Modern Problems: Conquering Hate With Hate
Both hilarious and pitiably, it would seem that people think that you can defeat the hate of your enemy with a greater volume of hatred from your side and perspective. However, if these people would decide to step out of their echo chamber of performative cruelty and open themselves up to the damage they cause, then they would see hate only breeds more hate. Then again, many of these same people to which I am referring like that they are breeding hate ad infinitum, because that is how they get their kicks.
For the purpose of conquering hate, we must first acknowledge its relevance in the modern world.
Acknowledging the Modern Relevance of Hate
It would be accurate to say that in modern times hate is able to spread faster than ever, and that hate is like a wildfire. We all feel hate at one point or another, there is no honest individual who can claim they have not, nor that they will never experience it. Introduce our inherent feelings of hate to our good friend social media and you now have a recipe for disaster.
Taking hate to the masses through social media, the hate that news media is already appropriating and spreading like a wildfire, is where hate becomes the most relevant. Biting wit born from hatred and spite striking the ears of another with the intention and force of a lethal blow is so common on the internet that we may as well start calling social media a virtual war-zone, a war-zone where words are the artillery and our peers are the enemies.
This hate is being weaponized on a global scale, by all sides, and that is both the relevance and practicality of hatred.
When Is Hate Practical?
Taking a quick look at Nazi Germany and the Shoah (Holocaust), it soon becomes apparent to anyone observing such atrocities committed by the regime that hatred is an extremely powerful tool. Humans are inherently drawn to enjoy, dwell upon, and partake in hatred and any heinous acts that are born from it. This is when hatred becomes practical.
When you see/hear your friend, neighbor, coworker, a total stranger say/post something born of hatred this is their attempt to make hatred a practical tool. The same tool is used much more skillfully by the ones spreading the hate in the first place. The powers that be want you to hate, not because it can defeat the wrong type of hatred, but because hate breeds more hate that they can then utilize even further for selfish gains.
Even further they can use hatred to bring you to warring with those around you, just as the Nazis did in Germany. If you practice hatred and how to use it as a practical tool, well I have bad news for you, you are best equated to a Nazi because hate cannot defeat hate and it only breeds more hatred.
Do you think that hate can be defeated with hate?
Alternatives to Hate
The next time you see someone making a hateful post, or saying something hateful that no one should be agreeing with no matter who that hateful spew is coming from, ask them if they feel they are being reasonable. Due to hate being so commonplace, people often mistake their hateful words and actions as acceptable, and even as being on the side of morality. It doesn't hurt to bring their attention to the damage their hatred could cause others, especially if you do it in a non-accusatory way.
I attempt to understand and accept everyone no matter what their views are, and when I point out their hatred it tends to either make it worse or brings them back into a firmer grasp of reality. Every time you bring someone to realize they are being hateful and trying to paradoxically defeat hate with hate, that is a step in the right direction. To solve the issue of hate versus hate, people must realize that the only practicality in hatred is simply to breed more hatred; so if you find yourself being bombarded by hate do not partake and simply walk away.
Defeating hate by being accepting of others, seeking to understand them, makes you a beacon for progressive change in a regressive world. So, won't you be that beacon for the good of all that is at stake?