I can’t hate people no matter how much they deserve it. It might be my overly empathetic personality, but I’m simply incapable of hating anyone. At most I’d rather not be in their company. It startles me sometimes to see how passionately some will wish death upon people. “YOU MONSTER!” “Less than human..” “Scum of the earth!” Even the most horrific people on earth, or at least those that’ve done the most horrific things, I cannot find it in my heart to truly hate them. Not really. I think there’s something really hypocritical about hatred. Like, how can there be THAT MANY of us who look like humans and talk like humans but are actually monsters in disguise. Or maybe they become monsters. Or maybe they always were monsters and never knew it. “Couldn’t be me, though.” “I could never..” That is, until you do. Could be in a moment, could be over a period of time.. or maybe you always were.. ‘il monstro’ but never realized it. Or maybe.. (just maybe) there are no monsters.
Trigger Warning (because I’m so sensitive):
Today, I'm going to talk about 'monsters' and the things they do. I will be referencing topics like fascism, genocide, suicide and pedophilia as well as referencing the people who commit them in an empathetic light (while trying not to downplay the experience of victims or justifying any of the acts, of course). This is obviously going to be a darker one.
There was once a man who grew up optimistic, eyes wide and full of wonder. Creative type. Fancied himself an artist. Small town. Humble beginnings and all that. Life spat on him, though. He was rejected and neglected by most. Was he misunderstood? Was he simply not good enough? Was it just not his time, yet? Time would tell. Eventually, though, he was heard. He was acknowledged. His influence cannot be understated. In fact, he changed the world in many ways.
Some of you probably guessed that I’m talking about The Hitman, The Moustache Man, the Big Bad Wolf, himself, Adolph Hitler. He’s the easiest example of a notorious person. He’s probably the most hated person in modern history; it’s even gotten to the point where his very name makes people recoil. Not only that, but his humble beginnings have become a cliché of the ‘unexpected twist villain.’ Thing is, though, I could have also been talking about Walter Disney, Vincent Van Gogh, Thomas Chatterton, both of the Wright brothers or even Chris Chan (maybe never changed the world but yk). It’s a cliché origin story because it’s common and really isn’t any kind of villain origin story at all. That’s a pretty average upbringing, even with the creativity. There’s nothing special about it. The most one could say is that creative people tend to be more idealistic, maybe have something to prove, possibly more prone to misanthropy. While these things are all true, it’s not like only creative people become ‘monsters’. Even with these examples I gave, the people had it relatively good growing up. What about those who truly had it horrible. You know, the neglected, abused, poverty stricken. Yes, these guys have a more of a tendency to get mixed up in crime, drugs, all kinds of systematic disadvantages. Not all of them, but many. Does this make them monsters, though? Does committing crime to support your family make you a monster? Does using/ abusing hard drugs when life gets a little much make you a monster, either? If so (for either of those cases), I can tell you there are just as many monsters that come from high places, too. What makes a monster? Is it your actions? Is it your thoughts? Is it how you were raised? Is it your socioeconomic background? Is the concept of the ‘Joker origin story’ another lie we’ve been fed?
What of those who were manipulated by said monsters? Were they just victims? That one guy I mentioned earlier managed to manipulate an entire country into thinking he was a hero, you know. Were they all monsters? I mean, his influence is still felt by many, even now, even if it’s not as mainstream. What of those cultists? There’re many of them. Some cultists are convinced to carry out murder. Others are simply scammed out of their money. There are also those who are convinced to mate with their leader. There are also those taught to toss the meds, because you just CAN’T trust them doctors. They don’t know they’re in a cult, though. It’s everyone else who’s confused. Are they just dumb? Gullible? Idiots? Are they just w*ird?
Couldn’t be me, though.
I could never..
Sure, I almost hot red-pilled and radicalized last year. It all started out as radical feminism kinda cringe then became women do be like that, don’t they and soon enough, Mr. Youtube almost convinced me that maybe they should go back to the kitchen. Still, I could never be manipulated.. not by any cult or moustache man..
I could never..
