The Uselessness of Hate
It is so convenient to hate strangers online that we never bother to question the futility of it. If the person is from a different country than ours, especially one we already dislike, we spare nothing in delivering our hatred.
Spend an hour on social media and you will likely be enraged. Twitter makes you angry. Instagram and TikTok make you horny, envious, deranged, and sometimes all three at the same time. Facebook makes you stupid. Social media does have a positive side, but the algorithm has no incentive to push such content toward you because your reaction to it is usually calmer.
We like to hate people because we have no understanding of their psychology or their culture. Most of the time, our knowledge of their culture comes filtered through cognitive bias. Since we are already convinced of our hatred, we selectively adopt opinions that oppose them, mistaking those opinions for truth.
This is lazy thinking. The person might genuinely deserve your hatred, but imagine how fucked up it is to spend a significant part of your day hating people you do not even know, all because an algorithm has convinced you that they will harm you.
If they are part of your country and are doing things that are clearly illegal, and you have sufficient evidence, even if circumstantial rather than material, you have every right to talk shit about them. Without that, you are being an idiot and honestly wasting your time.
I am not suggesting that you love strangers. You can be indifferent to them. You do not even need to show empathy. Just remember that every time you choose to engage with hatred online, you are feeding the monster we call the algorithm. It churns out more of the same content, and the cycle of hatred never stops.
One way to get rid of this hatred is to examine everything through a literary lens. Do not consume whatever the media feeds you. Certainly do not consume it uncritically on social media. Pick up a few books, or today, even use an AI tool to examine whether what you hate actually exists in the person or their culture.
Chances are that once you understand their incentives, the source of those incentives, and whether the behavior is systemic or driven by individual malice, you will be in a better position to channel your dislike. Even if you uncover genuine malice, you will know that statistically, every person from the same race or culture cannot be malicious.
We have become far too comfortable dividing the world into left versus right, white versus non-white, and every other classification that grants us moral superiority. History casts one group as the victim and the other as the victor. The victor justifies superiority, while the victim lives inside a revenge fantasy.
This helps neither side. It only fuels discrimination and breeds long-term resentment. Anger has become our favorite emotion, and online, we feel no obligation to behave decently.
This is why reading about other cultures humbles us. We begin to understand why the world is shaped the way it is. It is not about discovering who is superior, but about realizing why that lens no longer works.
The world is already fucked up enough. We are sitting on a pile of dynamite, and unhinged anger is like playing with matches. Stop while there is still time. Hatred is a useless emotion. You do not have to care. You can be indifferent or even apathetic, but hatred has no reason to exist.