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Hate IS Fear
We need to be clear on this
In my recent article, “Why Trump Wins,” I pointed out that the greatest power and the most effective motivator in politics is fear. Some people, understandably, sought to disagree, saying that it is not fear but hate that is behind Trump and his followers’ motivations and actions.
Yes, hatred is certainly present in the MAGA mob and many other political movements — including, sorry to say, many Democrats — but the hatreds that they spew are symptoms of a deeper dis-ease. Hatred is an emotion that springs from the individual weakness that is bigotry, and bigotry is fear.
Fearful Reactions
We all have a natural fear of the Other. How we deal with that fear is the difference between maturity and immaturity and between community and bigotry. A person has bigoted thoughts and feelings because they’ve given in to that fear of the Other.
It takes a degree of courage to accept people for who they are and how they are. It’s easier to deal with and accept people who are similar to oneself. Differences cause tensions between people and not everyone has the wherewithal to deal maturely with those tensions. Bigoted actions, like racism, are fearful reactions to others. Hatred is fearful lashing out against others. People hate because they can’t cope with difference. No, righteous anger is very different, but I will get to that in due course.
To cover up our fears and justify our fearful reactions, we make up stories about others. Actually, we usually don’t need to create our own stories. We can adopt the stories that were made up before us. Prejudicial stereotypes are stories people fabricated to justify their fearful need to think others inferior. We use the stories to convince ourselves that we’re right to fear and hate others.
Our stories tell us that those who are different from us are inferior to us. They are immoral. Stupid. Deviant. Dangerous. We invent names to dehumanize them and brand them with these labels that become profanities and insults. Bigoted labels become weapons powered by fear to harm others and deny them human rights. Labels unite individuals’ fearful reactions into institutional structures like racism and sexism.
