I think all of us have had the temptation to do the "demonization" thing. The number of people who've been involved in arguments and not done it is probably miniscule, and I'm certainly not in there.

Make the person evil enough to be worthy of being treated like a thing, and we can say whatever we want and not feel guilty. See the person as a person, and we've got a problem. It comes down to what we as individuals are willing to allow ourselves to become, and no amount of "but they MADE me say that" is going to get us out of being responsible.