The 6 types of hatred that exist (and their characteristics)

These are the types of hate and the ways in which they are expressed in society and relationships.

Hate is a human emotion, although it is not considered healthy. Antipathy and dislike towards a person is not a good thing, nor is it an emotion you want to have, although it is natural to feel a little dislike towards someone who has offended you.

This word has acquired a new nuance in recent years, thanks to the awareness that there are many incidents motivated by hatred towards a certain group of people.

There are several types of hatred based on prejudices and false beliefs present in society, and we are going to find out about them below.and we are going to find out about them below.

The main types of hatred

According to the DRAE, the word "hate" is the "antipathy and aversion toward something or someone whose evil is desired." We have all felt at some point in our lives this emotion that, although clearly bad and negative, it is inevitable that we can feel it toward someone or something. It is not a healthy emotion, but everyone feels it and we should not therefore think that we have a serious problem.. The important thing is to recognize that sometimes we can't like everyone.

However, in recent years this word has acquired a new nuance, a definition that refers to something very shady: hating what is different. It is not that a new type of aversion has arisen in society, but rather that it has always been present, but this time it has been given a name, it has been detected. It is hatred towards minorities, towards people of a different sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender or political ideology. Hate based on prejudices and erroneous beliefs about what people who are part of a certain group are like.

It is this type of hate that we talk about when we read about "hate crimes" on social networks. Any aggression, insult, harassment and murder that has discrimination and prejudice towards a group as a background is considered a hate crime or, at least, an incident associated with hatred towards minorities. Thus, if someone has shown signs of harassing or attacking someone for having a disability, being of a different race, of a particular religion, homosexual or transgender or any other protected category, it is considered a hate crime.

These are the types of hate based on how hate crimes are defined.

1. Racism

Racism is hatred based on racial prejudice, i.e., one or more racial attitudes.that is, one or more irrational and prejudicial attitudes towards one or more races. This hatred has been one of the main causes of humanity's greatest misfortunes in recent years, including the slave trade to the New World, racial segregation in the United States and apartheid in South Africa.

The Holocaust is considered by many to be a sign of racism, and they are right. But it is not only in this most abominable event in our history that it was motivated by racism, but also by xenophobia and marked religious intolerance. The Jews were attacked for being of a different race (although the vast majority were white), belonging to a different culture (although they were mostly German) and believing in Judaism (many of them non-practicing).

2. Xenophobia

Closely related to racism is xenophobia, although they are not synonymous terms. Xenophobia is based on ethnic prejudice, i.e., false beliefs about people with a particular nationality or belonging to a particular culture.. It can be combined with religious hatred, linguistic discrimination and racism towards people of a particular ethnic group.

Several recent events have been motivated by xenophobia, a hatred of people who do not necessarily come from outside the country they are in but are part of a different culture. An example of this can be seen in the wars in Yugoslavia, where people who until recently shared the same nationality killed each other because they felt Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Bosnian and other ethnic groups.

2. Religious hatred

One of the main arguments used in wars throughout history has been religion.. From time immemorial it has been justified to wipe out an entire people for the simple fact of not believing in the same gods as those of the invading peoples. Within religious hatred we find the aversion towards people who profess one or more religions.

One of the most classic and ironic examples of religious hatred was the wars between Catholics and Protestants. the wars between Catholics and Protestantsin which two faiths claiming to defend peace and love in the world engaged in bloody battles to prove which of the two factions was right.

In the Yugoslav wars, religious hatred was also evident, especially towards the Bosnians of Muslim majority, seen as the main problem of the now extinct country. The images of the destruction of the Old Bridge in Mostar (1993) are historical, considered this incident as the end of the peaceful coexistence of several religious communities in the Bosnian city.

Religious hatred has also been responsible for the majority of terrorist attacks in recent decades in Europe, motivated by Islamic fundamentalism.motivated by Islamic fundamentalism. Religious hatred includes the desire to do away with religion altogether and implement a completely atheistic society, as would be the case of several communist regimes during the Cold War.

3. Ideological intolerance

People are very diverse even when living in the same country, sharing the same language and being of the same race.This is evidenced by the great diversity of political ideologies that we can see materialized in the form of all kinds of parties and associations.

