Oh, my. The
Orcs are now offended, having been singled out. Anticipate some blowback. 😆
I certainly don't disagree with you. I'm just not sure we can separate hatred from a conclusion that lives don't matter. It is very likely the two issues are completely intertwined. (And there are other factors involved as well.)
I suppose this is all a discussion for another forum though... perhaps The Floating Log under a thread of "what drives human inhumanity?" or "What sears the mind to the point that human lives just don't matter?" It's a very deep subject.
Problem is keeping it out of both the political and religious arenas...
I'm going to mention religion, but only because it's necessary to understand the backdrop of the story.
Christian missionaries to areas of the world that had tribal societies (Africa, Middle east, Interior of Australia, South Am etc) reported that very often the indigenous people had no problem accepting the tenants of Christianity. They already had been accustomed to worshipping a deity (or deities) and obeying a moral code.
(btw All societies from the least developed to the most developed have a moral code whence their "civil" laws are derived, e.g. not stealing, not arbitrarily killing someone... unless you were the boss/chief/HMFWIC...RHIP 😉)
The difficulty the missionaries had was in convincing the people of Tribe A that Tribe B was also people and not
animals.
Tribe A looked at Tribe B as their enemy (and vice-versa) because they were very often competing for the same limited resources.
That alone made the opposing tribe a threat to the other tribe's existence, to be enslaved or obliterated.
In every society there is a word or expression that means "my people/tribe " and also a word/expression that means "not my people/tribe".
A "people" will also have derogatory names for the "not my people/tribes", e.g.,
dogs, jackals, snakes etc.
In many
languages (including English) the word 'foreigner' has several meanings besides "someone from another country".
It can mean a "stranger" (often the first definition in some languages ) and also "enemy".
No society could know if a stranger (or worse, a group of strangers) that showed up on its doorstep was there in goodwill, or to steal the livestock/ women, strip the cropland, or just plain take over and enslave the current inhabitants.
Hence the not surprising attitude toward foreigners, they are a threat, they are animals, and killing one or many is no differnt than killing a snake or herd of wild boars that are tearing up your crops and fouling your water supply.
The Missionaries had a very tough time convincing, say, a middle eastern tribe that they shoudn't kill another tribe for using a well belonging to the first (recall the scene in Lawrence of Arabia when Lawrence first meets Sherif Ali at the well).
And sadly, as Ent observed not only has that attitude not changed, it's not likely to be easily changed, ever.
It requires a constant and conscious act of the will to treat the stranger civilly, as you would want yourself and family to be treated.