The Lessons of Hate Groups-A Learning Opportunity

We have seen hate groups come and go in society but none have been able to sack a capital like they have in the past year. Hate is a disease brewing in our hometowns for decades and only now have they entered our collective conscious. Each challenge becomes an opportunity to learn and do something new so we can move past this era of cultural confusion. 

This is what I have learned from grinding against those who think in terms of hate. 

1.) False Sense of Importance: There is a belief of importance that is based in their perception of what it means to be an American, a heightened sense of entitlement, and a belief in their elevated value. While value may be judge more accurately using appropriate metrics, such groups don't work off logic and instead delve into misperception. 

2. Dysfunctional Group Identity: Such groups have an ethnocentric and distorted group identity around identity pieces like race, sports, social clubs, politics, etc... Sometimes they can be both, for example a group could harbor race and religious based hate while still belonging to a sports group. People outside that group are often discounted as somehow less worthy.

3. Criticism and Comparison: The group forms their identity by comparing themselves to others. Often these are superficial issues (i.e. like clothing brand or skin color or religion) and don't move into any particular depth (i.e. this is why they often misjudge). What you will notice is the particular negative and dark bent on their characterization of out-group members. 

4. Rigid Internal-External Control: The people within these groups are not as free as they think they are. Their opinions are tied to certain leadership figures and they fit within a hierarchical system where people are ordered. If members get into an argument with someone higher on chain they will be made an example out of (informally or formally). 

5. Improper Root Assumptions: Language is a logic, math is a logic, and behaviors follow a logic. If you follow the logic back it tells you about the very basic needs of the person. Each member is drawn to the ideology based on a similar deep need. Gaining a sense of their root assumptions tells you how they will act to fulfill those needs based on the values of the group and how they relate to those assumptions (deep psychological  need).