The First Rule of Hate

"Those who control language, control the perception of reality."

The First Rule of Hate is: find a scapegoat.

By “scapegoat” I mean finding someone to blame your problems on, even if they aren’t the cause. Convince yourself they’re oppressing you, even if they aren’t.

Scapegoating is one of the main points in one of the oldest stories in the West – the Garden of Eden. Adam points to Eve and says, “It’s her fault!” and then Eve points to the serpent and says, “It’s his fault!” The end result? Evil is bought into the world. And this is why the late psychiatrist M. Scott Peck said, “Scapegoating is the genesis of human evil.”

Convince yourself that if you get rid of those you scapegoat, or radically change them, then your problems will go away. This essentially means seeing everything as black or white, either good or bad, with nothing in between. We’re the Good Guys; they’re the Bad Guys. There are no shades of grey. And in politics, never.

The Communists, for a really good example, blamed everything on “capitalists.” Russia pretty much committed suicide over that one.

As Saul Alinsky, a traitor to America is there ever was one, wrote, Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. Polarizing the target automatically means demonizing it, because you’re splitting everything into “all good” and “all bad.”

Edward Bernays, the father of modern propaganda in the U.S., had some interesting things to say about demonizing the target.

First thing, he wrote, appeal to people’s emotions but convince them you’re appealing to their reason.

Second, demonize the opposition. Convince people the opposition really is demonic. That makes them paranoid.

Third, tell people when the opposition is eradicated, goodness will rule.

Probably the quickest way to identify scapegoaters is that they use the word “hate” a lot to describe their opponents. They also use the word "oppressors" a lot, too In reality they’re the haters and oppressors; they just can’t admit it to themselves, so they project it on others with whom they disagree.

In every case it’s the same thing: appeal to emotions, demonize and scapegoat the opposition, and call for their annihilation. It works every time. It doesn’t matter if it’s used by Communists or Nazis or feminists or the United States government.

“Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.” – George Orwell