Nuts and Bolts: hatefacts.

Language can be a beautiful thing, illuminating the world around us.

On the other hand...

Here's the definition of a hatefact from the Urban Dictionary:

A "hate fact" is a matter of truth, fact, or reality that supports an argument based on stereotype or prejudice.

That statement takes a bit of working out, but suppose we consider the highly prejudiced statement Martians are less intelligent than Earthlings.

(It's prejudiced because we know nothing of Martians (and, let's face it, not really very much of Earthlings.)

A hatefact might be that the cosmic radiation on Mars does not allow the survival of multi-cellular life as we know it.

That really is a fact, and it does tend to support the Martians-are- less-intelligent-than-Earthlings idea. But it still makes Martians seem less intelligent, so it can (though shouldn't) be dismissed as a hatefact - a fact that supports a prejudice.


Thomas Jefferson said There is not a truth existing which I fear...or would wish unknown to the whole world.

He had more faith in human nature than I have. He had more courage than me, too.

But he was right, all the same.

Word To Think About Today: hatefact. The word hate comes from the Old English hatian. The word fact comes from the Latin factum, which means something done, from facere, to make.