Regarding The Stranger and hate—I think Christopher gets to the core of it: By no means do we “hate everything,” but we’re willing to criticize anything, and have no problem actively hating things other papers sugarcoat or ignore. As Christopher points out, scorn is more memorable than praise, and by simply displaying our willingness to “hate” anything, we cultivate a perception that we “hate everything” simply by comparison.

But underlying all this is The Stranger’s occasional willingness to hate things for ridiculous reasons—i.e. Charles’s pronouncement that “All Arthur Miller plays are bad” at the top of his recent review of The Crucible. Ridiculous biases have a long and glorious history at The Stranger, but add plenty of weight to arguments that we “hate everything.” (If people don’t understand the basis of our infrequent hatred, they’re likely to brace for the worst and expect to be hated, thus continuing the perception of The Stranger hating everything…)

But as has been made clear, The Stranger loves a gazillion more things than it hates, and it’s nice to have a reader be the one to point this out, thus setting this “Anatomy of Stranger Hatred” Slog thread in motion…