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Originally Posted by Zaevod
Assuming that this analogy works, then it's okay for one to say that they hate blacks/gays/jews/whatever because the ones they met, or at least some of them, were assholes.
My problem with this analogy is that, even though you technically can generalize if you have evidence from personal experience that the majority of people from a certain group are bad, this is usually not an accurate reflection of reality. A lot of these hateful generalizations are not based on honest assessments but on confirmation bias or even anecdotal data that reflects only a minimal subset of the group. I believe that this is the case for misanthropy and many other forms of hatred, because a lot of the justifications people often use only apply to a very small minority.
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Okay but all you've been saying is "the traits of the few do not reflect the traits of the many," and we all understand that.
A generalization is a generalization. It is by definition not meant to necessarily be an all-encompassing, strict categorization.
For example, I would say I dislike Indian food. I fully understand, rationally, that if I were to try every single Indian dish ever made (assuming it could be done, etc), I would probably encounter plenty that I would like.
However, this doesn't change the fact that many of the dishes I come across I would really dislike. It's enough to make me not care about the rest. Even if I understand that there could be good Indian dishes out there, the way it makes me feel is simply what I feel. I don't need to sample every single dish ever made / that's out there in order for me to come to a reasoned opinion of how it generally makes me feel.
We all make opinions based off our general experiences. Yes, I generally believe that we should back up our opinions in evidence rather than blind acceptance or confirmation bias, but sometimes people can still feel hate even after this has been done. What matters is whether or not we act on these experiences and cause harm to others. I hold the same view with religion: believe what you want, but don't mess with other people.
Moving on to misanthropy, maybe someone hates humanity because they hate seeing how cruel people can be to each other. It doesn't matter if most people are "good" -- maybe the fact that man
can be cruel is enough to make someone repulsed by the human condition and not wish to interact. There are several possible reasons.
The point I am trying to get at is that people hold the opinions they do for a variety of reasons. Some are reasonable, some aren't. Some beliefs can be harmful, others aren't. Some are logical, others aren't. Some people act on their beliefs, others don't. The reasons can be different, the contexts can be different, and the moral implications can be different. This is what stargroup was also trying to argue earlier:
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Originally Posted by stargroup100
I'm not defending all hate. I'm saying that it's possible to have logical hatred towards a group.
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