This archive report was first published on 6 August 2019.
The Ideology of Hate and How to Fight It ¶
Published on August 6, 2019
Many mass murderers are inspired by a shared ideology that they hope to spread through terror. This ideology is rooted in a distorted view of the world, where people are reduced to a single racial label and identity is seen as fixed.
The clearest expression of this ideology was written by the Christchurch suspect, whose manifesto has been cited by other terrorists. The author of the manifesto describes his travels around the world, where he was treated with warmth and compassion by people of different cultures.
However, this experience did not change his views. Instead, he went on to champion an ideology that is highly racial, but not classic xenophobia or white supremacy. It is characterized by essentialism, separatism, and racial Darwinism.
Essentialism holds that the most important thing you can know about a person is their race. Separatism argues that races are healthy when they are pure and undiluted, and that the world is diseased when races mix. Racial Darwinism posits that races are locked in a struggle for survival, with the black and brown races currently stronger than the white race.
Immigrants, according to this ideology, come from cultures with higher fertility rates and stronger traditions that seek to occupy the lands of other people. This is seen as a threat to the white race, which is accused of being on the verge of being overwhelmed by immigration.
This ideology is not based on white self-confidence, but rather white insecurity. It is an extreme form of antipluralism, a movement that reacts against the diversity, fluidity, and interdependence of modern life.
Antipluralists yearn for a return to clear borders, settled truths, and stable identities. They kill for a fantasy, a world that shines in their imaginations but never existed in real life.
Pluralists, on the other hand, believe in integration, not separation. We treasure the integration that sends antipluralists into panic fits. A half century ago, few marriages crossed a color line. Now, 17 percent of American marriages are interracial.
Pluralists are always expanding the definition of 'us,' not constricting it. We believe that culture mixing has always been and should be the human condition. All cultures define and renew themselves through encounter.
Finally, pluralism is the adventure of life. It's a constant dialogue that has no end because there is no single answer to how we should live. Life in a pluralistic society is an ever-moving spiral, with enemies of pluralism ripping it apart and weavers of community binding it together.
The struggle ahead is about competing values as much as it is about controlling guns and healing damaged psyches. Pluralism thrives when we name what the terrorists hate about us, and live it out.
