A common error is believing love and hate are opposites of the same coin. Not true.
The opposite of love is indiffence. Hate is separate and distinct. You can love AND hate something. You can't love and be indifferent to something.

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

You can be indifferent to something but hate yourself for it.

Or be indifferent to something and love yourself for it.

BigDon - I think it is a very complex thing to love and hate something/someone. But you are quite right in your assessment. Or at least - I agree with you.

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---"Why do things have to suck so bad?" a friend once asked me.
"Because space is a vacuum and that's a lot of suck." I replied.
(Actual quote)---

I agree too, I just like to argue.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Hmmm... Well, love is to like something intensly, to hate is to dislike something intensly.

So by definition hate is the opposite to love, and it is not possible to both love and hate a single thing. However, in many cases you can divide a complex thing into many aspects, and have seperate feelings about each aspect, your emotional reaction to the overall thing is a weighting of the positive versus the negative sides.

As for indifference, well, that is the absence of emotion about something. Absence of something is not the opposite of that thing.

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Game over, you lose, we hope you enjoyed playing the exciting game of Thermodynamics...

Says the man with "thermodynamics" in his signiture.

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

Well, the absence of thermodynamics in my signature would not be it's opposite.

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Game over, you lose, we hope you enjoyed playing the exciting game of Thermodynamics...

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Wonderful poem.
Truly the painful part is the time when the wound is still fresh.
But time heals all wounds isn't it?

IMO when you loved a person and ended up hating that person , that is possible but not permanently.
You never know when you'll get over that hate feeling , only time will tell.

Personally I think it's the ones you love the most that are the ones you're capable of hating the most. Because a stranger or casual friend, when they screw you over you can shrug it off.

When someone close to you sinks the knife in you're capable of hate and despair in its truest form.

Well I am following your arguments Vegan, but when that person (close family/relative or loved ones) pass on (die) you still mourn them, even thou you have the hate/resentment of what they did. This to me means you still loved them, even thou you hated them so much.
Growing up for me means I have learned to love and hate a person at the same time, as said before there are things that a person may do/say that hit you to the core (if there is such a thing) and you hate this person for that. At the same time the very same person might be the only person you know who gets you and is capably of doing (and does regularly) the things that melt your heart.

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This whole internet thing is probably not a passing fad.-Ronald Brak
While speech might be free, consequences cost.-Doodler

What is the opposite of hot? Cold. What is cold? The absence of heat.

My opposite of love? Indifference. What is indifference? An absence of love. Absence of love is not hate.

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

I agree with Don. In this case the opposite of Hot is lack of heat, in function. Call it "cold" but the fact is that heat simply is absent. And so his "opposite of love is indifference" would be correct. Same goes for hate.

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---"Why do things have to suck so bad?" a friend once asked me.
"Because space is a vacuum and that's a lot of suck." I replied.
(Actual quote)---

Just like the song " The more you Hate , the more you Love".

<sigh>

An ex of mine... I've never felt hatred like what I felt for her. I mean you know how you may dislike someone? Or "hate" a situation or "hate", say, the president? This was really unsettling hate. It was to the point where I wouldn't have minded if she'd died. It was a strange thing for me because I'm rather pacifist.

Anyway that strong of a feeling is scary.

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---"Why do things have to suck so bad?" a friend once asked me.
"Because space is a vacuum and that's a lot of suck." I replied.
(Actual quote)---

True, hating is a strong word . And hating a person permanently is really scary. I know what you meant when you are on present situation , because we have been hurt , the feeling that you don't care anymore and wishing he/she is dead is there. But speaking personally, I can say I hate a person right now because I am hurting , but I'm not saying I will hate that person forever.

Knowing the person you love most is the person who is capable of hurting you the most because you have let them touch the softest part of your heart.

That's ok by me - BD makes a good point, and I didn't think for a second that he wasn't the OP until you mentioned it.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. Human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Agreed, and CAT and other scans show that different areas of the brain are involved in each.

From personal experience, I can honestly say that while I hated what my ex was doing, I still loved her.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. Human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Wouldn't the only absence of heat be if something were at absolute zero?

Hot and cold occur to me to be relative in the way they are used.

The people I visit in Florida think 65 F is cold.

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley