Why is misanthropy not considered bigotry?

[stargroup100]

Originally Posted by Zaevod

I'm sorry, but this is bullshit. There is no rational excuse for hating a group, because you can't blame an entire group for the action of individuals. You can be cautious based on the experiences you've had with people from a certain group, but hatred is a whole different story. Hatred is a strong dislike, usually meaning that you'd desire that the hated thing would not exist or not interact with you.

A black person who hates whites is a bigot. No more, no less. Same with a white who hates blacks.

Another way to see this, with a particularly extreme case:

We have all heard of people who due to some early childhood trauma, develop a fear for something. For example, a child that originally was not afraid of snakes, but is then bitten by one, could end up being afraid of snakes the rest of his life. And this is just due to one experience.

Now imagine this trauma is caused by people of a particular group, who we know are aware of what they're doing. Then imagine this happening not just once but consistently throughout one's entire life, whenever he happens to encounter people of this group. I dare you to try and convince this person that this group of people isn't bad.

But that doesn't necessarily mean he'll never like anyone of this group. If some situation happens where a person of this group is very kind to this person and earns trust, then it's possible that hatred would subside for this individual. But that won't stop this person from hating the group.


Hating all members of a group and hating a group are two completely different things. The elements of a set is not the same as the set itself.

Why is it difficult to accept that some people can still be fair to other people while having a hateful nature?