Individual hatred stems from perceived grievance while group hatred targets identity

Evidence

Let me begin by distinguishing between individual and group hatred. Indi­ vidual hatred usually has some minimum of rationality, even if not of justifica­ tion. It starts with a sense of grievance, which in turn derives from some perceived slight or injury. This might be old or new, real or imagined, direct or vicarious; it is usually related, at least in the hater’s mind if not in actual fact, to some specific action or—more especially in the Middle East—utterance. Nor­ mally, we hate those who we believe have wronged us, but it is not unusual to hate those whom we have wronged. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1010

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clean working definition of individual vs. group hatred — the crux of the book’s taxonomy.
• XREF: The closing insight — hating those we have wronged — echoes psychological work on self-justification (Festinger, and more recently moral-disengagement literature). — connects to: Anti-fans construct their identity in opposition to the target of their hatred — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 393