It seems to me that are not allowed to dislike people on basis of race, sexual preference, religion, gender, or nationality. All very well and good. Are we allowed to hate individuals who deserve hate (the recently dead bigot comes to mind)? Are we allowed to hate him because he was a proponet of hate?
Alright, I’m starting to sound like my dad. Are there any categories of people whom can be hated without qualification. Pedo- and ephebiphiles spring to mind.
Well, you’re allowed to hate whoever you want. It’s when you act on these feelings of hatred that bad stuff can happen. Just realize, if you do hate a certain group of people, and make that known, people might change their opinions of you.
Those whose actions are evil are deserving of hatred, as in your example of the asshole who wrote the Turner Diaries and pedophiles, and ephebiphiles. I would guess from the tone of the OP that you know this, though.
Ideally, no one. Hatred, even of someone who deserves it, is dangerous – more because of what it does to you than because of what it does to the person. A teacher of mine once said, “Hate is burning down a house to kill a rat.”
Being human, though, we fall short of the ideal. So if you must hate, hate only individuals who deserve it. A person can only be judged for their own actions, not those of their group/culture/family/nation.
Um, why do you have to hate anyone? I mean, you can, but why is it so important?
I think you can hate someone for being a jerk without making it personal. Hell, I remember readin To Kill a Mockingbird, and in one part towards the end, Scout and Atticus are listening to the radio, and they’re talking about Hitler. Atticus turns off the radio in disgust, and Scout asks him, “Why are you so upset about Hitler?” Atticus replies because Hitler is a madman.
And Scout then says, “But it’s okay to hate Hitler, right?”
“No. It’s not okay to hate anyone.”
And you might say-well, if you can’t hate HITLER, who can you hate?
I think it’s more, don’t let HATE define how you feel. Hate what they are, what they stand for, etc. But don’t blind yourself with hate.
Why would a person hate another on the basis of race, religion, or sexual preference when there are so many other legitimate reasons to hate someone?
Of course, hate always is harder on the hater than the hatee. For example, I can think of a person or two who probably hate me (and probably for good, legitimate reasons). But it doesn’t bother me. And why should it? Doesn’t effect me in the least.
You can hate pedophiles or murders all you want. But if it doesn’t bother them, then it is a wasted effort on your part.
Please provide a cite where someone was hated on this board for posting an ‘unapproved’ opinion. Furthermore, please provide the SDMB’s list of approved opinions.
If membership to a group is voluntary (such as neo-Nazis or Al Qaida), then hating them is more permissible, since (one assumes) the members made a conscious choice to adopt the opinions and attitudes that we find offensive. But if membership is involuntary (such as nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, and to a large extent religion) then generalizing can be very dangerous, since those populations are likely to contain a huge amount of variation – and plenty of good people along with the bad.
To be safe, I would try to avoid hating groups altogether and focus on individuals and their actions. I agree with those who believe hate is counterproductive and unnecessary. Unfortunately it’s a basic human emotion and it will never go away.
I associate hate with anger, and I don’t like the fact that our culture discounts these emotions. Not only are they natural and unavoidable, but they can also inspire a person to act. I get accused of getting angry and worked up over things, but I’m also a person who tries to make things better.
That said, I think it’s only OK to hate people who are truly evil. Luckily, few people fit this description.
It is always ok to hate the Nazi’s. Like the new “Sum of all fears” move. The movie was made before 9/11. The movie makers changed the original Tom Clancy plot where arabs where the terrorists (since proven to be an entirely unrealistic senario :rolleyes: )
Instead of using the original arabs as bad guys, they changed it to Neo-Nazi’s as bad guys. Basically, they are the only people it’s ok to pick on these days.
Hatred, like all emotions, is a tool whose purpose it is to direct behavior and thus change the world. The greater the power and utility of a tool, the more dangerous it is. Hatred is a very powerful tool, and is therefore very dangerous. That doesn’t mean that it should not be used.
Hate whoever and whatever you like, but choose the targets of your hatred carefully.
Like chula, I associate hate with anger, and I am definitely NOT an angry-type person. I sometimes find people or their actions annoying, distateful, rude, or downright mean. But I still cannot think of anyone that fills me with hate.
There ARE people I avoid like the plague, though.
I think it’s OK to hate wasps, and especially hornets; they are agressive evil mindless bastards that are beyond redemption.
Sorry if I’m upsetting any of you that have friends who are Hymenoptera, but that’s just how I feel; don’t try to change me.
You know, I have to question the use of the word hate. I think people misuse it sometimes when they say hate is being directed against a person.
Suppose Paul Smith of Belfast is a devout Protestant. He tells you that he “hates” the Catholic residents of Belfast, for various vague reasons. Suppose Joey O’Doyle is a Catholic resident of Belfast that Paul Smith does not know of. If Paul Smith doesn’t know Joey exists, can he really be said to hate Joey?
I think it’s more fitting to describe this as hating an idea. Paul hates the idea of Catholics in Belfast, hates the things he believes that group represents, and the character traits of those people that he presumes they possess. If he can’t even have a thought about Joey, since he doesn’t know of Joey’s existence, how can he form a hateful thought about him as a person?
So I think you can only be said to hate a person if you know of that specific person. Any generic labelling of a class of people, when you do not know the full content of that class, cannot be the target of personal hatred. We hate individuals for individual reasons, and when we say we hate a class of people we simply mean that we hate what that class represents to us as an idea.
So it seems logical to me to conclude that the only people you can hate are people you know personnally and dislike. You can hate as many ideas as you wish, including the ones mentioned herein such as pedophilia.
Hatred is a double-edged sword that always hurts the wielder. If acted upon it is returned tenfold, and if it not acted upon it will eventually destroy the soul.-M. Ishmael