I don't 'hate' Ben. Hatred would be reserved for those who torture animals and people, but I tend to temper it with pity and contempt. I just find anyone who constantly crows about being a Christian and then acts and speaks the way Ben does rather.... hypocritical.
A few years ago, BK was still the polite, even likeable, poster with scary politics. Sure, he tended to ignore other whatever positions other posters made in order to make his bizarre, reactionary points, but that was all part of his charm. In recent years, however, he has come across as increasingly bitter, making his posts (often on the exact same points as before) seem hateful rather than just out of touch with reality. This lead to the bulk of regular posters here to slide over from a "crazy, but harmless" position to the "kill it with fire" line that has held by a tiny minority (lol Asher LOL) all along. There are still those of us, though, who still like him as a person and/or realize that the actual content of his posts hasn't changed at all since he registered, and attribute the change in tone to whatever **** he's been going through in his life outside of Poly. This group sees that, whatever BK's faults, Apolyton is worse off for not having him around, just as it is worse off without other "colourful" posters, like Ned, Fez and Agathon.