Which side are you on?

Grim new reports sometimes make it seem that people
need to hate, that everybody hates everybody else.
Could that be true? Hate isn't a species wide phenomenon
is it? Do you hate anybody?

Probably it's just some in this group who hate some in
that group or maybe that type of person over there or
some other kinds someplace else. A calling for revenge
for some act is often expanded and exploited. Maybe
leaders with agendas stir up their supporters by
promoting hostility toward others locally or nationally
or even internationally.

Whatever it is that highlights the separation between
some people is exagerated and stoked to galvanize
emotional responses and at the same time to unify the
group doing the hating. Makes for self importance,
self righteousness and at the same time, creates a sense of
being connected to a group on the 'right side of things'. This
kind of driven fury fuels the power of the leaders, which is
maybe what it's all about in the first place.

The belief which allows all types of hatred to fester and expand
is essentially 'We are us. They are not us. We are good. They are
bad.' Sometimes 'they' become not just objects of hatred, 'they'
become the enemy.' Hatred like this can lead to open hostility,
hostility to violence. In too many places, too many times the
resulting, collectively held, hate-driven attitude becomes:
'We must destroy the enemy. Kill them!'

Based on what's happening around the world, hating doesn't
seem that difficult to start and expand, but how does hatred stop?