“Hate” is thrown around a lot here. I hate him. I hate her. I hate Bush. I hate Clinton. I hate the people on reality shows. I hate Fred Durst, Carrot Top and Eminem. But what do people mean when they say it?
As wee children my brother and I were instructed by our father that while you can hate a thing since it isn’t alive(and thus has no feelings and can’t be hurt), you should never say you hate someone unless you really mean it. And meaning it means that you wish terrible things would happen to them, and hopefully they will die.
We took this to heart. Here we are, now in our twenties, and neither of us ever uses “hate” casually, at least while talking about a person. Not that we don’t bad mouth the people we dislike, but unless we really wish they’d die, we don’t say we hate them. " I hate you!" is nothing either of us ever said to our parents, for example, although it seems to be a childhood staple for tantruming kids. I was always shocked to hear someone say that, because they couldn’t possibly mean it.
However, I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that “hate” doesn’t mean the same thing to us as it does to most people. Or else most people are incredibly evil. :eek: So I wonder, what does hate mean to you?
When I say I hate someone, I mean I want them dead, torn to pieces, forced to eat their own liver before they croak, missing limbs, driven to insainty, forced to watch their loved ones suffer, and/or in extreme agony. The scary thing is that I hate a lot of people. :eek:
“I hate you”. Aka: “Eat sh!t and die”, “I wish to castrate you with two bricks” and “I will find your ancesteral homes, burn them to the ground and salt the earth”
Around my home, we take the word ‘hate’ very seriously.
I generally reserve the word “hate” for the few people in my life who have done me so much wrong and caused me so much trouble that I truly wish they’d suffer a slow, painful death before descending into hell (an ex-girlfriend comes to mind). For people who just annoy me or haven’t incurred as much of my wrath, I might jusy say, “I can’t stand him” or, “I don’t care for him” or, “I don’t like him.” I don’t go so far as to wish something terrible would happen to them, but I just prefer to avoid them, and at most I’ll just come up with creative insults whenever I talk about them.
I will casually say, “I hate crabgrass” or “I hate pop-up windows,” but I would never say I hated a person unless I really did, and I can’t think of one person I truly hate.
When I say I hate someone, it means I want him or her dead. It means I want to watch as they are slowly tortured to death, preferably by me. It’s not a word I use lightly to describe my feeling for someone.
There were two people who got on my bad side in a really bad way about ten years ago. I hated both of them and wished them all manner of ill fortune. For the first one, six months after our problems his wife died of exposure in the CA desert and six months after that he and his son died in a plane that he was piloting. For the second, he went on to a job of some importance with the State Department, got crosswise with an ambassador and got his ass fired with prejudice. F*ck both of them and anyone who looks like them. What can I say: I’m a grudge-carryin’ SOB.
Hate is a really extreme word for me. I reserve it for perhaps two people in the world, and a very small list of things. I choose not to get that riled up about ordinary irritations.
I’m the same way about “beautiful” and “ugly.” If you call somebody beautiful, and you see somebody tomorrow who’s much better looking than that, what’s left in your bag ‘o’ words? You’ve already used your most powerful compliment!
I’m somewhat inconsistent here.
Speaking to a friend, I may say “oh you have chocolate, I hate you.” in an entirely joking manner.
To someone I’m not friends with, it means that I’d be happy to see them dead, or rendered completely helpless and humiliated.
Its the same with Love. Concerning friends, family, SO, I mean a a fairly insane degree of devotion. concerning my dinner… not so much
Any other people use love/hate to mean the same degree?
I can bandy the word about quite a bit in a joking manner, in which case the joke is very clear. Otherwise, the word is never spoken out loud, but carried inside and hidden. If it’s serious, it means given the opportunity, I’d kill them.
Needless to say, my quest in life is to love everyone.
I generally stick to "I can’t stand … " instead of “hate”. I keep hate for non-living things, generally. Except in the case of hamsters who won’t do their job.
