You are probably not a total jerk. Most people are not.
You, like me, probably do jerk things. You get grumpy. Say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Forget about others’ feelings from time to time.
Maybe you occasionally say things that might be considered by some – and very possibly actually are – racist, sexist or otherwise not all that great.
But probably you’ve got a good excuse. You’re tired, uninformed, or just haven’t thought things totally through.
You aren’t a jerk. But some are.
North America’s small population of unrepentant jerks are suddenly all over the place, doing all sorts of horrible things.
They’re writing books. They’re tweeting and posting on YouTube. They’re running for office. They’re getting filmed saying racist things. They’re getting filmed saying racist things while running for office.
This seems like a problem.
First, let’s deal with the Jerk In Chief problem.
Hate crime statistics, a key measure of extreme jerkishness, suggest bad people have been empowered by the election of Trump – a guy who has mocked others’ physical disabilities and said any number of racist things.
Racist organizations were certainly vocal about their happiness at his victory.
At the same time, we’re seeing more videos of people behaving abominably toward their fellow human. But this, I would suggest, may actually be a good thing.
Racist rants aren’t new. The fact they’re getting filmed and shared now serves to shame the jerk in question while acting as a reminder to our friends, families and other acquaintances of our lack of acceptance for horrible people. And we need to retain that public distaste for jerks now more than ever.
Disregarding other people’s feelings isn’t great for making friends, but it has its advantages in the business world.
Being a sociopath doesn’t make you a good businessperson, but it can allow one to breeze by some of the moral obstacles that can slow other, better people.
And while we can always better police those hurdles – which tend to be things like laws and workplace misconduct – it’s usually easier just not to promote horrible people into positions of power in the first place.
Politics, on the other hand, presents another, wholly different front in the War Against Jerks.
Most would-be politicians are like most people: on the whole decent, but flawed. They may frequently have bad ideas, say stupid things, or be terribly uneducated, but their intentions are usually half-decent. In other words, most aren’t jerks.
But if the Canadian public becomes willing to vote for obviously bad people, we are in big trouble, because – even more so than the business world – being a morally deplorable human being can be helpful in the political sphere.
In business, a penchant for outright lying tends to get you sued.
In politics, lies – a hallmark of sociopathy – can be helpful for deceiving a populace that rarely pays close attention to their ballot choices. Stoking fear and denigrating outsider groups has long been a political tactic, effective when good people are inattentive or divided. And now Trump has shown that when confronted with one horrible action, the best political move may be not to apologize, but to just move onto the next moment.
Whether we’re talking municipal, provincial or federal politics, though, the answer is simple: vote for decency.
We’re lucky, so far, in that there’s not yet a Party of Jerks plying the waters of British Columbia. The only way to keep it that way is to deny every jerk that runs for office your vote.
This holds true even – nay, especially – if that jerk espouses policies with which you agree. Give in to one, and give in to them all.
Tyler Olsen is a reporter at the Abbotsford News.
