Suzanne Harrington: We fall down the rabbit hole about hate while the world burns and floods

Imagine if the Elon Musks and Donald Trumps of the world began urging their followers to plant a tree or grow some veg.

The climate scientists are in despair. The natural world is in a state of collapse

Hate. Hate, hate, hate. It’s all we ever bloody talk about. I hate you, you hate me, we hate them, they hate us.

We all hate each other. You said something I hate, I said something you hate, let’s all call the police.

Hate posting, hate tweeting, hate sharing. Drowning in a tsunami of hate. Toxic, flammable, ubiquitous, profitable hate.

Can we stop? Can we zoom out for a second? Can we cease shouting at each other for one tiny moment?

Can we step back from our opinions, no matter how right they feel, no matter how entrenched they are – and pause to draw breath?

Humans are pattern seekers. Our internal software is programmed to seek connection, recognition, similarity, so that we can survive and thrive.

We are hardwired for empathy, friendship, and connection - because if we were not, we would have died out long ago; it’s not because we are a species of hippies, but because without co-operation and interdependence we would all be dead. Dead, dead, dead. Extinct, like dodos.

Now we are all online, over-connected while disconnected, and trying to legislate against hate, to set a legal boundary around hate.

Which, while a noble idea born of good intention, is like trying to legislate the weather.

It’s chucking petrol on hate, because all the haters – no matter who they are hating, or why, or how – will leap on it, screaming that their right to hate is being undermined. And it is. 

Legislating against hate is like trying to manage a stink bomb in a confined space; it requires a lot of energy, and is unlikely to work.

And so we continue our fall down the rabbit holes of endless discussion around what hate is, and what hate is not, and outside, the world burns and floods.

We talk endlessly about phraseology, terminology, semantics; and beyond our screens, the weather weaponises. The storms are so fierce now we name them to make them less frightening.

The climate scientists are in despair. The natural world – upon which we depend for every morsel of food, every drop of water, every second of warmth and comfort – is in a state of collapse, and gearing up through climate catastrophe to shrug off our species like a nasty virus, before regreening and regenerating without us. The planet will save itself, without us.

We’ve known this for decades now. Climate science talks about humanity’s stubborn optimism; the belief that we will eventually figure something out.

Just not today, because we are busy shouting at each other about hate, and who is allowed to be hateful and who isn’t.

What’s so frustrating is that those leading the discussions on hate – the mega-rich with massive platforms – could instead use these platforms to urge their divided tribes to focus not on hate, but on positive action for our survival. The Elon Musks, the JK Rowlings, the Donald Trumps – imagine if they began urging their followers to, I don’t know, plant a tree or something. Grow some veg.

Imagine the change.

Imagine the shift in focus, from hate to something else. Something useful.