One other thing - why does "hate" now mean "don't like"?

[Tyranno]

I notice more and more, the term "hate" being used for things to which the person feels more negative towards than things they feel indifferent to.

Is this melodrama like how "depression" started being used on Facebook, etc. to refer to smaller and smaller things until it isn't surprising to meet someone who doesn't realise that the term "depression" actually refers to a mental sickness?

Is it just me, as a pacifist, attaching more importance to the word "hate" than many others would?

[Hux]

People today are melodramatic pussies. That's okay.

I'm a dick.

I fuck pussies.

Assholes, too.

[Troj]

As people have increasingly been encouraged to explore their emotions and identities, and encouraged to express those things outwardly, my sense is that people have increasingly had to raise their voices just to be heard and validated.

When people are rewarded for having strong opinions or for expressing themselves in a melodramatic fashion, that perpetuates and accelerates the cycle.

 

[Saxon]

Haven't people always been using hyperbole? I didn't think this was a new thing.

 

[Nomris]

If someone throws a tantrum in a pretty wild fashion it has many positive sides:

a) one might be dissuaded from proving him wrong, therefore making his opinion more valid in some ways

b) it brings attention to his point of view, which sometimes people require: attention to their problems

c) strong opinions gather like-minded people who feel strongly for or against the opinion, that's how I think mobs get formed (and how hype gets built)

Best coarse of action is to either ignore or join the mob 'cause somewhere out there on the internet, someone fully agrees with whatever your opinion may be. And the more of a fuzz you make, the more people you will reach. Personally, I don't bind any importance to the word as it has become more or less synonymous to lesser variants. Which leads to even harsher or brand-new variants to be used in the future. Is gonna be a fun lifetime on the internet full of trends :V

[willow]

35 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Haven't people always been using hyperbole? I didn't think this was a new thing.

 

 

[Gator]

depression is not just a mental illness.  the illness takes its name from the state of feeling depressed, because the nature of said illness is to feel that way for a prolonged period of time. 

anyway, i haven't really seen some great overuse of "hate" when "mildly dislike" would have been more appropriate, nor do i presume to know just how much a person actually dislikes a thing.  but either way, as has been said already, hyperbole is nothing new.  same goes for use of "depression" in place of "mild disappointment or sadness".

[Glowing Glass]

It's because people want to be heard more. About 3 years ago the word hate stuck out and people noticed. People noticed that people noticed so more people did it. People applied it to smaller and smaller things like throwing a bit of salt and self importance on it just to let everyone know "HEY HERES MY OPINION ON A THING AND I MUST MAKE IT CLEAR!" The word has now lost its old value and become as normal as the normal things were before but to some people it's the opposite.

Either that or everyone is becoming sensitive and ridiculous and everyone needs a safe space and America is doomed in 30 years by terrible children that became adults.

 

I blame tumblr :v

[Feelwell]

Actually a holocaust survivor came to my school to do a speech. Unlike many guest speakers what she had to say was quite interesting, and she urged people to never use the word hate, because you should never hate, really hate, something or someone. Since then I try not to use the word unless I genuinely, completely despise something, and that's after thinking about it.

[Crazy Lee]

I'm sorry but I hate this thread.

[Vae]

I hate that these threads are overthinking pretty basic shit.

[Jtrekkie]

51 minutes ago, Vae said:

I hate that these threads are overthinking pretty basic shit.

Then you'll really hate philosophy. 

[Conker]

I mean pretty much, yeah. Welcome to hyperbole.

I fall into the trap from time to time. Like others have said, it's easier to be heard when you're loud. To be loud is to get extreme, so even though something like Ready Player One is just an average-to-bad book, calling it dogshit gets noticed. People want to talk about dogshit, not average.

It IS annoying because it reduces most conversations down to shouting, and it removes a lot of nuance to, well, everything. We can't like things anymore we have to LOVE or HATE them. Sometimes something can be okay, you know?

But hey, welcome to the internet I guess.

[MalletFace]

I don't think hate has been used in any other way for as long as the word has existed in its modern form.

Hate isn't normally a passionate, vengeful, murderous thing in Chaucer's and Shakespeare's works, for example; it is something to describe nagging wives and annoying sounds. The exceptions that come to mind are Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, but Shakespeare still isn't using hate in a Nazis-hate-the-Jewish-people kind of way in Romeo and Juliet: Juliet maintains that she hates Romeo pretty much any time she talks to the nurse or her mother despite being determined to marry him.

Depression was also a description of spirits before it was ever a medical diagnosis. Its meaning is being narrowed to just the medical diagnosis, but it isn't quite there yet.

That's as it should be. Words change slowly over time or stay exactly the same. Which one happens is largely a crap shoot.

