HOW HATE SPEECH HAS BECOME MAINSTREAM

"... (a person) hated the ... (a religious group), as did everyone in ... (a village),..." (An excerpt from a bestselling novel)

I was reading a novel by a bestselling author yesterday when I came across the sentence above. I paused to reflect on how easy it has become to write in a mainstream novel that a whole group of people hates another whole group of people, and no one raises an eyebrow.

I deliberately removed the names of the religious groups involved, and the author, because unfortunately this wasn't a unique experience. I have read similar statements by authors belonging to many religions, against many religious groups. 

I kept thinking how would this author knew that every member of the other religious group hated his religious group? Did he ask all of them, did he conduct a survey, or is it just guilt by association; because some members of that group have expressed hateful ideas about another religion, therefore, it must mean all of them hate every member of the other religious group?

The saddest part is that many of these authors are bestselling authors, and many of these books are bestsellers too, and yet it seems like no one has bothered or dared to challenge these automatic assumptions of hate.

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