Moving beyond hatred is everyone’s business, whether on a small or large scale. This summer, the editorial team reached out to the public – online and in person – to answer these three questions: What to do to combat hatred on social media? How to overcome hatred at the individual and collective levels? How do you imagine a society without hate? Here are the solutions and messages received.
What to do to combat hatred on social networks?
- Block hate if the person is unwilling to listen. If people are calling you rude names and you tell them you don’t appreciate that, but they still continue, block them, it’s what that button is for. You don’t have to, and you shouldn’t have to feel like you need to deal with that hate.
- Decrease time spent on social networks!
- Prohibit all comments that insult or insult a group, in particular on the basis of race, religion, sexual or political orientation, gender or ethnicity!
- Remain closed: no response, no stimulus.
- Send and be love.
- Continue to denounce bullies, because it is by uniting our voices that we can shake things up.
- Create a system that “eliminates” shameful messages.
- I don’t engage with it directly. I believe it’s very hard to manage hate on social media. I engage with it offline via conversations with people and ask them how these situations make them feel and have a discussion surrounding how we can avoid such situations from unfolding in the future.
- By responding, and thereby making obvious our convictions and opinions in an attempt to positively influence the authors of these hate messages.
- Perhaps respond positively by saying that we do not understand the meanness behind these words which perhaps express fear or great suffering … Ask if the speaker could explain the reason they use such words, because by speaking, we can make ourselves understood better … And respect for differences attracts respect for our ours …
- Teach people that, if you don’t have anything positive to comment on, don’t comment at all. Always have respect for the other person.
- Know how to identify it, report it quickly, zero tolerance. Free expression does not include hate speech.
- Establish a clear legal framework and, therefore, ban harmful behavior. Above all, we need to make social media users aware of the possible violence on these platforms, as well as the impact of our behavior on others.
- In our opinion, there are several tactics that we can use. First, we have to denounce it and even censor it, depending on the situation. Then there is the Socratic method, that is, asking questions of the person until the false knowledge of the latter is removed. Finally, there is awareness that attacks hatred indirectly. This is all the more important as technology entered our lives quickly, even before there were any standards of etiquette attached to its use. Young people talk about cyberbullying in schools, but not everyone who uses social media is aware of it. We believe that there is not just one way to deal with hatred, but a variety of actions depending on the context and within our own limits.
Imagine: A society without hate is a society that …
- communicates and shares.
- is safe, peaceful and inclusive.
- is a society with an open mind.
- ensures respect and safety of all. A society of well-being.
- can go very far.
- is more beautiful.
- puts its energies in more constructive places. That allows themselves to dream, question themselves, grow!
- would be paradise.
- which is very open-minded, a society which is human.
- an inclusive society.
- evolves in peace.
- is egalitarian.
- starts with education.
- is just.
- includes all types.
- that can heal from all forms of violence against one another. It’s where people will be heard without judgement. Society could become more if we cared more about what our next step is towards a better future and not about how to erase one another out of existence.
- a society of compassion and love, because where there is listening and empathy, hatred cannot survive.
- is healthy and united.
- accepts diversity, encourages safe space, motivates their citizens to learn from different people/cultures, embraces what works while reducing what doesn’t.
- equality or equal opportunity.
- grows with strength.
- is free.
- is more likely to have cohesion.
- learns and applies kindness, respect, autonomy and responsibility at an early age. This society then becomes stronger since everyone’s potential can emerge!
- is caring and prepares the basis for the growth of each individual.
How to overcome hatred at the individual and collective levels?
- Respect and love each other.
- Look into yourself and ask how others see you so you can have a full view of who you are and what you don’t like or wish to change, learn why you want to change this aspect and grow from there as an individual to stop self-hate. Once you have grown as a person and evolved to love yourself at your truest form, you can be comfortable with the people around you. When you understand and stand your ground as to who you are, you’re more willing to understand the people around you and stand to protect everyone else.
- Never respond to hate with hate. Respond to hatred with reflection and knowledge. A hateful person is only someone who is afraid of what they don’t understand.
- Educate and raise awareness at an early age.
- Empathy, compassion and non-violence.
- “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that” – Martin L. King
- Patience too. It’s going to take a long time to get everyone on the “Love & Peace” boat.
- Reply until you gain a more favorable opinion from detractors.
- With a lot of love, tolerance and respectful communication.
- Understand that hate messages say more about the person who wrote them than about us. Give a firm response (setting boundaries), but with respect. Kindness breeds kindness.
- Know how to identify it and not remain passive. We have to name it as unacceptable and report it.
- Let’s get to know each other personally and collectively in all kindness, in all openness. Let us have faith in the idea that people’s needs, rights and worldviews are as important and just as our own. Let us make all sorts of violence really unacceptable.
- Without accepting hatred and without minimizing it, we believe in taking the first step in kindness towards others. Hatred is often the symptom of misinformation that leads to fear of others, or unease that is transferred to the other. By offering the first olive branch to the other, we then break the vicious circle of hatred.