All too often Good gets Drowned Out by Bad (+ Why We Need to Stop Letting that Happen)

I want to talk about haters. 

More specifically I want to talk about how all to often we let haters drown out the true messages behind things.  

I know this may seem kind of hypocritical to some, as this, too, might seem like hating, but please read this through before judging.  

So as some of you may recall, back at the end of September Emma Watson made a speech at the UN for the HeForShe campaign (If you haven't seen it, I beg you to watch it, I put a link to it on this blog, find that post here).

I really can't say enough good things about it. It was so eloquent, she was so inspiring, the whole thing was just beautifully done.

Unfortunately, the speech also caused a lot of people to direct hate at Ms. Watson, she was threatened with everything from murder, to assault, to leaking personal photos.

First off, that's unacceptable. You're allowed your opinion, but you shouldn't be threatening (seriously or not) other people for having theirs. (I'll discuss this in more detail in a later post)

Second, the way we let negative things take the attention over what should really matter really needs to stop. This happens way too much, and really impedes us as we strive to create a better world.

In the days after Emma Watson made the speech, I'm quite certain I saw more about the negative way some people decided to respond to it, rather than the (amazing) meaning and point of the speech itself. 

And once again society was letting the good get drowned out by the bad. 

Why do we do this? We're giving the haters and the wrongdoers more glory than the victims or the do-gooders. 

Why are we so fascinated by bad deeds, bad things? We're giving the haters more attention than the crusaders for good, and that, is just fundamentally wrong. 

Haters will do and say things that are mean and bad, and yes sometimes it's hard to understand why, but it's also because their actions are despicable that we need to move away from them, they don't need more publicity.  

In the end, the most important thing is the message of those trying to do good, not what the haters are saying/doing in response to it. 

We need to make sure that people that respond negatively/inappropriately don't get to negate all

the potential, all the good intentions, all the efforts of people like Emma Watson, Anita Sarkeesian, and anyone else fighting to change the world for the better are not wasted. 

Anita Sarkeesian

(And yes the two names I explicitly mentioned are female, unfortunately women trying to change the world seem to get the brunt of the hate)

We need to change this system because it almost encourages hate. When you get all this (albeit bad) glory and all this attention for being awful... Well I can see why those who feel antagonized or unimportant/irrelevant in other people's lives would be tempted to commit extreme acts of hate

At the end of the day, we probably don't even need to shun or punish the ones who are negative and disrespectful to an extreme. 

By being awful, in a way, the haters are setting up their own demise - they're proving why there needs to be change. 

And the majority of those that see what the haters say are disgusted by it, and they flock to the side AGAINST the hate and do the opposite of what the haters advocate. 

That doesn't seem like a very great deal for them does it? You get people to dislike you, and they don't do what you want them to. 

Yes we need to call people out when they do things that are unacceptable, but we really need to make sure the original people's good intentions are not overshadowed by those who chose to react negatively. 


And perhaps most important of all: in spreading our well intentioned messages, we need to try and make sure we are not missing the point.

We want this! :D

We don't want this