Normalising Nasty
I have written a bit about this in the past, but feel the need to return to it as the situation seems to be getting worse rather than better. Though I will use the recent events regarding Anthony Scaramucci, I am not trying to be political (I do have my views, but I will keep my own counsel as to what they are). It strikes me that Mr Scaramucci epitomises what I mean by the normalising of nasty. Do we all have negative things to say about people, I would argue yes probably we all could find something about another person we would like to criticise. However, most of us would not do so in as rude a way as was done by Mr Scaramucci.
What makes this more offensive is that he was meant to be the Director of Communication at the White House. If people see that staff at the White House can be bombastic, rude and offensive, it makes it much more difficult to criticise other people for doing so. This makes the nasty narrative easier to normalise and to normalise feelings which are unhealthy and in some regards cruel. If we are to achieve good mental health, it is essential that we keep this level of nastiness to a minimum. We should all stand up and say that we will not accept this kind of behaviour from public officials from any place not just our own land, but anywhere. For the sake of our mental health, we need to step back from nasty and embrace respect.
