Abstract. Hate has repeatedly served as a catalyst for political mobilization, social cohesion, and authoritarian consolidation throughout history. Hate is with us here in the USA more than ever. The last time we saw it was in the 1950s with McCarthyism. Few of us remember. Let us meander a bit from fascist movements in Europe to white supremacist organizations in the United States and genocidal regimes in Africa and Asia. In all we see that political groups have exploited hatred as a means of constructing collective identity, simplifying complex problems, and legitimizing violence. This essay examines the political uses of hate across a range of contexts, including Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Ku Klux Klan, Rwanda’s Hutu Power movement, Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, and the Yugoslav conflicts of the 1990s, while also reflecting on the less overt but still destructive politics of ideological hate in the United States during the McCarthy era. By comparing these cases, the es...
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