As with the word “love,” the word “hate” has become so broad as to be vacuous and nearly meaningless. Today, hate covers everything from distaste to disagreement. If you don’t like McDonald’s does it naturally follow that you hate the hamburger chain? If you never stop on the radio dial at the classical music station am I to assume you hate Mozart, Chopin, and Beethoven? If you believe in limited government does it follow that you hate proponents of big government? Do conservatives hate liberals? If you are an atheist is it correct to assume you hate Christians? Do protestants hate Roman Catholics? Do evangelical Christians hate homosexuals?
It seems we have come to the point in time and culture where disagreement and/or dissent has come to be normatively equated to “hate.” If you do not warmly embrace whatever the person across from you prefers and enjoys then you are a hater. What kind of nonsense is this? If you go to school in the city you have to hate the county schools? If you are a fan of one team you have to hate the fans of all the other teams? If you are black you have to hate whites? If you are a Democrat you have to hate Republicans?
This is insanity. Political/cultural/religious correctness has become the modern-day statue of Nebuchadnezzar wherein refusal to bow and worship is taken as an open act of hostility and rebellion. And that means the burning fiery furnace. “What do you mean you don’t agree?” “Who do you think you are?” “How dare you!” “Hater! Hater! We’ve got a hater over here!”
I thought about going the highbrow scholarly academic type route in my assessment of this kind of outlook on life by using words like “sophomoric,” “uneducated,” and “irresponsible.” However, I really do not think that people who accuse everyone who disagrees with them of being hateful give one whit about those words when it comes to what they think of people who would dare hold different views and be willing to debate them. So I’ll just use the word that truly reveals what I think about this kind of attitude: (wait for it).
That’s right I am willing to get down in the muck and mire to wallow in this ridiculous notion that if I don’t support your views I must be a hate-filled person. How is it that those who are quickest to dole out the hate moniker do so in the name of diversity? How ignorant can one be? “I embrace the concept of diversity so much that if your views on religion, government, and sexuality are different from mine then it must be because you are a hater!” Seriously?
Just because I oppose the legitimization and normalization of homosexuality does not mean I hate a single homosexual. Just because I oppose big government does not mean I hate a single Democrat. Just because I oppose open borders doesn't it doesn't mean that I hate everyone who wants to come to America. Just because I am breathing a sigh of relief that Kamala Harris didn't win the presidential election doesn't mean I am a misogynist or a racist.
I am not advocating some kind of go-along-to-get-along pablum either. Some people are wrong about a few things and others are wrong about a lot of things. Everyone is wrong about something. Being wrong about something doesn’t equate to being a hater. But it is a whole lot easier to say the person who disagrees with you does so because he has a rotten heart than it is to take the time to articulate your own view and how it is more helpful and beneficial than his.
People are wrong about things for a wagonload of reasons. We can be wrong because we received faulty instructions. We can be wrong because of conditioning. We can even be wrong because we choose to be (“if loving you is wrong I don’t want to be right…”). What no one can do with even a smidgeon of intellectual integrity is say or suggest that the other person is wrong because he or she is filled with hate without first having engaged in meaningful dialog and conversation.
When allegations of “hate” come from adults who use it to characterize those who disagree with them simply because they disagree with them, it is evidence of being "slow of mind…given to unintelligent decisions or acts...lacking in intelligence or reason." In other words, Webster's definition of "stupid."
