'Those who cannot remember the past ...

... are condemned to repeat it."

– George Santayana

Buckle up, buttercup.

Let's talk about those who hate. Now, you may not be comfortable using that term to describe those around you (or yourself), but you might recognize a few things in the following paragraphs. And what you discover may make you squirm in your seat. That's okay: self-realization isn't a bad thing, especially if you work to change.

Now, you're probably not among the worst and you may not be actively pursuing a life of hate, so there's hope. But by being willing to accept the words and actions of others, whether by agreeing in full or in part, means that you are enabling the spread of hate.

And you certainly don't want that on your conscience, right?

Fiction, not fact

If you haven't been living under a rock for the past few years, you've certainly noticed that people are growing angrier at the world around them. Egged on by talk radio, social media, politicians, and even preachers, it's safe to say that Americans are generally more upset with each other with each passing day.

Sure, there's plenty of reasons (or excuses) for this downward slide of personal behavior, and there's no one cause. But it isn't hard to find a few instigators, those who are actively spreading the disease.

One of the more prominent of these Typhoid Marys of Hate is Alex Jones, the star of the website InfoWars. You may know him as one of the primary corrupters of truth on the internet. Jones eagerly pounces on tragedies like mass shootings, labelling them as "false flags" – a government-run covert operation intended to mislead – and insisting that what we see on the news is not real.

Jones has repeatedly insisted that school shootings like those at Sandy Hook Elementary and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were fake and that the children murdered in those events never existed. Taking advantage of the rising tide of anger in this country, Jones has made a career out of fueling that hatred, convincing many of his audience to fully believe every word he says despite the obvious facts available.

I will note here that Jones has, somewhat reluctantly, admitted that at least some of these mass murders are not staged events and that the victims are real. Of course, he only changed his tune after he was named in a lawsuit by families of the victims, so I would question his sincerity.

No easy answers

Part of the public acceptance of conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones has to be the willingness of more and more people to take as truth whatever they hear from the people they like, know, or trust.

That's an unfortunate level of indifference that I've discussed on these pages many times before. And I've also highlighted the growing eagerness of many Americans to shed the shackles of what they call "political correctness." People are more comfortable being public with their prejudices. I don't hesitate to say that many are proud to show off their true selves after hiding their feelings for much of their lives.

Such levels of intolerance are not new, of course, and are not limited to the U.S.A. Although we have a disturbing history of institutional racial and religious bias with the targets being of many different backgrounds – Native Americans, blacks, the Irish, Eastern Europeans, and many others – we eventually find a way to overcome the differences and, at least officially, grow to be more accepting. Smarter, cooler heads will prevail – they always do – and we as a nation will be better as we move forward.

For now, unfortunately, we have become less than we should be and there are indications of a worsening trend. Take, for example, the results of a recent survey that points to an alarming rise of intolerance in which one's own religious belief is used as a defense.

We're familiar with cases of business owners who have refused service to gay couples. This survey found the percentage of Americans who support that form of discrimination rose from 16 percent in 2014 to 30 percent this year. While that's still a minority, it's also a near-doubling of approval in just five years, a tendency that could easily climb much higher.

That same survey found similar spikes in the number of Americans who are comfortable with these businesses also refusing service to Jews and African-Americans. What's notable and troubling is that this support is rising along nearly every political and religious demographic. It may come as somewhat of a surprise, sadly, that those who consider themselves Christians – specifically evangelical and mainline Protestants – are leading the way in this wave of intolerance.

The people who declare to be followers of the Prince of Peace, the Bread of Life, and the Light of the World are more and more becoming less of a reflection of the Man they worship.

I think you can see what's next

At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, I can't help but draw comparisons to the Nazis' policy of Untermensch, a term to describe people whom they deemed as unworthy and inferior. (The word is a direct translation of "under man," a description employed by T. Lothrop Stoddard, an American journalist and author – and Klansman – whose writings on eugenics and race are seen as a major influence in the establishment of the racial purity politics of the Nazi party.) Much as whole races were devalued in the eyes of those in control back in those dark days, we can see parallels today.

As Holocaust survivor and Nobel prize winner Elie Wiesel once said: "... indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor – never his victims, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten ...."

We need to find a way to convince our friends and neighbors to reverse the trend of hatred and intolerance before we repeat the mistakes of the past.

Editor's Note: Archived columns and resources can be found at Scott's blog, thenonfictionsection.com.