为什么世界上有这么多仇恨?仇恨在道德上是合理的吗?还是仇恨只会滋生更多的仇恨?仇恨到底是什么?These are some of the big questions we’re tackling on this week’s show,Why We Hate.

Tragically, this subject is very timely right now. Since 2016, the number ofhate groups, which openly advocate violence, terrorism, and murder, increaseddramatically. And in 2018,violent hate crimes reached a 16 year highin the US. This is a serious problem that we should not downplay.

However, we can acknowledge this problem and, at the same time, question whetherhatredby itself必然是一件坏事。For example, I think hating things like racism, injustice, and inequality is agoodthing. I also feel completely justified in hating my so-called “smart vac,” which repeatedly gets stuck under the same bookshelf, and when I pull it out, it just goes right back under there and gets stuck again. Seriously, I hate that thing! Now maybe that’s not exactly a good thing to hate, but it’s at least morally harmless.

Of course, there’s a big difference between hatingideologies, like racism, orobjects, like my stupid vac, and hatingpeopleorgroups of people. It's not clear that "hatred" really captures what we feel in all these cases. We often say "I hate that thing!" when really we are just very annoyed or angry by something. Do Ireallyhate my vac? And when your teen screams "I hate you!" before slamming the door, ishatredreally what they're feeling? We all use words like "love" and "hate" in fast and loose ways. Despite this, we still know there's a big difference between truly loving or hating a person, and "loving" or "hating" something, like a new haircut.

所以让我们把注意力集中在对他人真正的仇恨上。是thatkind of hate always wrong?Think of some of the worst people from history, cruel tyrants who slaughtered thousands and oppressed more. Shouldn’t we hatethose种人吗?当然，在道德上，憎恨似乎比钦佩或冷漠更合适。

如果你像上图中举着抗议标语的人一样，那么你认为仇恨永远都不合适。只有爱才能驱除仇恨。我们可以谴责暴君，反击他们做的一切，但我们不应该憎恨他们。我们不应该再给这个已经充满仇恨的世界增添仇恨。爱是唯一正确的回应。

Maybe. But do we really have much control over how wefeel尤其是我们对残酷、恐怖和暴力行为的反应?康德认为，“道德法则”只要求我们应该做我们实际上有能力做的事情。这就是所谓的“应该”意味着“可以”原则。There arephilosophers who dispute this moral principle但是，撇开他们怀疑的担忧不谈，作为一个纯粹谨慎的问题，在我看来，告诉任何人去做他们无法控制的事情，充其量是浪费时间。

Even if we can’t control how we feel, we do have some control over what we do and say. Maybe the focus should be on how weactbased on our feelings, and not on the feelings themselves. So, if we say that “we ought not to add anymore hate into an already hateful world,” what we really mean is that we should neveract on our feelingsof hate.

But is this true? We shouldneveract on hate? There is an assumption here that any action stemming from feelings of hate are morally wrong. But can’t hatred motivate us to do good things too? Wesometimestalk about the necessity of righteous anger in motivating the fight for justice. Without such intense feelings, we might not fight for what’s right. We might just shrug our shoulders and give up. So, if righteousangeris sometimes necessary for change, maybe righteoushatredis sometimes necessary too.

Look, don’t get me wrong. I'm not saying it's ever good to hate someone (or a group of people) for their race, religion, gender, sexuality, nationality, etc. But if we hate people for joining hate groups, using hateful slurs, spouting hateful ideologies, and advocating violence and terrorism against others, then this strikes me as entirely morally appropriate. The difference is that no onedeservesto be hated for their race, religion, gender, sexuality, nationality, etc., which is why these are considered “protected characteristics,” whereas hateful peopledeserveto be hated.

The person holding the sign might say that the consequences of hate, even "well-deserved hate," are bound to be bad and therefore we ought not to nurture or encourage it. Hate, even righteous hate, can lead people to behave badly. It can confound problems and lead to greater injustice. And hate is like a poison that eats you up from the inside. We should never encourage or condone hate.

I don’t find that argument compelling because sometimes we need to become extremely uncomfortable to fight for change. It might be all zen and groovy to only think positive thoughts all the time, but positive thinking isn’t going do anything about bigotry and racism, other than pretend it doesn’t exist.

That’s not to say that pathological hate, hate that takes over your life, is to be encouraged. Neither should pathological love, or pathological anything. There should be balance and moderation.

The point is that thereasons why we hateare important and we should not treat all hatred in the same way. Some hate is morally justified, some is not. Some hate is healthy, some is not. Some hate should be strongly discouraged, some should not. (Featured contributor David Livingstone Smithmakes a similar argumentvery persuasively.)

So, what doyouthink? Does hatred only sow division and distrust, increase polarization, and make oppression, intimidation, and violence more likely? Or can hatred ever be a good thing for society?

Ray and Josh are joined this week by Berit Brogaard, who has a brand new book out calledHatred: Understanding Our Most Dangerous Emotion. Last time she was on the show was to talk about her book on love. Tune in this week to find out what happened in between love and hate!

Photo bykellybdconWikimedia Commons