[8] I hold it to a sign of great prudence in men to refrain alike from threats and from the use of insulting language, for neither of these things deprives the enemy of his power, but the first puts him more on his guard, while the other intensifies his hatred of you and makes him more industrious in devising means to harm you.The strategy of demonization of the enemy unavoidably leads to a vicious cycle of atrocities, which was elaborated by many authors including Carl von Clausewitz.
[10] Demonization of the enemy makes diplomatic solutions impossible and inevitably leads to war or worsening of relations.
[11] Depicting the enemy as particularly evil inspires feelings that make killings more easy.
This also often results in a tendency to reduce an enemy's more complex motives to simple promotion of pure evil.
[13] The Chinese revolutionary theorist Mao Zedong held that the demonization of oneself by the enemy was a good thing.