Counter Argument Position Paper
Meglyn Huber
WR 122
Jacob Miendersee
2/29/2013
Counter Argument Position Paper:
“What’s so Bad About Hate?” by Andrew Sullivan With so much diversity in the world, there will always be conflicts about beliefs and feelings towards each other. When those who act out on these negative feelings towards minorities, it is called a “hate crime”. To combat these vicious and horrible offenses, throughout history, presidents and National leaders have declared a symbolic “war on hate”. From President Clinton calling for a foreign expansion of hate crime laws to President Obama waging an entire war on terrorism. Although we’d like to think the opposite, hate certainly holds a large place in today’s society, in Andrew Sullivan’s “What’s so Bad About Hate”, he state that we do not exactly know what hate is: “For all our zeal to attack hate, we still have a remarkably vague idea of what it actually is,” (Sullivan, 182). Is hate however, too big to just ignore? While we all might have something about us for some one to hate, specific groups are mostly targeted and have it much worse. Sullivan’s essays essentially calls for a movement to get rid of the “hate crime” and define it as something else. He believes that what we now deem as “hate crimes” should have the same punishment as any crime: “And we should of course be vigilant that our most powerful institutions, most notably the government...ensure that the violent expression of hate is curtailed by the same rules that punish all violent expression,” (Sullivan, 191). Essentially he is believes that crimes motivated by hate should be categorized the same as crimes that are not. He also believes that hate cannot be stopped by the government and should be instead simply changing people’s opinions without using punishment: “...violence can and should be stopped by the government. In a free society, hate can’t and shouldn’t be,” (Sullivan, 191). Instead of the government using punishment to help put an end to hate, he
WR 122
Jacob Miendersee
2/29/2013
Counter Argument Position Paper:
“What’s so Bad About Hate?” by Andrew Sullivan With so much diversity in the world, there will always be conflicts about beliefs and feelings towards each other. When those who act out on these negative feelings towards minorities, it is called a “hate crime”. To combat these vicious and horrible offenses, throughout history, presidents and National leaders have declared a symbolic “war on hate”. From President Clinton calling for a foreign expansion of hate crime laws to President Obama waging an entire war on terrorism. Although we’d like to think the opposite, hate certainly holds a large place in today’s society, in Andrew Sullivan’s “What’s so Bad About Hate”, he state that we do not exactly know what hate is: “For all our zeal to attack hate, we still have a remarkably vague idea of what it actually is,” (Sullivan, 182). Is hate however, too big to just ignore? While we all might have something about us for some one to hate, specific groups are mostly targeted and have it much worse. Sullivan’s essays essentially calls for a movement to get rid of the “hate crime” and define it as something else. He believes that what we now deem as “hate crimes” should have the same punishment as any crime: “And we should of course be vigilant that our most powerful institutions, most notably the government...ensure that the violent expression of hate is curtailed by the same rules that punish all violent expression,” (Sullivan, 191). Essentially he is believes that crimes motivated by hate should be categorized the same as crimes that are not. He also believes that hate cannot be stopped by the government and should be instead simply changing people’s opinions without using punishment: “...violence can and should be stopped by the government. In a free society, hate can’t and shouldn’t be,” (Sullivan, 191). Instead of the government using punishment to help put an end to hate, he