I don’t understand “lazy” hatred. I don’t understand hating something just because you can. Put another way, the “reason” I didn’t like Miley Cyrus or Nickleback had nothing to do with how well I knew the words to Wrecking Ball or Photograph. I did it because I was young, and that was a “cool” cliché thing to do. Am I fan of “I’m like a cool rebel” pissing in the street or albums where I can’t really tell the difference between songs? Not particularly, but now at least we’re talking about slivers of what might be understood about a given artist.
Aren’t there so many things worth hating that you could be just as lazy about? Can’t you like hate fascism before you tell me what Trump did for Black colleges? Then, at least before we pretend you’re going straight to Politifact after saying so, we’ve at least picked an appropriately shared and coherent frame from which to discuss the nature of influence and power.
Can’t you just hate disease? My god, how quick we could have gotten through the pandemic if people just hated being sick! You want to pretend you’re not living among modern day miracles of technology and knowledge before you just lazily hate the idea of being sick? I hate being sick so much I chug Nyquil and sleep until I’m done coughing! You think I won’t get as many shots as I need to avoid losing lung capacity altogether?
Can’t you just hate evil? Can’t you hate it when the evilest thoughts creep into your mind about what you might do to yourself or other people? Can’t you hate that you have practically no control over what your mind is going to make you think in any given moment? Can’t the atrocity that is your potential, or wasted potential, and the evil it lends itself to be worth a million memes?
Or pick any major atrocity happening exactly right now that needs no “both sides” argument. Chinese internment camps spring to mind. Mandatory minimum sentencing. The environmental disregard of basically any major company. How do all of those slip between your fingers before Jordan Peterson?
How do you justify the energy, the shares, the likes, the smirks and “lols” for a position weaved together via meme? Is that not indication enough you might be a touch batshit? Like, you know, not like some difficult “know” like just what percentage of gay you might be. You know explicitly if you’ve read someone’s book or watched their lectures. And when you haven’t, that’s what will prompt you to chime in? You saw the comic? You have meme groups dedicated to your hatred?
This shit isn’t even hard, and you’re like getting worse at it as you get older. Here’s a few clues you have no idea what you’re talking about:
1. You’re completely unwilling or unable to quote from the people/thing/example you’re bitching about.
2. Your entire position rests on personal experience, support from a raucous peanut gallery, and memes.
3. You are perfectly unable to check the sources of your information, dare you share an article or two, against any actual fact-checking publication or publication that detracts.
We don’t need to go on all day, because most people are “arguing” via meme spam, silence, and unfriending well before we discover that mental health problems are also a growing concern as we age.
My theory, people hate themselves. They hate themselves so much, they do this hate performance so their lived reality more aligns with their basest conception of who they believe themselves to be.
They’re taken out of context all the time! So fuck everyone else, they don’t deserve a fair shake. Their good ideas are ignored or resented. Time to take idiot-proof truisms and turn them into “You’re a Nazi!” You have to obliterate meaning and respectable conversation when you don’t mean anything to yourself or respect what it means to be alive. You’ll teach your kids to do the same, passing trauma and lazy abusive cliches. It’s the circular-logic of life.
I’m particularly sensitive to this notion of hating for no reason because I think it underpins so much of the bullshit I catch or “friendships” I never really had. You know what I haven’t liked or “hated” about the people in my life? Stealing from me. Leaving me to clean up after them. Lying to me. You know, things, that happened, or cost me something or measure of distress that, in theory, weren’t just about their “personality.” I wasn’t made “uncomfortable” by exes or things people said. I couldn’t handle getting screamed at for no reason or the consequences of self-harm. You know, SHIT THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
It’s never seemed to matter to onlookers my intent, version of events, or attempts to reconcile. I’m just the enemy. I hate that, have always hated that, and will continue to. I don’t think anyone deserves to be treated like that, not Nickleback, not the prisoners I’m going to be counseling regarding their addiction, and not you, wound up in whatever hateful narrative that grants you license to do it others. It’s a sickness, both in heart and head. I know my mom is sick like that. Do I hate her more than I respect what I’ve learned about that illness? Have I shared a million memes about my childhood? Like, I read a fuck of psychology and philosophy books, and keep my distance after delineating what about her illness I don’t want infecting me.
You owe it to yourself to carry on like more than a lazy fucking cunt and idiot. And if you don’t, I’ll be the first to recognize and point out how bad you're hiding what you're really saying under that cough.
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