Why So Much Hate?

The haters are no longer in control. And, being out of control, politically, they feel “out-of-control”, psychologically. There is a huge psychological/psychodynamic 3-way correlation between the need for control, hate, and self-hatred. Fear, too, is right up there, in the mix. Fear, terror, panic – and their response to these intolerable emotions is to project them onto and create them in others, especially those who they perceive to be outsiders. Thus, extreme religious, right-wing whites hate and go after minorities. They see themselves as separate from non-whites and non-haters. They can’t even understand themselves, so they certainly can’t understand others who are not like themselves. The more “foreign” someone is, the more they are not understood, and are feared and hated – and, are “warranted”* targets for attack. This externalization of the “villains” or “culprits” is a primal and primitive defense of self-deception, to avoid the most intolerable truth that it is they who hate themselves most of all and are actually the biggest threat to themselves and the rest of the world. They see a black man as President and can’t help but see that we (as non-haters) have wrested the political world away from control of the haters, and they are in panic, in terror, and feel desperately that they have to terrorize others to assuage that which they are in denial of feeling, themselves. Repression is another primitive defense in which they commonly engage. They are as far from self-aware as anyone can be. They consciously and (more often) unconsciously, lie to themselves and others, and do their best to twist reality and the truth around as far as their tiny heads can manage. They kill or “justify” those who do, as they claim to support the “right to life”. They do their best to terrorize our society in the name of religious righteousness, as they rail against Muslim terrorists and fail to see the similarities between themselves and “other” fanatics.

Our job, as people who want to improve the world and not destroy it is to refuse to be terrorized – not to give in to fear or attempted intimidation. The antidote is courage and resolve that we must continue to act with confidence and knowledge that by firmly remaining on a progressive path, the world will, indeed, be better. Eventually, they will calm down and see that things are better for them, too, and we can enjoy actual prosperity.

*Quotes indicate terms used to represent their point of view, rather than my own.