I only feel sorry for weak people. And mostly what I’ve come to find is that the weak people are the ones that are the haters.
- R. Kelly
When you write an article about anything, trolls use the comments to attack. They feel frustrated - but haters are losers. It’s not good to feed this aspect. It’s more intelligent to be constructive.
- Paulo Coelho
There I was, traipsing merrily across the vast reaches of hyperspace, when it hit me. I’ve been feeling a vague sense of unease recently, and I wasn’t altogether certain what I could attribute it to. Turns out that there’s a tremendous amount of negative energy out there these days, and I realized what had been troubling me was the recognition of that. Not that things are any different than usual, of course; the Internet isn’t where one would normally go for affirmation, but for whatever reason I felt more aware of the negativity and bad mojo.
I became more conscious of a growing sense of unease with the passage of Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. When, I wondered, did the right to practice one’s religion become so degraded that a law was needed to “restore” that right? Why did those who consider themselves Christians do a very un-Christian thing by legalizing discrimination? And why do so many Christians believe that their faith not only allows them to discriminate, but that they SHOULD discriminate against those who offend their holier-than-thou religious beliefs?
On the surface, it might seem counter-intuitive to think of Christianity- a religion whose teachings really do focus on love, tolerance, and acceptance- as so laser-focused on hatred, intolerance, and exclusion. Yet when I look around, what I see is strife, suffering, and anger directed from one person to another over religious/philosophical/ideological differences. Spend any time at all on the Internet and what you’ll see is a ragefest- people addicted to anger and umbrage and who see nothing wrong with trashing others online because they dare to disagree with the Truth. As one of my brothers is wont to tell me, “Truth is hate to those who hate the truth.” It’s been said that fundamentalism is the sound of a mind slamming shut; this is why respect seems in such short supply these days.
Somewhere along the line, perhaps ‘round about the time of the advent of the Internet, we lost our collective ability to treat others with respect and dignity. Now we have a forum predicated on anonymity that allows those filter-less souls so inclined to loose the dogs of wrath on those who dare to think differently.
As a way of illustrating my point, a random sampling of one of my go-to sites:-Raw Story- yielded several examples of what I’m referring to:
‘Give it up, a—hole!’: Tennessee Republican shouts at health care protester
Idaho Republican’s bigoted anti-Muslim mass email has state party furiously backtracking
Pat Robertson tells anti-LGBT pizza shop owners to shut up: This is about ‘cake-bakers’
Sen. Tom Cotton says Indiana’s anti-LGBT law could be worse: Iran executes their gays!
Florida taxpayer-funded school: ‘Awesome God’ wanted lesbian teacher fired for ‘lifestyle choices’
Confederate group will fly 32 battle flags over MLK Drive at Civil War memorial in Texas town
Fox guest: Keep discrimination legal because Bible tells businesses not to hire atheists
Ohio students charged with hateful graffiti targeting everyone but straight, white, Christian men
Tom DeLay: I have a ‘right’ to not serve gay sinners because they ‘undermine’ my religious liberty
How can a reasonable person hope to have a rational discussion with anyone so consumed by hate and self-superiority? When someone tells you with a straight face they don’t discriminate AND that they won’t provides goods or services to another individual because of their lifestyle and sexuality, it’s difficult to break through the wall of hypocrisy. That sort of epic lack of self-awareness means they simply don’t recognize their dishonesty and lack of integrity…and the likelihood of that problem resolving itself is almost nil.
When people vilify one another on the Internet because they can and because they know they’ll suffer no recourse, we’ve lost our ability to show empathy and kindness. We excel at finding ways to separate ourselves one from another based on artificial constructs. Even worse, we’ve lost sight of the truth that our similarities are far more numerous and significant than our differences ever could be. Some among us simply don’t feel relevant if they can’t elevate themselves over others based on things that shouldn’t matter.
Turns out that we excel at hating, but we collectively suck when it comes to loving other human beings. It’s been said that we can rise together or fall separately…and it looks as if there’s little doubt as to which path we’ve chosen. I’d like to think there’s hope for humanity, but there at times like this I can feel that faith wavering.
