Hate Crime and What to Do About It

 

The other day one of the subjects discussed on TalkRadio was the apparent increase in hate crime in the UK. Well, to be honest, this is not anything new although I am aware that, with the emergence of social media, this abominable behaviour is becoming more and more prevalent in our society. In a recent blog I covered the hatred that exists between both sets of supporters of Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic football clubs. In fact, in many team sports hatred is displayed not only by the fans but by the actual teams.

Unfortunately, hatred is an inherent trait of all humans. I am sure all of us, in every nation on the planet, experiences hate from the behaviour of that bloody next-door neighbour to speeding drivers on the M25 motorway. The hatred of people, however, goes back to time immemorial. All the major empires, some of which were the Roman, Persian, Russian, Mongol, the Ottoman and of course the British Empire, ruled countries and civilisations all of which had enemies. And it seems to me that it is the very basic human trait of hatred that starts all wars. We have Muslim against Jew, the poor against the rich, the Tory against the Labourite, various forms of racism and on it goes.

So what exactly is hate crime? It's been said that, legally, a hate crime 'is an act of prejudice or hostility towards any aspect of a person's identity'. Of course these days these crimes are also found on the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc. I mean I'm old enough and ugly enough to remember those years when the Internet was in its infancy and before mobile phones even existed. Fast forward to today, and it seems, especially younger people, are actually addicted to their mobiles and, to a certain extent, social media.

And then we have trolls and trolling. Again, looking back to the past, these two words were unheard of - never used. It was only with the coming of the Internet, especially back in the 80s, that we see the first evidence of this. These days the word 'troll' is internet slang describing a person (I would call them nutcases) who post inflammatory, abusive, obnoxious messages on an online community (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc). This can also include newsgroups, forums, chat rooms or blogs, with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses or manipulating others' perceptions. I know, it's hellish. Nowadays it's homophobic and transphobic crimes that are appearing almost daily.

How do we handle it? I'm gonna take a Buddhist viewpoint. For me hate crime and trolling are mental disorders, not of the brain, but of the mind. In Buddhism, we have what the Buddha called the Three Poisons: Greed (lobha), Hatred (dosa) and Delusion (moha). For me, people who are tied up in hate crime basically suffer, especially from greed and hatred. And of course, in today's societies greed plays a major part that leads in many cases to hatred. These are thwarted minds that have grown within social media circles and follow the sheep habit: ‘oh, you’re doing it - I’ll follow you’. How would the Buddha handle this social problem? He would probably ask people to show more compassion to their fellow man. Create peace, not war. Put other people before you not behind you. Show grace and empathy for your fellow humans.

That’s my take on hate crime. Unfortunately, it ain’t going away any time soon.