Hatred is bad for your health

Having always hated the concept of hatred, I all too often find myself giving into it.

My hatred extends to (most) Republican politicians, teabagger idiots, blue dog Democrats, and especially the billionaires who own us all and can spend whatever is necessary to achieve their goals.

The reason I hate them is not only because they’ve destroyed much of the America we’ve known, but because they’re far from finished. They want to destroy the rest of whatever exists of Democracy. They want it all. And there doesn't seem to be any way to stop them.

Whenever I find myself drowning in hatred, I pull back, mentally change the subject, and find something positive on which to focus.

But here’s the point of this post. Every time I find myself indulging this hatred, I feel physically ill. When I turn it off, I start to feel a whole lot better. And when I walk away from politics for a while, I feel downright great.

I get the idea that I’m not the only one who goes through these cycles. But one thing of which I’m certain is that hatred is self-destructive. I resent the fact that I allow the ignorant and/or vicious, greedy people of this world to influence my mental well being. And I intend to do everything possible to fight them while suppressing my hatred.

So here’s my question. Does this happen to you? And if so, how do you deal with it?

That's natural human instinct. I'm not one of those self-righteous people who claim to have no hate in me. I will never care for those who go out to screw over the little guy, hurt those are care about, and destroy everything in their path.

At least I'm honest about who I am.

I don't know any way to stop it, and only have distractions to slow it down.

It doesn't look like America can be saved, so neither can those of us who cared about it.

Everybody hates something and/or someone. Thats human nature. Half has good reasons and half is blitheraling pointless. But still it is human nature. Nothing we can do about it.

Malicious selfishness and cruelty just make me want to shred people, obviously, but I also have a personal loathing for obnoxiously judgemental types. Nearly all of them are the biggest bunch of hypocritical schmucks you've ever seen, but man oh MAN, how they LOOOOOOVE to point out everybody else's faults and flaws. You find them on both sides of the political spectrum, and I swear, nothing pisses me off more than to witness that particular variety of Smug Smarmy Asshole.

Other than that, I'm a happy little sunflower.

But, you're right, living in a constant state of hate and fear (same thing, really) for so long that one is no longer aware that doing so is not normal has to grind on a person. There is no way all that stress can be healthy. Plus, it is no way to go through life. Hate other races or ethnicities, gays, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, liberals, liberated women, unions, intellectuals, non-Christians and what exactly is left? Not much.

:evilgrin:

apathy is not, after all, the only alternative to hatred.

I'm not around actual Republicans very much at all. I've designed my life that way. However, as one close family member is dating one of the aforementioned vermin, I must put on a completely fake display of civility towards him when I am forced to be in his company. Meanwhile, I'm seething on the inside and thinking bad thoughts about him all the while.

I've hated 3 people in my life so far and it's because they have wronged me in ways that were meant to not only hurt me but my family too. When it's that personal, yes, I hate.

I do however, let it go because it made me into something I didn't like.

So, yes I hate but I don't let it run my life. I like being happy more.

and to some degree you are being stirred up. Why, for example, do you hate teabaggers? I claim that you are being encouraged to hate teabaggers by some posters on DU and also by KeithO, Rachel, Tweety and Eddie and other commentators and writers on the pseudo-left. When you are in a crowd engaging in three minutes of hate, it is hard to resist.

You don't have to let others tell you to hate. Or fear. Fear, after all, is a mind killer. We have nothing to fear, except fear itself - and spiders - and death - and cancer - and now, bedbugs.

Often, people seem to look for reasons to hate. Not only teabaggers, but even DUers (of course, we KNOW, that some DUers are REALLY teabaggers in disguise). They take what somebody said, and interpret it to mean something really heinous. "You said that? That means you are a really vile racist, or sexist, or homophobe, or xenophobe." "You said that? That means you want gay people to be put to death."

Ir is easy enough to find, in my opinion, since nobody is without some bigotry or prejudice. Although when we have somebody on the pillory and are casting stones or aspersions at him, we like to pretend that WE are as pure as the driven snow.

And I suppose I should apologize for that racist metaphor.


(Why, after all, is the snow so pure?



because it is white, duh.)

Although, actually ice is pure. That white stuff in the middle of an ice cube is all the impurities and the actual pure ice is the clear part. Therefore, snow, being ice crystals, should be pure. (But then why is it white instead of clear?)

But I digress, of course. I wanted to mention, however, the pure example of Martin Luther King. In "Stride to Freedom", he relates how his house was blown up during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Not only was his home partially destroyed, but his wife and very young daughter were inside the house when it happened. They could easily have been killed!! Talk about somebody with a reason to hate. Yet that very night, he spoke from his back porch to a crowd of upset negroes and admonished them NOT to hate.

But then he relates how he sat up that night, too agitated to sleep, and when he thought about how his family being killed, he could feel the rage building up in him. He had to keep reminding himself NOT to give in to hate. If he could do it, in the face of that kind of vicious attack, then so can we. And, as you point out, we should, for our own benefit.

As it is written, "Holding on to anger with the intention of hurting somebody else, is like picking up a hot coal to throw at somebody. You are the one who gets burned."

... to pull back from it, when you are watching your life's accumulation of product (and self-esteem) of hard work, be stripped from you, a little more each and every day. I fear that the day will come, when all that will be left, is a seething anger and a desire for things I thought I'd never consider. What's even scarier, is that the ranks of those who are feeling like me, are swelling at an alarming rate. We stare into the abyss, and feel powerless to stop our decent into it.

I'm guilty of it too. I just try to hate for the right reasons. Sarah Palin is a cloying, stupid, know-nothing tool but that's not why I hate her. I hate her because of what she represents: the resurgence of forces that want to drag America back into backwardness.

but the strong feelings are there.