HATE WILL FIND A WAY

After two years, thirty-million dollars, CNN and other media outlets raging against the President by giving him negative reports 92 percent of the time, the Mueller Report has concluded that there was no collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Russian Government. That was the big news this week in the US. As a result, the report sent shock and surprise through the country. If it had been a committee of all Republicans, the report would have been highly questionable. But Mueller chose 16 Democrats instead of Republicans for the committee. Many of those Democrats were (and are) strongly pro-Hillary and anti-Trump. In fact, some on the committee deeply hate Trump.

Now writing as a psychologist, rather than as a political commentator, what interests me is the psychology of hate so prevalent on the left, a hatred that was not seen during Obama’s presidency. Because I’ve spent the last two years on critical thinking, I’m particularly interested in how this epidemic of hate distorts clear thinking, how it evokes and amplifies cognitive biases, how it prevents rational thinking, and how it stops one from adjusting one’s mental maps.

In studying high quality thinking— executive thinking. and presenting the Cognitive Make-Over training, I have focused primarily on how fear is the big block to clear thinking. You can’t think clearly when you feel threatened or in danger. Obviously this is also true for any strong emotion, especially negative emotions (anger, sadness, stress, etc.). Only more recently I have begun considering how unmitigating, hate which the left has for President Trump, is distorting their thinking and their ability to think.

Hatred— it I starts with dislike and it is stroked by anything and everything that can increase animosity. This leads a person to look for things to dislike and as the need to dislike increases, so does the belief that there’s hidden things— secret things. This activates a self-fulfilling prophecy which is supported by the Confirmation bias. When you believe someone is bad and corrupt, you then look for indicators to prove your belief. Eventually a person caught up in hate may even develop a meta-belief — now believing in the importance of hating — hating as a value, hating as justified in a conflict, etc.

Hate as a self-organizing attractor enables people to mobilize their energies— keep them motivated. Hitler used hatred and anger to arouse support for his cause. Read Mein Kampf and notice how it sounds like an angry sermon of a morally outraged person. That was his persuasion strategy which he used politically to deceive the German people.

Before the delivery of the Mueller Report, I had a conversation with someone who was strongly against President Trump. I knew his politics having talked about that subject before. So I asked, “Do you hate President Trump?”

The person began nodding ‘yes’ while still hesitating verbally, but then said yes.

“Good. Let me ask you, if all the evidence shows that there was no collusion, will you believe it?”

“Well, there may be other evidence...”

I interrupted and reposed my question. “The supposition was that if all evidence shows no collusion ... what then?”

That actually shut him down. He just would not answer.

After a long pause, I said. “Well, how about this. Could you look upon him as having been falsely accused for the past two years.”

He could not.

“What would have to take place inside you so that you could give him the benefit of the doubt?”

He couldn’t think of anything.

“Wow!” I commented. “Your hate is that strong!”

“What do you mean?” he quickly asked.

“Well it seems that your hatred is so strong, it takes away your ability to be fair-minded and rational. It has somehow set an intention in you and a bias that you are not even willing to question your belief or your thinking.”

He said it was an unfair question.

I tried one more time. I presented the situation as if it were reversed so that it happened to someone on the left. But I guess he got the point because he got up and politely said goodbye. I’m sure we will talk another day.

When you have hate as a belief, as a self-organizing attractor in a person’s mind— it will find a way to justify itself and to filter out any information that would counter it. Hate will find a way to keep hating. The solution? Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote this: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” “We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”

And Will Smith added this: “Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.”