What the fuck is wrong with people? From our myopic Prime Minister here in Australia inciting the country into “war with the boats” to stop “illegals” from entering our country, to twits in the US throwing up their racist arms at a multilingual ad campaign by Coca Cola featuring different coloured Americans singing in different languages, it seems that the people of this world are fuelled by malice.

I’m a big fan of Lorde, the singer/songwriter from New Zealand, not just because she’s a Kiwi, but because she’s a talented young girl who writes interesting and well-considered music who doesn’t have to twerk in order to make an impact. I watched her performance at the Grammys on YouTube and then made the mistake of reading a few of the comments. It was like watching a car accident, I couldn’t look away. The amount of hate-fuelled, vile taunts that were pitched this young girl’s way were astounding. Comments ranged from “is she having a seizure” (in reference to her dancing) to “she’s ugly,” “what’s up with her hair,” “she looks like a witch” through to “I hate you, you bitch.” I was gobsmacked. Here was a young, smart, talented young woman who I would consider to be an excellent role model to girls everywhere being torn apart mainly by other women. I mean, if you’re not a fan, you’re not a fan, but where is this “haters gon’ hate” thing coming from? Since when is it good form to personally and vehemently attack someone you don’t even know on a public forum? I don’t get it.

My housemate says that this is the age of the internet, where you can write what you want, fairly anonymously without fear of recrimination. I get that, but why then, would one choose to express hateful remarks? What is it in the human psyche that revels in being nasty? When did we forget that we’re all the same? Did we ever know? Where did this separatist belief come from, is it just religion, or are the secret governments of the world conspiring to isolate us from each other? We are all of us made up of the same stuff, our bodies all have the same things in them, we all shit, we all cry, we’re all born, we all die, we all feel the same emotions even if we have different responses to them. In essence, we are all connected by this simple fact, therefore we are all one. I struggle with compassion for my fellow human at times, particularly if I think that fellow human is stupid, but hate? I can’t hate anybody, especially since I understand that my irritation with someone else is usually because I see something I don’t like about myself reflected in them. To hate on them is to hate on myself, and frankly, I’ve done enough of that. What a waste of energy.

I don’t know the answer to this one. It confounds me, it saddens me, and all I can do is shake my head in bewilderment and go listen to Lorde.

Rant