He's hating in heaven now

April 3, 2017 11:13 PM

Berkeley's most iconic street character, The Hate Man, has died.

Familiar to everyone who ever attended THE University of California in the last 30 years, The Hate Man left a life of journalism preferring to live in People's Park, dumpster diving for food, and espousing a philosophy of oppositionality from which we all would become equals in our individuality.

He was also perhaps the most epic troll you'd ever find doing what he did best which is mocking and standing up to the biggest weirdos to show up on Telegraph Ave, the evangelicals.

posted by Slarty Bartfast (13 comments total)

🖕

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posted by christopherious at 11:52 PM on April 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Hate Man previously.

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posted by TedW at 12:23 AM on April 4, 2017

Holy crap, I remember him from my undergrad days. (Those were around the years of Andrew Martinez, the Naked Guy, for those who recall that name too.) I hadn't assumed he was immortal, exactly, but I'm surprised and saddened to hear he's gone. He was punk as hell, absolutely the real deal. There was one campus preacher in particular--a big, musclebound guy with slicked back black hair and a tight t-shirt whose name escapes me--who prided himself on how long he could hold out against HM's onslaught, but none of them could ultimately manage to keep their cool, everyone cracked in the end. Wonder whatever became of Hate Boy?
posted by informavore at 12:58 AM on April 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

THAT pisssed me RIGHT off!

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posted by Samizdata at 1:23 AM on April 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

rest in peace, berkeley baby, and thanks for letting me crash, back when you still had an apartment - (see previous thread for details)
posted by pyramid termite at 2:06 AM on April 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

This is sad and it lead me to find out that somebody narced on the patches man. And that makes me mad as hell, even though his cookies were pretty gross and once made me lose the ability to stand up for a while.

What the fuck. Definitely not suppressing my hate for the BPD right now.
posted by atoxyl at 2:19 AM on April 4, 2017

Fuck him. I hate him.
posted by chavenet at 3:15 AM on April 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

How weird it must have been for him to spend time in a hospital--with its no smoking rules, bland food, strange sounds, interruptions, and other rituals everyone finds offputting and disconcerting--after 30 years of outdoor living! I hope his doctors, nurses and other caregivers knew to greet him with a hearty "Fuck you!"
posted by carmicha at 5:51 AM on April 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

In 1993, as a freshman at Cal, I remember my little sheltered/suburban brain being absolutely broken open one afternoon as I watched and listened to the Hate Man -- bare-chested, skirted, chain-smoking Virginia Slims -- rhetorically *destroying* (humorously and thoroughly) a fundamentalist Christian preacher on Sproul Plaza.

It is difficult for me to imagine Berkeley without him.

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posted by /\/\/\/ at 9:53 AM on April 4, 2017 [5 favorites]

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posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 10:27 AM on April 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have never heard of him, so thank you for this. People who are counter-cultural and push the envelope can bring about lasting change if we take them at their word and look inside ourselves. Someone who pushes your buttons has done you the great favor of letting you discover exactly who you are, after all.
posted by Mr. Fig at 11:08 AM on April 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

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posted by Katjusa Roquette at 12:26 PM on April 4, 2017

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posted by klausness at 2:00 PM on April 12, 2017