Why We Hate

April 23, 2023

First Aired: October 18, 2020

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The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the number of hate groups operating in the U.S. has risen to a record high. There has also been a corresponding increase in hate crime violence. So where does all this hate come from? Do we hate others because we feel a deeper sense of alienation or fear towards them? Is hating always the wrong response, or is there an appropriate kind of hate? Can we love and hate at the same time? And what’s the difference between hate and other reactive attitudes like anger, disgust, and contempt? Josh and Ray shake off the haters with Berit Brogaard from the University of Miami, author of Hatred: Understanding Our Most Dangerous Emotion.

Ray and Josh explore whether hate is itself a bad thing, and whether it is useful or solves anything. They ask whether there is a difference between hating a person and hating a concept or thing, like racism or a toaster. Ray thinks hatred could be good–it might help us fight for change–but Josh worries that hating always ends poorly.

The hosts are joined by guest Berit Broogard, professor of philosophy at the University of Miami and author of Why We Hate. Berit defines hate by starting with anger. Josh asks how hate differs from condemnation, and Berit notes that hate has an element of apprehensive respect while contempt involves looking down on someone. Berit argues that it is only sometimes wrong to hate, specifically when hatred is retaliatory and dehumanization. The conversation then shifts to hatred as healing. Berit and Josh discuss how sometimes hating your oppressor you help you reassert your status, which is a theme among certain civil rights activists. Berit agrees with Josh that it is difficult to keep healing hatred from becoming corrosive.

In the final part of the show, the hosts ask what is causing the rise in hatred, Berit believes it is the glorification of a white supremacist past. Finally, they discuss Berit’s views on speech regulation–pushing back against philosopher Jeremy Waldron, she maintains that hate speech is not group libel, since libel concerns false claims about someone and hate speech, such as slurs, are neither true nor false–they are not about facts.

Roving Philosophical Report (Seek to 5.20): Shereen Adel explores factors that lead people to join and leave hate groups and how hate groups peak when discontent and protest emerge.
Sixty Second Philosopher (Seek 46.36): Ian Shoales talks about hatred between liberals and conservatives, and how hatred has become uncool.