I'm not really a ranter, we all know that. I'm fairly calm and laid back, I've repeated it so many time I'm sure my regular readers are sick of hearing it. This chapter isn't so much a rant as something that more annoys me and I think needs to be said. I think I've said a bit about it in another chapter, but it bears some repeating.

People throw out the word hate a lot. When someone annoys them or they see a celebrity on TV or a politician. It's, "Ohhhh, I hate 'insert name here'."

I tend to wonder how they know they hate that person, especially if they don't know them well. This theory works for the internet especially. On the world wide web, you've never met most of the people you talk with. Don't know them personally. Some you've talked to only once or twice. Yes, friendships can form. I have several extremely good friends who I only know online. Still, it's not as strong a bond as a childhood friend you grew up with, who you know personally. Someone you are emotionally connected with.

It's takes an established feeling of affection and emotional invovlement to hate someone.

Dislike can work. You can dislike someone's actions because you don't agree with them. But to actively hate someone you've never met or only spoken with a few times is insane. 

Hatred gives power to their actions, to their feelings. Especially on the internet. People who troll and bully tend to look for a reaction. If you lash back out of hatred or fear, you give them exactly what they are looking for.

In those situations, your best options are to ignore them and report them. No matter how many times they appear and reappear. People like that don't like being ignored. They want attention. They crave it. When they are ignored it defeats the purpose of their game. It becomes go big or go home and their actions become larger and more outlandish until they are the ones looking foolish. Not you. You remain calm and ignore instead of lashing out at them and trust me, you win. 

Nothing is to be gained by hatred. Ever. In any situation. 

I don't hate people like that. I pity them. 

If you have nothing better to do with your life than sit behind your keyboard and plot ways to bully someone, your life must be empty as hell. If you need to tear someone else down to make yourself feel better, you don't need my hatred, you need my pity. Shut the computer off and get outside for a bit.