The End of (Believing in) Hate

 I no longer believe in hate as some type of motivational principle. Slogans like "End hate" always sounded so silly to me and I think the reason is: I never believed in hate. Such slogans are attempts to treat the symptom rather than the cause.

I believe that hate is the manifestation of the former of the "fight or flight" reflex. And I believe that reflex is ignited by fear. So you could say that I just believe that hate is a response to fear.

One of my idealist beliefs is that we all share certain human emotions. And when someone acts in a way that seems stupid or evil, you should look for the common human emotion that causes it rather than lazily relying on something banal like hate, racism, or power--things that only bad guys do. If the motives you attribute to someone's behavior are not motives that play out in your life, then they probably aren't their motives either.

I believe that the alt-right's nationalistic, anti immigrant sentiment isn't about hatred and racism. I think it's about fear. I think that what they call "patriotism" is the feeling that America is a sense of their identity and they fear that they are losing that sense of identity. It's probably a good place to explain to them how black people feel about cultural appropriation. 

When black progressives talk about “code switching” and “white spaces”, I think they are talking about the fear of losing their identity. I think it is the same fear nationalists have toward immigrants; they worry outside cultures are entering their spaces and threatening to erode their identity. Either people's behavior is rooted in the same human emotions, or we start to believe something that sounds like race science.

I don't think AOC's "Tax the Rich" sentiment is born our of a hatred of billionaires or jealousy of their success. I think she fears that people won't be able to escape poverty without help and that the 1 percent are sitting on piles of help that could change the lives of those living in poverty.

If you diagnose hate, you treat it with censorship. Which never works. If you diagnose fear, you treat it with understanding. Which is harder work than censorship, but it's win-win in the end.