Remember the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland? He was intense and temperamental, disturbed and dramatic.

He may have been a fictional character yet he and his friend, the March Hare, were both quite insane. Imagine if we had people that eccentric, that energetic, that intense, and that disturbed running around in today’s fictional-sounding reality?

Wait. We do. The Mad Haters.

The Mad Haters is a great name for a punk rock band or even maybe a sports team. The very name invokes images of something you don’t want to mess with. They could even be a gang of youthful thugs fighting turf wars against their counterparts, the Rock Bottoms, or the Laughing Fools.

If only they were fictional characters in some drug-induced fantasy story. But alas, they are all too real.

A mad hater is someone who hates without reason, unless that reason is that you disagree with their politics. Or that you don’t live on the same street. Or that you like your eggs fried and not poached. Which end of the egg do you break first, the little end or the big end?  Well, Gulliver? Which is it? Chose widely because the mad haters are drooling for a pound of your flesh.

And make no mistake, they are everywhere. They are just waiting for you to say something nice or even factual about Trump. That’s the only evidence they need to fuel their insane rage about anything, not them.

The notion that people might actually respectfully disagree is so foreign and offensive to them they literally shriek in terror and uncontrolled rage at the prospect of actually listening to the other side. They are right, more than right, they are sacredly right. Everybody else is just wrong.

These are the same people who decided to spend the summer rioting and ruining people’s livelihoods. It never mattered to them if the businesses looted and burned down were on their side or not. They were mad and they were hating everything that seemed right.

It makes no sense for normal people to destroy everything in their path. Even if you agree with the cancel culture and the incredible censorship of social media. Even if you actually believe mainstream media is open, fair, and objective. Even then, you would think that you would want to only kill, maim, and destroy those who didn’t agree with you.

But then you’d just be a hater. Not a mad hater.

These things are just not done by sane people. Even people who hate don’t do these things. You have to be mad to do them. And to destroy and tear down anyone who gets in your way is a fantastic way to show your hatred. Scream loud enough and people will be giving up, being bullied into submission by the unpredictable madness of hate.

Of course, most people need an enemy if they want to blame others for the ills of their world. Haters hate Trump. This makes sense if you don’t think he is a person of value. If he personally harmed you or attacked you. You can hate if you want, providing there is a reason for your hatred.

But that would make you just a plain old hater.

To be a mad hater, you must hate with Biblical energy and with such an exaggerated sense of rightness and self-importance that there is no satisfaction in your mean-spirited actions. Families, children, and reputations are all fair game. Innocent people just trying to live their lives are also fair game.

You see a mad hater doesn’t care who they hurt. Collateral damage is just as good as directed victims, since both help you get your way. Once a hater goes mad, there is no stopping them. They will hate themselves and everyone around them into the ground.

To the mad haters of the world, I give you credit for one thing. Well, two things if you include that you make the rest of look good. Simply put, you show us what evil looks like.

And when evil is exposed to this degree, love looks pretty good. God is love. And right now, he sure does look like the only cure to the reign of the mad haters.

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Andy Becker is a pastor, retired counsellor and former CEO of a Hospice organization. His book, The Travelers, is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.