But where does racism come from, anyway? I like black people. I think they’re cool. I’m black. I never got those police people’s deal over there in the US. Like.. why’ve white people felt the need to discriminate against everyone who’s not them? They’re so dumb. Dumb dumb white people. Absolute trash. No right to an opinion at all. Especially the men. What made white men think they’re special? Pigs, all of them. If I was around for the 50s and I was in their place, grown the same, taught the same things, I wouldn’t end up the same way, right? Slavery? Imperialism? Colonialism? Who could possibly be in favour of all that stuff?! You know what we should do? Let’s just delete the dumb people. Just end them. Death to all men! Enslave white people! How about that? Cure racism! Cure hunger! Cure supremacy! All is right with the world.
What do you mean that won’t solve these problems and we’ll just be doing the exact things we think we’re trying to fight against?
Nonsense! These monsters who think they have more right to live than others deserve to die! Deplatform them! Eat their food! Poop on their lawn! Cure the world of such useless people.
Coke-sniffing, hair-banging, car-pooling, pistol-firing, Cheers-watching, rock and roll listening, neon lighting, party-rocking, bacon and eggs-eating, froyo-drinking, yoga trying, coffee-sipping white people!
Football watching, chip-munching, chicken-eating, beer-drinking, no-good-smelling, knuckle-headed, fist-bumping, Robert De Niro-impersonating, car-driving, cat-calling, off-jerking, Minecraft-playing, soundcloud-rapping, stupid men!
How dare they stereotype and discriminate against us?! Where does such intolerance even come from?!
Couldn’t be me..
-What about the really sick people, though-
What do you mean?
-Oh, you know, the serial killers, rapists, animal torturers, the pedos-
Oh, them. Yeah, you said it, yourself: they’re sick. They’re mentally unwell. Maybe they’ve gone untreated.
-But are they monsters?-
Mental illness can and does affect everyone. Maybe you’re born with it. Maybe you developed it because of some traumatic experience, maybe it developed over time. Often these illnesses are more common than we think. There are also some things we don’t commonly consider illnesses but need to be treated as such. The big one I mentioned in an earlier essay is loneliness. That’s a killer. Also, it should be noted that loneliness doesn’t just come from being alone, it’s just as common (and maybe more damaging) to be lonely in the presence of others. In fact, there are cases where solitude is necessary to get away from all the noise. We can’t have too much of that, either, though. Loneliness is a killer because it can quite easily mutate into some other, more recognizable illnesses which can lead to great tragedy. Loneliness can result in depression, personality disorders, apathy, addiction, social anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease, and many, many more.
Also, I think I’ve been (relatively) light up until this point. Here comes the heavy stuff.
People never see it coming. They always say they never saw it coming, until it’s happened. Then it all makes sense in hindsight. It’s the big things where someone you knew does something you never thought possible.
It could never happen to them…
..then it does.
Could even happen to you.
It could be someone you knew who just.. gave up. Ended things, maybe. No one saw it coming.. until it happened. Or it could be your favourite actor, musician, director, internet personality, whoever who’s now facing all kind of charges for sexual misconduct or murder or something else. They just keep popping up, don’t they? It’s always such a bone-chilling thing when someone you know and trust turns around and does the unimaginable. Then it’s only afterwards, you see the signs. It’s the little things. A little comment here or there. A general vibe. The realization that you had no idea what kinds of sicknesses were building up inside them is a more than a little unsettling, but you can’t blame yourself for it. There’s nothing you can do about it afterwards, and you also have to factor in that a person can’t be helped if they don’t want to be. A lot of the time, though, these people don’t even know they’re sick, and that’s precisely what I want to get into. Some years ago, when a certain internet personality had done away with themself, that was a big wake up call for me (as well as the internet, at large). I guess it was my first real experience with that kind of thing where I really could, in retrospect, see that this did not just come out of nowhere. I did see the downward spiral as it played out. I even managed, purely by chance, to catch that infamous livestream. Mental illness is no joke. It can and will affect all of us at some point, but still we write it off. We are quick to give people labels and treat them as an ‘other’. Getting on to those one thousand and one predators that seem to be popping up every day, you’d think we’d know better than to treat these people as less than human at this point. You might get upset with me from hopping straight from that last case to this one, but the point I’m trying to make is that this is the exact same issue. The fact that we have different attitudes towards these particular cases is a big reason, I think, why these issues are getting so bad. Untreated mental illness can lead people down different paths, often destructive ones. Though there is obviously still progress to be made, our attitudes towards suicide, addiction and other self-destructive actions are met with far more sympathy than those whose actions are projected outward. Of course, this isn’t to dismiss the trauma of the victims or their desire for justice, but we can only fix the damage so much without addressing the problems that caused the damage in the first place. They’re the same issues that cause self-destruction, we just don’t deal with them the same way. The amount of people who are being exposed for having done these things, probably because of #metoo, is shocking. Is it that they’re all just monsters who should be executed or are these behaviours and tendencies just more common than we once thought because of internal problems that just aren’t dealt with nearly enough?
