How we deal with Hate

This article isn’t going to be a fun one. I’m kind of writing it in a bit of a heated feeling of regret and despair. If you want to skip it, I fully understand. Go read one of my other stories. They’re pretty fun and may help take your mind off of these things. Maybe my Humpty Dumpty story will cheer you up. Also, this isn’t an academic report. Don’t use this as a reference for anything. Take the advise at the end, but I’m not the end of all this.

Otherwise…. oh boy.

Let me be angry for a second

I feel like hate is winning the world. Hate for one another based on their race, gender, sexuality, place of birth, their parent’s place of birth, their grand or grand-grand or even further grand parents, or some other dumb category we have managed to put ourselves into. Ones that don’t actually matter at the end of the day but ones we decided actually do. What does it matter than someone is trans? Nothing. What does it matter than someone is black? Nothing. What does it matter whom is sleeping with whom (or who they aren’t sleeping with)? Nothing. Yet we’ve decided it does.

Over the last year or so I’ve seen a lot of good ideas be crushed down because of the most ridiculous arguments. I first noticed it back in October 2023 when my country, Australia, had a voice to parliament referendum. The idea of this was to have an Indigenous Peoples council put into the constitution to refer to when making laws that effect those people. That was it. A voice in parliament. Not a group that could make laws, just ones that could advise it. A great idea for a country that has a massive history of exploitation of our Indigenous, where they have been victims of genocide. It was voted against with the dumbest arguments you could imagine. The main one was “If you don’t know, vote no.” A slogan that, effectively, promoted the idea of stupidity. It said to it’s people that you don’t have to look into it or research or think critically, just be stupid. How ridiculous, right? The idea that you should just vote no because you don’t know? Even when it has been clearly explained by many people what the referendum actually did?

Well it worked. 60% of Australian’s voted against it. Hate and fear won. Sure, there is a bit more to it, but that was the primary driving force.

A few weeks ago, my home state of Queensland had it’s state election. The Labor government delivered a lot of great policies such as a 50 cent public transport fare (helping with the climate and traffic), satellite hospitals (helping ease demand of healthcare), a plan for free school lunches (which would help children feel secure) and a $1000 off electrical bills (which help the rest of us feel secure). All of this funded by taxing a mining industry that previously paid very little back to the state it pulled resources from. Then the Liberal National Party (LNP) came in and said two main things: it would be tough on youth crime (which was already going down) and that it was time for them to be put in charge. What a ridiculous notion, right? Things are going well, so let’s change it to make it worse?

Well it worked. While Labor did better than previously expected (thanks to the above legislation), the LNP still won the election. Hate and fear, once again, won.

I obviously don’t need to mention the other thing that’s causing me to write this. The fact that a good politician promising to deliver hope was crushed by a felon fascist.

All of this leaves me feeling drained and exhausted. The promise of progress is that it happens. That it must happen. We change over time. Yet continually I don’t see it. We just keep going back to that death-spiral of hate and distrust in others because… what, they have a darker skin tone than me? Because they don’t conform to social norms? Because I ‘just don’t feel like it’s the right thing right now’? How can we allow that?

I was on the phone with my Dad yesterday, explaining my fear about what would happen now that the election is over. He tried to tell me it was okay (which I appreciate to an extreme degree). That he remembers when he was practising drills for when the bombs dropped when he was in school. How Reagan was so crazy he might just launch a nuke. That everything was bad, but they made it through. And in a way he is right. Maybe it’s not as bad as the cold war.

But is that really what we need to hear right now? That things could be worse? Because I think they’re gonna be.

Now let’s try to fix it

So what do we do now? How can we tell people that what’s happening is okay? It certainly isn’t, but how can we continue? Because change is inevitable. Progress can happen. Volunteer for a local group, attend council meetings, make your voice heard. In this horrible, horrible world, we can still make a change. That’s not to say it will be easy. It won’t. It will be difficult.

The first thing I would do is let the people who are effected by hate know that you are there and care for them. Let them know they aren’t alone. Help them get through each day if possible. Even just a short message will let them know that they have people they can trust through this period of hate.

The next best thing you can do is organise. Protest. Talk with as many people as possible. Say “This isn’t right” or “This isn’t us” to those who will listen. Force those who let these bad things happen know it is hurting people. Remember, all the ways we describe people are just adjectives. “Black”, “Gay”, “Trans”, “Immigrant”, all of that. All come before the word “Person”. They are human. Make them contend with that. And I mean make them. Don’t back down. They must empathise before they can move on. Before we can all move on.

We just have to force it. We can hope for a better tomorrow.

No images today because it doesn’t deserve one.

All statistics and notes are referenced as links.