How do we stop hate?

The only antidote is love, baby.

I love your idealism. I just don’t see it happening until we get rid of religion.

[ducks]

Probably we need to have less of the haves and have nots. Solve poverty and crime and maybe you have chance. Although homophobia and other hatreds may not be cured by my suggestion. Maybe get rid of fanatic religious people who think only their way is right (did that sound hateful?)

@johnpowell and @JLeslie Religion definitely is a leading factor in most of it…

Education (not necessarily formal).

I agree with @peedub.
Ignorance breeds fear. Fear fuels hate. Education will go a long way toward getting rid of hate.

Yes, education. I agree with that too.

Only thing is Love…...... love, love, love….......

@RubyReds and @holden But how do we teach love to people who think that other races and sexualities are lesser than they are?

By loving each other and first of all by loving ourselves.

until mankind dies out there will always be hate!

Stop hating is the best way

A lot of idealists on here.

@stemnyjones that’s not what I said. Don’t teach them to love. Just love them.

Like crime, it will never go away in a free society. It is part of the package of free will and free expression. But that doesn’t mean there is no point in fighting it. Things do get better by the small things. Like making this question on Fluther. If you want to change the world, try to make the lives of people you meet a little better.

We can’t stop it. The best we can do is limit the worst expressions of it and actions based on it. In the US the first amendment to the Constitution prevents “hate speech” legislation.The most effective way IMHO is to use Oscar Wilde’s prescription on war “As long as it is considered wicked it will remain popular. but if it were considered vulgar it would end” (rough paraphrase).

We learn to love and be tolerant.

The age old solution:

“See yourself in others.”

As far as I can tell there’s only one way….. get rid of all the humans.

We stride for peace, love, hope and charity.

But hate is just part of the formula of life.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Always loved that rule, live by it too.

By keeping an open mind, by continuing to learn, by becoming more intelligent

I think I big part of stopping hate is acknowledging differences. A lot of people like to say that a black person or a gay person or a Jewish person is no different because of these things but that’s simply not true. Race, religion, sexuality, etc. are all a big part of who someone is. They are important characteristics in someone’s personality. However, we need to learn that these differences in personality need to be evaluated the same way as any other differences.

Example: My roommate is black. This makes her different from me because I am white. However, she is also a nursing major which makes her different from me because I am a media production major. We are also different because she is from New York City and I am from Suburbia CT.

Also, I would like to respectfully disagree with @johnpowell. Religion does not make people hate. Certain religious zealots hate. I know quite a number of religious non zealots who don’t care if someone is a different religion as long as they are a good person.

@KatawaGrey I agree with acknowledging differences. I get blasted on fluther quite often for saying this. In the Northeast we tend to be more open and outright with saying we are white, black, Italian, Jewish, Polish, etc. We put it out there, can laugh at ourselves, and are proud of our national backgrounds for the most part. Where I live now, in the mid-south, they are very very PC in social settings. I have never felt such an absense of this type of talk in my entire life. They seem terrified to offend anyone, and get offended easily. But behind closed doors they seem to be the most racist people I have ever met. We have seen a lot of talk in the news lately about opening communication about race in America. I have little confidence that can happen where the racism seems to be the worst.

Now, I do want to point out that most differences between people are socio-economic and have nothing to do with race or religion. America seems to be very poor about talking about this or acknowledging it also. It’s like since we are supposed to be a country that allows anyone to make it, no matter what part of the social strata they are born into, that it is taboo to talk about social class, because I think people perceive it as conversation about how the rich are better than the poor. This is why at the top I mentioned the haves and have nots, and I agree with the people above that education (both to raise up the level of knowledge and the ability to be successful in society, and also to teach acceptance of our fellow man) can help fix some of this, but there needs to be a cultural shift among some of these groups too. The thing is when we say this it sound like we are being judgmental, especially to those in the group that I think needs to change.

Now separate from all of this is things like homophobia, which is not a race, or a religion, and has nothing to do with social class. This is just pure ignorance and hatred, some of which is helped along by religious beliefs, but religion cannot solely be blamed.

Some people seems willing to latch onto things that will make themselves feel superior to the next guy, and somehow, sometimes that morphs into hate. So as long as peole feel like crap about themselves, they will be willing to put others down and hate.

The only real solution is to lobotomize everyone. Hate is part of the human condition, whether we like it or not, and for one reason or another we have evolved to have that emotion, justifiable or not. Anyone who thinks that hatred can be eliminated by having one big hug party needs to take off the rosy glasses.

Now if you want to lessen the impact of hatred, education is key, just as others have said.