Maybe it’s some kind of defense mechanism, but we’re so quick to distance ourselves from those who do wrong (or, at least, deviate from the 'norm'). We’re so quick to slap on labels and assign them the role of the ‘villain’, the ‘evil’, ‘il monstro’. 'Less than human.' 'Burn the witch.' Are they that different from us? Maybe so, but how? What drove them to where they are? How does one become capable of doing these things? What are their circumstances? How different are we, really? I don’t do drugs or smoke or anything, and frankly, I’d like to think I’m too smart to get wrapped up in that kind of thing. However, I’ve never truly been in any kind of position to have access to these things, either. I couldn’t get that stuff if I tried. Not yet. Also, I do have a big fascination in drug culture and substance abuse in general (which might manifest itself in my work), but I’d still like to think that I’d know better than to get mixed up for real. Who’s to say I’ll be able to say the same thing in a few years or even one year from now? They say execute the rapists, but it’s not like those people expected good things to happen to them, did they? These are guys with nothing to loose. Even if they do have much to lose, they’re willing to put it all on the line for even a brief moment of blind, animalistic insanity.
Why've antiheroes become so popular recently? There's the whole meme:
Yes, it’s funny meme haha, but of course, it’s based on truth. Even if most of us will never do the things these characters do, does it not say something about ourselves that we can relate to them? Sometimes we even get a sense of catharsis from some of their actions, even if it’s just for the two hours you spend with them. How many times have you wished DEATH upon a fictional character? How many times have you REJOICED when a character got killed? The lovely thing about fiction is that it allows us to do things we can’t do in reality. What does your fiction say about you?
Dehumanization is dangerous. It’s deadly, even. We assign people the role of ‘monster’ or ‘idiot’ or whatever so we distance ourselves from them. This prevents us from viewing them for what they are: people. This apathy is what fuels the toxic wasteland that is political discourse. It’s what fuels prejudice. It’s what births ‘monsters.’ You’re not special. You’re not immune. There are no heroes. There are no villains. No, not even that guy. Not him, either. Not her. No one. The second you trick yourself into thinking you’re any better or worse than those people for whatever reason, you’re opening yourself up to trouble.
Dehumanization is intolerance. It could manifest itself as racism, sexism or any other form of discrimination. It could manifest itself as contempt for idiots, perverts, elitists or any other label. It could even be a hatred for the wicked, you know, the ‘monsters.’ However justified or unjustified the reason, I just don’t think it’s a good thing to practice. We’re so quick to assign people these roles: ‘good guy’, ‘bad guy’, ‘smart one’, ‘dumb one.’ In reality, we’re all a little bit of all of them. I suppose it’s another way the human brain tries to make this confusing thing called life a bit simpler, but that doesn’t make it okay. If we could all take a second to look at each other and realize that we’re all people (people in different circumstances, but still people) we might actually start approaching things properly. We might find out how these people we call monsters are born/ how we create them. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine a world where people actually step out of their little worlds and look at the world from each other’s eyes instead of creating a character out of them? Neither can I, but here’s another little effort of mine to make that just a bit more plausible.
Here’s to remembering that there’s absolutely nothing that you can’t do!
Boy oh boy do I hope this doesn’t age poorly!
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