Each political ideology has its pluses and minuses, but as long as it does not promote harm to other people or the denial of fundamental rights, everyone can defend the idea they consider most appropriate. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks this way, there are people who defend attacking and harming people who do not think the same way they do. This is a sign of hatred that is called ideological intolerance.

Anti-communism in the United States and Franco's Spain are examples of this. So is the political persecution of opposition leaders in Venezuela and the total eradication of any opinion critical of leader Kim Jong-un in North Korea. Religious hatred, depending on how you look at it, can also be considered ideological intolerance since someone is persecuted for his or her ideas, be they political or about how nature and human life are governed.

3. LGTBI+phobia

LGTBI+phobia encompasses all hatred towards non cissexual people.. Thus, within this type of hatred we find several modalities such as homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and any hatred oriented to people who feel identified in the acronym LGTBI+.

Although in the most advanced and civilized countries it is rare, hate crimes motivated by aversion towards people with a non-normative sexual orientation or gender identity are still committed. An example of LGTBI+phobia, in this case homophobia, is beating to death a kid who is walking down the street and shouting "Faggot!".

4. Linguistic discrimination

There is a type of hatred associated with a language and its speakers. This is known as linguistic discrimination, based on the idea that there are better and worse languages. and also in the myth that languages are specific to certain places, despite the fact that the earth does not have a specific language any more than it has a race, a culture or a religion naturally associated with it.

An example of hatred for linguistic reasons can be found in the discrimination against Catalan, Basque or Galician in many periods of Spanish history and also by certain current political movements. In most cases, it is the speakers of minority languages who suffer this type of hatred, which in turn leads to situations of linguistic minoritization, something common in countries such as Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Ironically, linguistic discrimination does not necessarily have to be against minority languages, but rather against speakers of minority languages.Speakers of majority languages that are seen as "invaders" can also be victims of this type of hatred. An example of this is the crossing out of signs in Spanish in Catalonia or in French in Corsica, or the attacking of Spanish speakers in the United Kingdom and the United States.

5. Ageism

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has fed many stigmas and preconceived ideas towards different age groups. In the beginning, when it was not yet believed that a health crisis such as the one we are experiencing could occur, there were many who saw ageing as a threat to the health of the population, there were many who saw the elderly as potential sources of contagion to be avoided..

With the passage of time this view has changed. Now that the majority of the older population is vaccinated, it is the young who are seen as a potential source of transmission, blaming them in many ways for the latest outbreaks that have occurred throughout the world.

Be that as it may, hatred of people of a certain age group is ageism, and we don't just see it with the pandemic. The opinion that older people are worse behind the wheel and should not drive is an example of this type of hatred, just as it is to believe that all young people get drunk and go on rowdy binge drinking rampages in public squares or that young people today are very lazy.

6. Misogyny

Misogyny is the hatred of women.. While it is an exaggeration to say that a society is completely misogynistic, it is clear that violence against women, sexist murders, feeling free to sexually abuse a woman walking down the street at night and other acts against women are fueled by misogynistic views.

There is also the fact that, structurally, we live in a rather macho society. and the proof of this is in the form of lower salaries for women and the existence of the Glass Ceiling, which prevents women from being able to get the best jobs as easily as men.

What are the incidents associated with a hate crime?

When a person commits an aggression based on his or her hatred towards a protected group, a person with a different ideology than that of the victim.a person with a different ideology than his or her own, or simply because he or she is of the gender he or she is, the conduct does not have to manifest itself only in the form of physical aggression.

There are many incidents associated with a possible hate crime, incidents motivated by the prejudices of the person who carries them out towards the group to which the attacked person belongs. Among these behaviors we find:

• Verbal abuse: insulting, making offensive jokes and using pejorative appellations.
• Harassment
• Bullying
• Physical attacks: kicking, punching, pushing, shoving, spitting, etc.
• Threats of violence
• Prank calls, abusive text messages and threatening e-mails
• Cyberbullying
• Circulating discriminatory literature and posters
• Damaging property of the targeted group, such as their home, pets and vehicles
• Offensive graffiti
• Arson
• Throwing trash at the targeted group's home
• Malicious complaints about parking, odors and noise.

All of these actions are incidents associated with a hate ideology, but not all of them are crimes.. The consideration of crime will be made depending on whether these incidents clearly violate the laws of the country and will receive the appellation "hate" in case it is proven that there has been prejudicial motivation in their realization, such as racism, homophobia, transphobia or religious intolerance.