2 hours ago, Feelwell the Rabbit said:

Actually a holocaust survivor came to my school to do a speech. Unlike many guest speakers what she had to say was quite interesting, and she urged people to never use the word hate, because you should never hate, really hate, something or someone. Since then I try not to use the word unless I genuinely, completely despise something, and that's after thinking about it.

Not entirely certain, but I don't believe they would invite a Holocaust survivor to suggest anything but. Schools may select against Holocaust survivors that suggest hate can be constructive.

I've heard quite the number point out that just as they were enslaved with weapons guided by hate, they were also liberated by weapons guided by hate. I've also heard more than a few suggest killing Nazis and anybody like them where they stand.

[FlynnCoyote]

8 hours ago, Tyranno said:

Is it just me, as a pacifist, attaching more importance to the word "hate" than many others would?

Hate has simply become the generic go to word for general dislike. I've found that people tend to use more obscure words or attach others to the sentence when referring to a more intense hatred for someone and something.

Like how the word "cunt" in Australia went from being perhaps the worst insult ever to something best mates call each other for shits and giggles and in some contexts has even become a compliment.

[Saxon]

6 hours ago, Crazy Lee said:

I'm sorry but I hate this thread.

I don't think any of us saw this joke coming! ;3

[Vallium]

As for this topic, I wasnt aware that this was a new trend, I assumed it was fairly normal to be exaggerative in using the word "hate" for things that are banal rather than a strong, passionate feeling of displeasure.

It's all about the context of use, affect, body language

[Vallium]

11 hours ago, Feelwell the Rabbit said:

Actually a holocaust survivor came to my school to do a speech. Unlike many guest speakers what she had to say was quite interesting, and she urged people to never use the word hate, because you should never hate, really hate, something or someone. Since then I try not to use the word unless I genuinely, completely despise something, and that's after thinking about it.

This is a very good point :[ Someone who lived through that much should know a thing or two about how the flames of hate should be simmered down a bit, it's always a good idea to step back, assess the situation, and see how bad things really are. Strong feelings of hate dont do an individual or other people much good

[Tsuujou]

4 rant threads in 4 days.

[Silo]

3 hours ago, Tsuujou said:

4 rant threads in 4 days.

Well, at this point, any thread is a good thread.

[Saxon]

14 hours ago, MalletFace said:

I don't think hate has been used in any other way for as long as the word has existed in its modern form.

Hate isn't normally a passionate, vengeful, murderous thing in Chaucer's and Shakespeare's works, for example; it is something to describe nagging wives and annoying sounds. The exceptions that come to mind are Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, but Shakespeare still isn't using hate in a Nazis-hate-the-Jewish-people kind of way in Romeo and Juliet: Juliet maintains that she hates Romeo pretty much any time she talks to the nurse or her mother despite being determined to marry him.

Depression was also a description of spirits before it was ever a medical diagnosis. Its meaning is being narrowed to just the medical diagnosis, but it isn't quite there yet.

That's as it should be. Words change slowly over time or stay exactly the same. Which one happens is largely a crap shoot.

Not entirely certain, but I don't believe they would invite a Holocaust survivor to suggest anything but. Schools may select against Holocaust survivors that suggest hate can be constructive.

I've heard quite the number point out that just as they were enslaved with weapons guided by hate, they were also liberated by weapons guided by hate. I've also heard more than a few suggest killing Nazis and anybody like them where they stand.

Indeed the hatred that still exists is so severe that people from countries where the Nazis made the swastika a taboo symbol sometimes treat people from other cultures violently for failing to censor swastikas: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38181139

even if the people wearing them have nothing to do with the Nazis or their ideology.

(Mongolian musician beaten into a coma for having a mongolian swastika on his clothing). :\

[Crazy Lee]

I just want to make clear there's a difference between me hating something and loathing it entirely.

 

[Fossa]

Maybe, in part, it's tangentially related to Faecbook ushering in the era of being able to press a button to 'like' things. We can easily like, this, that, or the other thing i our virtual landscape, without even actually saying anything; we don't get to use 'dislike' or 'hate' buttons. At most, we can mainly be passive-aggressive in our use of giving and withholding likes; after all, we can't give anything else.

Oddly, I've never used Facebook, though my mate does, and it made me want more options, than just 'like':

perhaps: adores, loves, is fond of, gets excited about, is indifferent to, could care less about, dislikes, is somewhat annoyed by, hates, loathes, despises. 

But instead, we just have this one ubiquitous button: Like. Maybe it reminds people that at points, they don't 'like', and thus, it builds up a certain animosity, to where the term 'hate' serves as a calming balm and antidote in a digital landscape littered by like buttons.

[LadyRadarEars]

I can dislike something, and when I say 'hate' I usually dislike it intently, like, its a hot button, or something that frustrates me.

When I mean hate has only thus far happened twice in my life, and a combination of 'loathing' and 'murderous rage' seem to be a better fit, although I suppose that is what hate originally meant.