Summary Of What's So Bad About Hate By Andrew Sullivan

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Andrew Sullivan suggests the origins of hate to be evolutionary in his article, “What’s So Bad about Hate?” If hate really is “hard wired,” then that would mean all of the hubbub about obliterating hate is just about as useless as trying to obliterate opposable thumbs. Sullivan’s statement carries so much meaning because it illustrates such a nasty concept with an air of tolerance that is rarely ever considered. He proposes that instead of fighting hate, we accept hate for what it is: an integral part of the human experience. Instead of fighting, we should focus our energy on tolerating hate, and through toleration we can achieve much more than we ever did by trying to combat our very nature. If Sullivan’s observations are correct, then one …show more content…

The punishment of a crime should not be determined by the motivation for the crime, yet that is exactly what hate crime legislation does. It places emphasis on a crime for the wrong reasons. Hate crimes victimize more than just the victims, and this is why the punishments are more severe, but Sullivan argues that any crime victimizes more than the victims. He suggests that random crimes with no prejudice in place can be perceived as something even more frightening, as the entire community feels threatened instead of just a group. Proven in Sullivan’s article is the worthlessness of the “hate” label. I would agree that it only serves to further discriminate, instead of achieving the peace and equality that it pretends to stand …show more content…

We were raised to believe snakes were scary, and we saw our parents, friends, and movie stars get scared by snakes, so our brain figures that it would be a good idea to get scared of snakes too. I assure you that if a person had been raised with only positive encounters with Jewish people and Jewish names, and had not been subjected to any previous prejudice from any other individual about the Jewish people, then he would be completely baffled as to why there lies such negative connotation for the Jewish name. Everyone has their own prejudices, but the negative prejudices stand out the most because negativities are far more interesting to us. That’s why you’ve never heard of a positive rumor being started. It’s always about how someone did something bad. Nobody wants to spread the rumor that Steve is a genuine fellow. It’s much more exciting to talk about how Steve had an

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