Trump, Tolerance and Ethics - can they co-exist?

This post is a long one and comes after I reposted this old meme on Facebook from pandemic times and Trump was telling people to drink bleach.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10157196188242081&set=a.10150913296687081

Back then it was tongue in cheek and I thought it was pretty funny. I have a very dark sense of humour at times. My daughter laughed when she saw it but said “Are you sure you want to post that? It can be construed as wanting him to die”

It came up as part of my memories feed and I thought that it was even more apt today. With trashing trans rights, dismantling the Department of Education, making not so subtle threats to Canada and Greenland, and wanting to displace an entire people in order to make the Riviera of the Middle East, Donald is dangerous in his incompetence.

The first time he became POTUS I was uneasy as he seemed rather deranged, but I wrote him off as a joke, something to be laughed at and then forgotten. This time I’m not so sure. He knows how the system works now and is systemically nullifying those that can oppose him. And he has a score to settle with everyone who helped to make his last four years a public tongue lashing for his conduct while President. Humiliating him or even denying that he is the smartest person in the room and then having him in a space where he has incredible power is a Molotov cocktail waiting to be thrown.

Strong opinion you say? Yes it is, but I’m scared this time around. For my friends in the US, for the attempts to stifle critical thinking questions and pushback on misinformation by the press, for the sovereignty of the country I used to call home, and for all the people who have nothing and no way to fight back. They stand to lose a lot more than they already have.

My biggest fear though comes from within the social work ethos itself. My practice is underpinned by tolerance, embracing diversity, that everyone has a right to be heard and not judged. I firmly believe in that. So why, if the crazy clementine dropped off the face of the planet tomorrow, would I feel relief and even, dare I say it, some happiness? Does this make me a bad person? A bad social worker? Ethics and self-reflection suck sometimes.

Social workers for the most part sit on the left of centre because we have to. We advocate for those with less, design programmes to level the playing field and fight for equity and equality for all. That means we have to accept a variety of harmful world views that disadvantage others and try to change them from the inside. Judging people is seen as unprofessional, getting angry is crossing boundaries and having destructive thoughts isn’t ethical. We have to be tolerant to the nth degree.

Who says so? Is it for always and for everything? Is there a time when tolerance is a BAD thing and harms more than it helps?

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. [...] We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.

Karl R. Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume One: The Spell of Plato

Social workers are used to political pendulum swings. We usually take it in stride…I know I do and most of my colleagues as well. We hunker down and do the mahi. Sometimes we have funding and are applauded for innovation and at others we work on the smell of an oily rag and have to table what we know will work, but can’t afford until the next swing. This time seems different. The political arena seems meaner somehow. Harsher. Laws and rhetoric are being thrown around that not only disadvantage targeted groups … but seem designed to wipe them out. And it’s not just Mr. Trump and his band of privileged patriarchy. It’s global.

We resist. We make submissions. We use logic and emotional appeals, but we rarely push back in the same vocal way that right wing or misinformation adherents do. We don’t show our anger or frustration in the public arena on any large scale. We don’t show up to block the effect of Brian Tamaki’s Man Up “boys” terrorising children and community for daring to allow someone non-binary to tell stories to children because they don’t agree. The council “condemns” their actions but cancels the next event and there are no other consequences. This group is then emboldened to continue the intimidation and violence by their spiritual head and we as the tolerant, let it pass and say something “should be done”

So what can we do safely? How do we become intolerant of the intolerant in a way that aligns with our ethics and Codes of Conduct? How do we push back without getting our heads chopped off? I don’t have the definitive answer but solidarity seems to be key. And organisation. I was so proud and yet humbled to see the hikoi march through the streets of Aotearoa. Collectivism, strength and pushback of bullying intolerant behaviour.

What if instead of one big protest, we did 50 small ones, simultaneously throughout the country? What if we work in partnership with the Human Rights Commission as a collective to address and call for action? What if our regulatory bodies (who have more power) allow us protection of their umbrella and help us navigate how to be ethically intolerant and show our anger, helplessness and hopelessness in professional way?

The average Kiwi sees what’s on the media via their phones and streaming services… Right now they only see the outrageous intolerant…they don’t see us pushing back hard on these things, so that’s the only narrative. They shake their heads and go on scrolling. They don’t agree, but it’s not “their” fight. We have to be seen as saying “No,no,no! That’s not the way it should be! Stand with us and help us fight this” and then give them easy ways to join the fight.

Am I sounding radical? I don’t want to be “that person” ranting off in the corner, but can you as someone in the helping professionals honestly tell me you haven’t had the similar thoughts at some point? Can we link arms and start to build a blockade together that says “NOT in our Aotearoa” and figure out how to empower ourselves ethically and professionally? The people we fight for every day need us to step up and help them be heard and seen too.