I understand. I have been there before. Maybe you’re standing in an excruciatingly long line at the grocery store trying to avoid getting bumped in the hip by someone else’s cart. Maybe you’re watching spots for the class you need fill up rapidly before it’s even time for your enrollment pass. Maybe someone just cut you off on the highway, or maybe a rude person just snapped at you. And then you feel prompted to say those three words: “I hate people.”

As just implied, I am certainly not innocent of this little transgression. Nowadays it is almost trendy to love to hate people. It is tempting as well. It is simply so easy to get frustrated with crowds, or rude people, or seemingly incompetent people and then declare your disdain for your own species. Of course, it is just a silly expression and I sincerely doubt any of us who say things like this actually hate people. Even still, I really think it would be to our great benefit to stop saying we hate people.

Perhaps I am “overthinking” this but I do believe saying “I hate people” is, at its root, offensive. Comical maybe, but I do sometimes find myself personally offended when I hear another person say “I hate people.” I think, well I am included in “people” so that person must hate me as well.

It goes far beyond my own personal reactions to the words. In saying you hate people, you are insinuating you are superior to the masses, perhaps more deserving or of greater value. As the second word of the expression clearly spells out, it is an expression of hate. Moreover, it is an expression which validates that kind of hate and makes it seem alright for others to also say they hate people.

If we do truly want to improve the world and foster a global community of love and understanding we, quite frankly, cannot get by with saying things like “I hate people” any longer.

Paradoxically, not only does saying you hate people imply your believed elitism over other people, it at the very same time suggests an intense self-hatred. After all, if you are saying you hate people, you yourself are a person. It is as if you dislike being grouped along with individuals you purport to hate. You are essentially saying you hate yourself too. You deserve better than that. We all do.

It is high time, I believe, to replace this negativity with good vibes. Of course, there is no avoiding getting annoyed at crowds or lines but maybe try just being annoyed at the crowds or lines themselves and not the people in them. There are numerous better things you can do with your mental energy than claiming to harbor hatred for seven billion individuals. Say you love those seven billion instead, and I really do think it will feel a lot better.

In a sense, I do think we are a very idealistic generation, hoping we can work hard to make the world safer, more beautiful, and more equal. Yet, we can also be very cynical, muttering things like “I hate people.” The truth is, this idealism and cynicism are not wholly compatible. It doesn’t make sense to say we want the world to be a better place for all people while also purporting to hate those same people. Let’s, therefore, love people instead and proclaim that love, loudly.