# Would You Hate People For Their Politics or Religious Views? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 16, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367 "2012-07-16T01:44:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/41 "2012-07-17T14:39:49Z")
[You asked this on 7/15/2012](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=658681), albeit without poll options. I’m going to copy and paste my reply: Are you talking about people for whom their religious or political views are their most heartfelt views, the core of how they relate to other human beings? Or do you include people who go to the Methodist Church because they have a great choir, they do nice Wednesday night church suppers in which several folks bring impressive foods to the potluck supper, and lots of their friends and neighbors go there so they’re comfortable with the venue? It’s hard not to see Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, or the Southern Baptist Convention as highly distilled if not quite pure incarnations of evil, as abominations in the eyes of God. The combination of ensconcing of and knee-jerk worshiping of an orthodoxy with some truly abhorrent content thereof would make it hard not to hate people who identified with those religions on theological grounds, or even because they wholly endorse the behaviors of the organized bodies of those religions. And yet there are plenty of nice enough individual people who happen to identify as one of those faiths largely for other, ancillary reasons. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/42 "2012-07-17T18:59:26Z")
I have a friend who is a local politician. He was a city councilor for a neighboring city, and is running for mayor. I disagree with his politics. If I lived in his city, I probably wouldn’t vote for him. However, he is still my friend. We met through social channels, and our friendship remains entirely social. We were at his daughter’s wedding, for example. He often invites us to BBQs at his house, which are a lot of fun because he knows a lot of neat people. We rarely talk politics. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/43 "2012-07-17T19:43:31Z")
When people make up crap about the other side (as opposed to just disagreeing with policies) it does make me angry. I understand some people wish to ban abortion, fine. We can be friends. Don’t say “Obama supports infanticide.” I’ll hate you. You want lower taxes, fine, we can be friends. You say Obama thinks Steve Jobs didn’t create Apple, I’ll hate you. You listen to this guy, and believe it, or worse, pretend to believe it for political gain. I could hate you. > [@](#): > > “I think it can now be said, without equivocation — without equivocation — that this man hates this country. He is trying — Barack Obama is trying — to dismantle, brick by brick, the American dream. There’s no other way to put this. There’s no other way to explain this. He was indoctrinated as a child. His father was a communist. His mother was a leftist. He was sent to prep and Ivy League schools where his contempt for the country was reinforced. He moved to Chicago. It was the home of the radical-left movement. He hooks up to Ayers and Dohrn and Rashid Khalidi. He learns the ruthlessness of Cook County politics. This is what we have as a president: A radical ideologue, a ruthless politician who despises the country and the way it was founded and the way in which it became great. He hates it,” - Rush Limbaugh, ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/44 "2012-07-17T20:27:33Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > It depends on the brand and especially on the virulence. > > It’s hard _not_ to hate Fred Phelps. I definitely can relate but feel as if Phelps is excluded from the OP’s description of “more or less mainstream.” All of the people I know personally and it’s not a lot, and most are significantly older than I am, who think being gay is contrary to the Bible think that guy is a jackhole and protesting at funerals and making people’s mamas cry is despicable. My religion teaches “love everybody.” That’s what I try to do. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/45 "2012-07-17T20:33:29Z")
Nope. As long as they are not obnoxious about it. And even then I would be more annoyed than hateful. If their beliefs led them to actively try to harm me then I would bring on the hate. And maybe some wrath. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/46 "2012-07-17T20:35:29Z")
I’m not sure how to define hate. Normally I define it as actively wishing harm on another person. I don’t think I’ve ever hated anyone by that metric. But I do have a really, really hard time with bigots. I don’t want them to be harmed, but sometimes I spend a lot of time thinking angry thoughts at them. Like that recent Pit thread with New Deal Democrat… I was mad about that for large swaths of my day for a couple of weeks straight. Some people really test the limits of my compassion. But push come to shove, I’d help him if he needed it. So, I guess not hate. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/47 "2012-07-17T21:14:05Z")
I go way outa my way to avoid any interactions with religious people, but I don’t hate them. Avoidance works for me. As a business owner, a job applicant who decides to witness during a job interview (it has happened) doesn’t get hired. A client who asks if I’m a Xtian (it happens) is politely advised they should take their business elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/48 "2012-07-17T21:35:56Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > [You asked this on 7/15/2012](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=658681), albeit without poll options. I’m going to copy and paste my reply: I asked it to be locked for that reason. > [@kayaker](#): > > I go way outa my way to avoid any interactions with religious people, but I don’t hate them. > > Avoidance works for me. As a business owner, a job applicant who decides to witness during a job interview (it has happened) doesn’t get hired. A client who asks if I’m a Xtian (it happens) is politely advised they should take their business elsewhere. How religious do they have to be for you to shun them, just anybody who is theistic or somebody who actively tries to convert you or whatnot? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/49 "2012-07-17T21:51:22Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > How religious do they have to be for you to shun them, just anybody who is theistic or somebody who actively tries to convert you or whatnot? Someone who wants to discuss their religion. Life is too short to spend time feigning interest. ---
**Author:** ![dngnb8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@dngnb8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dngnb8)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/50 "2012-07-17T23:40:44Z")
Hate is such a strong term. But I dont even dislike someone because of their personal philosophies. For me to dislike someone, it is because of personal interaction, not because they are a dem/rep or ath/chr ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367/51 "2012-07-18T03:19:45Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > How religious do they have to be for you to shun them, just anybody who is theistic or somebody who actively tries to convert you or whatnot? I’m theistic myself. It has nothing to do with how theistic they are, it’s all about the content. Someone who fervently believes that there is a Set of True Beliefs that you are morally required to adopt, who considers you to be sinfully wrong if you should question those or fail to embrace them, I would consider such a person to be a social menace, a carrier of a very destructive theological perspective. Someone who is fervently theistic but who believes each person has an obligation to do their own seeking, to have their own visions and write their own summations of what constitutes the word of God, on the other hand, I would most happily invite into my home and enjoy their conversation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-hate-people-for-their-politics-or-religious-views/628367.md?page=2)