Often I write for my subscribers but sometimes I write for the confused, perhaps lost internet surfer who on their own would have never stopped at my site. Today, of all days, I decided to write for them.
You see I have been thinking a lot lately about humanity. I have concluded that hate is a habit. More than that, it is a poison that afflicts both the target and the aggressor.
In the mid-2000’s, there was a huge break, a fault line really, develop over LGBTQ rights. Many Democrats left the party over it. The Republicans have successfully taken this issue to drive wedges into the electorate, to their benefit, for more than two decades.
I frequently hear, “I don’t believe in being gay,” and I wonder what exactly they are talking about. I promise you, homosexuality is not like the tooth fairy; it is real. It isn’t up to you to believe in it, it exists. Similarly, the love associated with it is also real. It is not imagined nor is it something one should dismiss.
But in this country, we frequently have trouble distinguishing between “my freedom” and “our freedom.” Conservatives are particularly bad about this, because while they go around in Charlie Kirk T-shirts with “Freedom” printed on them, it is a very narrow definition of freedom they support. They generally don’t support women’s rights, they generally don’t accept integration, they are steadfastly against immigration.
Now all sorts of excuses might be made for these regressive beliefs, but none of them hold water. The truth is if you lack education on a subject, the reality of the subject may intimidate. It may cause fear. A fundamental lack of understanding often breeds hate.
There is a great Twilight Zone episode where humanity destroys a gift from an alien out of fear. The gift? The cure for every disease known to man. Rod Serling asked a simple question, one that echoes throughout my soul to this day. If aliens are real why does mankind automatically assume they harbor ill-intent?
Why? Why does a young gay couple threaten a heterosexual male? Why does that male need to project masculinity as if it were a laser beam containing proof of his sexuality? There are volumes of psychology written about this, and much of it suggests repressed feelings, but often I feel it is simply a function of not understanding the markedly different person from themselves.
And so, lacking understanding, a foolish person will reject. They will exclude. They will not ask questions, they will simply regurgitate whatever answers are most convenient. Eventually, convinced of their own superiority, they will begin to hate. They will hate gays, they will hate a trans woman, they will hate a black man, or a Latino. They will hate women in power. They will hate another city’s football team. You see hate itself becomes a lifestyle. It is easy. It is so declarative it takes not a moment of critical thinking or self-reflection. It is the ultimate all-purpose self-defense mechanism.
But you can’t stop easily, once you start. Once you get that first tangy, salty bite of hate, once you experience that crunch, it becomes harder to put the bag of Fox News, or Newsmax, or the pernicious Facebook algorithms down. You want that crunch. You need it. You become wired to have your endorphins run on it.
But eventually, you can’t stop yourself. Your hatred consumes, it becomes an entity unto itself, until finally, one day, you have nothing left to hate that will satisfy your need for a fix. You have no more letters to write or words to scream. No more protests to attend. No more “others” to blame. And so you will find, that in the end the universe kept an accounting of every arrow, bullet, or poison tipped dart of hate you ever shot. And when there are no more bridges to burn, or rainbow flags to burn, or rope to hang on trees, there is only one source to turn to, to find that last tangy, salty, crunchy bite your now depraved mind has to get a fix for:
Yourself.
And that accounting I mentioned?
Guess who will receive an express delivery?
-Todd
