Make America Hate Again

I have been trying to find some compassion for people who are politically conservative.  But I can't find it.

It is no easy thing to be human, but human we are.  Conservatives turn their back on their own reality, on their own humanity, and leave it on the curb like so much rubbish.  They call me weak and silly; the solution is Destruction! Death! Total Annihilation!! They mock me for having feelings, for treating the other - the enemy - as fellow humans.

Finding compassion for others shouldn't be an insurmountable task.  Why can't conservatives hold their fellow humans to be worthwhile, worthy of love, worthy of just being?  Where is the morality in the denial of one's own humanity.  Why is love to be rationed out; grasped so tightly as though it might escape, never to return, if it is given to the wrong person? How dare they claim the moral high ground for promoting hate and fear, and rejecting love, compassion, and understanding. How dare they project their suffering and venality onto others.  How dare they act as though they are not the ones in need of help.

What they ask of me is hate, and I can't find it. 

Fear leads to anger; Anger leads to hate; Hate leads to suffering.

Hate is a visceral feeling that both drills into someone while at the same time erupting from within them. It is the ultimate border wall between whatever group you call your own and everyone else. When you hate a group you reduce that group to a vague "they" and "them", something less than human. And hating an entire group is a stupid thing to do regardless of who is doing it to whom. Yes, that means even Jews hating Nazis.

You do not get to think of and/or treat another group of people as less than human if you intend to feel good about yourself. Everyone watch Serenity? No? Then ignore this part. But for those that did, remember that the Operative fully understood that he did not belong in his own ideal world, that he was part of the problem. If you are going to fully understand and internalize that you are not a good person, then go ahead and reduce entire groups of people to less than human. If not, fuck off. And if you recognize that you are not a good person and are doing nothing to change that, you can fuck off too.

I hate double standards. And the first thing to remember when getting rid of them is that you are not special. You/your group does not get a pass because your situation is unique. You are not inherently better or worse than those you hate. After some time goes by, you may even believe that you are on the wrong side.

If compassion were easy I could springboard into a pool full of jello whenever I wanted. But I can't and it isn't. Like anything else worth doing it requires effort. And the effort required is not sitting down and lamenting the fact that no list can be made to support compassion for whatever group. The effort is not related to trying to go forth proselytize toward that group. The effort is making yourself aware of your own thoughts and gut instincts and working to change them. The effort is consciously making the choice to remember that we are all human, that not only is no one is born evil but that everyone has been walking a path that has led them to where they are now and that were you in their shoes, you may have ended up in exactly the same place.

America has never stopped hating. People will never stop hating. But maybe with a little self-awareness, we can check that hate before it goes too far. Again.