Dictators fall when they're overconfident; they stay in power when they're paranoid.
Masha GessenRead
Abstracted hatred is incredibly potent. There's never the risk of having it challenged by the reality of living human beings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Abstract hatred is powerful because it avoids real human interactions that challenge its validity.
This quote highlights the idea that hatred, when removed from direct human encounters, can grow unchecked and become more influential. It suggests that when individuals or groups harbor hatred without facing the complexities and realities of real people, that hatred can become an overwhelming force, distorting perceptions and dismissing the humanity of others.
Themes
HatredHumanityRealityPotencyInteraction
In practice
Example use cases
A speech on the dangers of online hate speech.
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There's the hypothesis that things just keep happening to Russians, things that keep turning them into the same kind of subjects, as opposed to citizens. The more credible hypothesis, I think, is that there is a kind of trauma, a social trauma that is passed on from generation to generation.
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We learn to think of history as something that has already happened, to other people. Our own moment, filled as it is with minutiae destined to be forgotten, always looks smaller in comparison.
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Russia, at the start of the 21st century, at least in its larger cities, very much resembled the United States of the early 1990s: being gay was no longer criminal or shameful, but it was still not a topic for polite conversation or public discussion.
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... fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there-because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change. And again, I don't think it should exist.
Masha GessenRead
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