. We can categorize people, even sort them by desirability for some purpose, without resorting to dehumanization much less genocide. (Citizenship and immigration necessitate an us-them delineation. So do team sports, families and like club memberships. Us and them are fine. Us versus them is dangerous.)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt ill... by lawn on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @02:07PM (#46800098)
It's not enough by itself of course, but in the US it's very much a "us versus them" if you haven't noticed.
[ Parent | on HN ]