Volume Four, Chapter Eight: Hate-Watchers… and the People They Make

Fox News has been the top cable news channel for at least a decade. Keeping Up With the Kardashians has had a long run on E! Entertainment Television. And John Cena is the long-time face of WWE. But Fox News is routinely trashed in mainstream society, the Kardashians are dysfunctional as hell, and adult males abhor Cena.

Those attributes are often overlooked by loyal fans. Conservatives will always watch Fox News. People will watch the Kardashians for… whatever. Cena’s Make-A-Wish work and popularity with women and children will guarantee him a career. But the aforementioned are also aided by another element: hate-watchers.

There are people so filled with hate that they often spend vast amounts of money and time just to tear something down. And don’t think somebody hasn’t noticed. Talk radio hosts and WWE did it first. Cable news and Internet personalities took notes, and laugh in their hate-watchers’ faces daily.

YouTube sensation Tommy “Mr Controversy” Sotomayor’s commentary on the matriarchal ways of the Black community, while often scathing, is really just common private conversation made public. Somebody somewhere has already heard, said or agreed with his words. Tommy’s supporters are very vocal. So are those who don’t support him.

Tommy’s critics go so far as to create multiple social media accounts just to argue with him. That same hate has led Tommy to an offer from XM Radio (which he refused, citing that corporate sponsors would lead to outside creative control) at least a dozen popular YouTube channels, and an upcoming independent movie called “A Fatherless America”.

People will pay good money just to boo John Cena. People shred Bill O’Reilly, Kimye, and Tommy Sotomayor, but they give away money and/or time just to shred them. The hate-watchers get an assumed moral victory, but their focus gets a real, tangible payday. The person fueled by hate has more to lose in the exchange than the hated.

If the hated up and vanishes, where can the hater turn that negative energy? Suppose Fox News, Cena, Tommy or the Kardashians were either yanked off the air, or worse, just voluntarily left the scene? Their antagonists can’t just turn on a dime into a ray of sunshine. A change like that, even if it was gradual, would be the death of them mentally, if not physically.

By nature, the hate-fueled person would have to create something new to lash out at. It’s easier to detest something already there. Consumers have the right to spend their time and money however they like. But those who know how to manipulate hate to their advantage earn the right to pimp them, too. It’s an agreed-upon, albeit uneven, exchange.