Hate

2. Intractable Conflict Threat and Opportunity

A lot of attention is being paid to hate and hate-speech at the societal level. People labeled "racist" are said to hate blacks or other people of color; people labeled "homophobes" are said to hate homosexual or transsexual people. Antisemites hate Jews. And more and more, Democrats hate Republicans and Republicans hate Democrats. This is, of course, a huge problem at the societal level, and it is contributing in a big way to hyper-polarization.  

But it is a big problem at the individual level as well.  When we decide we hate another person, either because of something they said or did, or because of the race or gender or religion other type of group they belong to, it makes it impossible to work with them. It makes one fear them and it makes mutual understanding extremely difficult, even when you share commonalities or reasons to work together. 

And like other negative emotions, hateful attitudes tend to drive hateful behaviors, which then tend to drive either defensive or offensive (often hateful) responses, and the positive feedback spiral makes the situation worse and worse.

Resources on this Topic

To see all Guide Resources on this topic, scroll within the resource box below.
Stars indicate resources that we think are especially useful.