Over the last few weeks and months there has been something of a war going on in America. To many, the events in Charlotesville and Berkley came as a shock. “People resorting to violence over political disagreements? How unamerican, how far we have fallen” they seem to say. However to those who have been paying attention to the progressively partisan atmosphere over the last few decades will know that this is merely the logical conclusion of the course we have taken.
Hatred is a means of control
Demonizing those who oppose you isn’t a particularity new thing, in fact it’s one of the oldest tactics in human history. During the Second world war, propaganda depicted the Japanese and the Germans as being barbaric and animistic. The Nazi’s claimed the Jews ruled the world and were evil demonic animals. During the Crusades, the Church and the secular governments painted the Arabs as demonic, calming any who would fight them would receive salvation.
Hated is used as a means of control. If you can make the populace hate each other and themselves you can control them, take away their rights in order to protect them from the inhuman bastards you got them riled up over.
Those who have been listening to the rhetoric from the various political leaders, this should seem familiar. Conservative Leaders like Glenn Beck paint their opponents as ruthless killers, as authoritarians seeking to destroy liberty, and as fragile pathetic children who can’t handle opposing speech.
On the left, Hillary Clinton claimed all those who opposed her were sexist pigs, and said they were deplorable. Sanders portrayed Hillary as being corrupt and a puppet for the banks. And the antifascists claim all opposition to their cause is equivalent to supporting fascists and Nazis.
Those in Power use hatred to preserve their Power
The leaders of from both sides of the isle are afraid, they are afraid things like mass surveillance will be opposed. They are afraid crypto is spreading, weakening their hold on the people. They are afraid that the block-chain will remove their control over monetary policy, and make censorship of dissidents impossible. They are scared of us. With these things removing their control over us, they need to convince us that we need them, hence divide and conquer. The oldest and most successful tactic those in power have used to stay in power.
Hatred is a two-way street
These assaults on the humanity of one’s opponents feed into their own assaults in the other direction. Hatred feeds on hatred, and violence feeds off of violence. It’s much harder to dehumanize someone who shows you respect and care, but when they hate you it’s easier. Imagine you get into a fight with a loved one. If you were screaming in their face, but they just stood there and waited until you finished, before calmly responding with care and love, it’s hard to stay mad at them isn’t it? You might never agree with each other, but you can continue to live and work together on other things. However, if they took your anger and threw it back at you, you’d likely respond with more anger. Eventually, you might even get violent with each other, and before long you are seeking divorce.
This is true of all human relationships. Verbal Anger can lead to physical violence, and the only way to stop it is to stop the feedback of anger. Antifa, by using violence against the Alt-Right, is fueling the growth of those they hate. Nazism is a political philosophy that needs an enemy to grow, it was born from facism but took it to an extreme few would have ever considered. It cannot exist without an enemy to combat. This is also true of the rise of Antifa. When you examine Antifa, what separates them from other Liberal movements? Hated. This hatred allows for the powers that be to offer to save us from the violence and hatred they helped to form.
Why do they do this?
Well, it's not that they are evil, they are human. Once we have something we don't want to lose it, and we want more of it. Give a child an ice cream cone, and they won't give it back. In fact, they will demand more ice cream, and demand it more often. The child isn't anymore evil than those in power, this is just a natural inclination.
Hatred and Freedom are incompatible
The only way to end the violence, to end hatred, is by spreading peace and love, reminding our enemies that we are all human. and we have one world which we all share. If we fail, then freedom is doomed. 9/11 was used to justify mass surveillance, which in turn was used to aid in ISIS propaganda, which was used as justification to silence "Hate Speech" and to justify banning cryptography. Abraham Lincoln suspended Habis Corpus because of the civil war, and the Nazis justified the Holocaust with their hatred of the Jews. If we are to protect freedom, we must voluntarily de-escalate our hatred and our rhetoric, lest we let our hatred blind ourselves to the loss it.