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As a moderately famous person with a lot of haters I have a lot of observations about this and have come to a fundamentally different conclusion. Haters are simply heavy users of the basic human social mechanism known as Altruistic Punishment. This mechanism rewards calling people out on perceived flaws with an immediate boost to social status and enhanced opportunities for bonding. Under most circumstances Altruistic Punishment helps bind society together, but like all social reward systems ends up being abused, sometimes chronically.


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