Stop the Hate?

So. . . hate.

What is it? Is it bad? Good? Do we need to stop all the hate? What do we mean when we say “hate”?

Fuck if I know.

I have a friend, a person whom I genuinely respect. They’ve earned it. They’re smart (far more intelligent than I am), thoughtful, considerate, involved, pretty fair-minded. When I say not all opinions are equal, they’re one of the people I’m thinking of. I know they put a lot more thought into things than most people, so when they decide to say something, I’m going to listen, even if I end up disagreeing.

Recently, they were pushed to angrily rant about something (and yes, it’s a real possibility that I unknowingly contributed to what pushed them to actually rant about this). And as angry as it was indicated to be, certainly I had to pay attention.

Long story short, the idea was stop the hate, because we’re all human beings and should try treating each as such.

Which is a fine philosophy. I’m sure it works tremendously well for some people.

I mean, shit, the greatest thinkers, doers, heroes, the best of the best, they were *all* humans, like you, like me, like the guy across the street who was murdered in cold blood a couple years ago.

Of course, the worst of the worst in human history were *also* humans beings. As far as I know, Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Genghis, whomever created the reality show, they were all humans beings, like you, like me, like the guy who murdered the guy across the street a couple years ago.

So what does it mean that maybe we should try treating each other like humans beings, especially on the internet?

People have been asking this kind of question since people. Typically, there is an appeal to a common experience or denominator. Are you working hard to provide for your family? Well, maybe that woman who supports Trump is working hard to provide for *her* family and thinks Trump will make that easier, or more likely?  Shit, right there is a common, shared experience. If you have that in common, maybe you have other things in common, so let’s explore those!

Of course, this position has one pretty severe flaw as typically expressed. It’s asking you to overlook, ignore, or (and god damn do I hate this one) agree to disagree on certain other beliefs and positions held in order to focus on the commonalities.

I like tacos. Despite the possible origins of tacos, there are Nazis that like tacos. Our shared appreciation of delicious tacos is simply not enough of a commonality for me to accept their Nazism.

What am I driving at here? The basic idea is that we should treat each other with respect, at least basic respect. At the same time, you more than likely grew up being repeatedly told that “respect is earned”. And it is. People confuse “respect” and “basic courtesy” ALL. THE. FUCKING. TIME.

People are, in my incredibly humble opinion, absolutely entitled to basic courtesy. Until they demonstrate that they are no longer deserving of that courtesy. And I think *that* is what we’re talking about when someone says we need to “stop the hate”.

The simple fact is that, despite our commonalities, when you support inhumane actions, inhumane positions, as far as I’m concerned YOU ARE FUCKED. You’ve abdicated the right to basic courtesy. I can even understand someone being conned for a while, if they later realize that they stupidly supported some heinous shit.

But when they *keep* supporting it, despite knowing (and often willfully ignoring) the truth? Fuck them.

Because we are all human beings. And some humans beings are piece of shit scumbags who do nothing but make the world a worse place. And I will continue to point this out to them. I will continue to support the people who point this out to them, in the most uncivil ways possible.

Some folk will ask “do you think the hate is helping”?

Yeah, yeah it is. Fighting against injustice isn’t clean, it isn’t civil. As Good Old J.R. would say, “it ain’t ballet” (though every time he says that, I’m like “You go do some damn ballet and see how easy you think that shit is afterwards, son!”) They’ll be all “What about changing hearts and minds?” or “You’re never going to change their minds acting like that!”. Except changing the minds of scumfucks really isn’t the goal.

This actually ties into the recent “civility” smokescreens. See, for as long as people have been fighting injustice, other people have screamed and cried about the lack of civility in the fight. See, these people understand something about fights against being doing scummy shit:

You’re not really going to change the minds of most people. Because most people DO. NOT. GIVE. A. FUCK. About the cause. What they *do* care about is being bothered by, constantly reminded of, or annoyed by the cause, constantly hearing about it, over and over and over. Especially in ways that are uncivil or lacking in basic courtesy.

Because if things are civil, it’s not intrusive, it’s not important, it’s not interfering with their daily lives.

You change things not by changing the minds of the majority or a plurality. You change them by making the majority so fucking tired of the shit that *they* demand change just so they can go back to daily lives. You target the comfort and/or mundane apathy. It’s how women got the vote. It’s how the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came about. It’s what drove the Klan into the shadows for years. It’s what sparked acceptance of the fact that gay people were, in fact, entitled to the same basic rights as everyone else, it’s what’s ever so slowly pushing trans acceptance.

It’s simply how it is.

Anyway. . .

My basic point is that the blanket cry to “stop the hate” is a close cousin to the paradox of tolerance.

“The hate” is a tool, a weapon. Like a firearm or politics.

Should you call someone a racist when you haven’t seen overt racism from them? Probably not. But you can call them conned morons supporting a Nazi-sympathizing scumfuck, so they’re just as bad if not worse than an actual racist, because they’re supporting it simply because they (falsely) believe they’re gaining something from that support.

Stop the hate?

Fuck no.

That shit is useful. But do try to aim it correctly. We’re not burning down Vietnam here. Though if necessary, some folk who didn’t have the sense to step to the fucking side might get caught in the effect.