My Two-Cents: Being a Hater

I am a hater and I am proud.

I love to hate. I hate a lot of things. Non-chunky salsa, The Green Bay Packers, the color rust, people who haven’t read Harry Potter. And I think there is this big, gaudy presumption that hate is a bad thing. That we shouldn’t hate things. Pepsi products, Fast-food restaurants that charge extra for condiments, When people forget the oxford comma, the blissful yet paradoxically vain ending of the Hunger Games. That hating things means we are sad, depraved of morals, or just a plain old negative nelly. And now I’m here to tell you why that is complete and utter bullshit. 

Hating things is okay. Raisins, chevron, low rise-jeans, itching your eye and it still fucking itches. In fact, hating is more than okay. Single wick candles (I’ll elaborate later), Restaurants that charge extra for queso, Warner Bros fumbling the bag in what could have been the greatest casting of Elivs ever: Miles Teller, DUH. Here’s why hating is okay: it means you're passionate about things. People often associate hate with the opposite of love, but this is simply not true. Hate isn’t the opposite of love: indifference is. Hate is merely another form of passion. I think there are three spectrums of how you can feel about something: Hate, Love, and Indifference. And if you remove one of these three, it totally discombobulates this entire spectrum. If you don’t truly hate anything, how can you truly love anything? And vice versa. I’ll elaborate. 

• I hate non-chunky salsa because I absolutely adore the Walmart Fresh Cravings Restaurant Style Medium Salsa – which happens to be chunky. And after falling in love with this (price affordable) god-given chunky salsa, I have no choice but to feel hate towards its non-chunky alternative. Because it’s not the same and won’t ever come close.
• I hate the Packers because I have been a long-suffering Minnesota Vikings Fan.
• I hate Pepsi Products because I love Diet Coke. I will order water if you serve Pepsi products, and don't try to tell me Diet-Pepsi taste the same -- because it's not even close.
• I hate when people omit the oxford comma in any type of writing (it’s the comma before the and in a list) because I am a mean old grammar-nazi who loves Mr. Oxford Comma. I know it’s not technically required by some grammar guides now, but it sounds so much better and adds clarity to writing. For Christ's sake, please just use it so I don’t get an aneurysm every time I read your writing!
• I hate the ending of the Hunger Games because it was the opposite of the ending of Divergent, which I loved. (Which was different in the book, I’m not talking about the shitty moving ending here!!!)
• I hate raisins just because they suck. There is no deeper meaning to this one. And I absolutely hate when people put raisins in cookies. Just use chocolate chips like a civil human being, you heathen. 
• I hate single-wick candles because triple wick (Bath and Body Works, preferably) burn so much better! Seriously, just trust me on this one. I'm a candle-nazi.

Obviously, not everything you hate will have a love counterpart. Sometimes, an indifference arch-nemesis has its place. But what I’m getting at is that it’s okay to hate. Just not in a discriminatory fashion (I feel like that’s pretty self-explanatory though). And for the most part, you should avoid hating people; because that will cause you more harm than good. People are often too complex to hate, you should rather take the time to get to know someone, or be indifferent about them. However, for hating minuscule things and preferences, I think that’s just fine. It’s almost a necessity in life. Being passionate about the things you hate is just important to your personality composition as the things you love; so be a hater and be proud.

Oh, and one more thing – It’s okay to hate something and then change your mind about it. And you don’t have to be weird about it or try to deny it either. I’ll admit, there was a time in my life when I hated chunky salsa, but now I don’t, clearly. Same with the Warner Bros -- I'm on the road to forgiving them for not casting Miles Teller, since after watching the movie I think Austin Butler's performance was swell. That’s just growth. And it’s part of life, so leave my past-salsa-poor-taste and Warner-Bros-Grudge where it belongs -- in the past.

With Hate, Kate Thor