One popular thing for a lot of progressives, and pop psychologists, to do lately is to attempt to diagnose Donald Trump's mental health. Granted it seems only fair after Republicans spent the better part of the 2016 Election trying to armchair diagnose Hillary Clinton with every malady they could possibly think of, and demon possession. Now we have people on our side doing it. Can you do us all, and yourselves, a favor and stop?
Donald Trump comparisons offend the disabled
Sometimes a jerk is just a jerk. Trying to pin a mental illness on Donald Trump, be it narcissistic personality disorder or anything else is a waste of time.
It, much like feeding right-wing trolls, detracts from doing useful things, such as literally anything else. Plus, it also irritates disabled people who will be very key allies.
Disabled people have a litany of grievances with Trump. White progressives who focus only on the reporter incident during the campaign are only going an inch deep. We take great issue with the Republicans' idea of block granting Medicaid, which would lead to massive cuts and mass death of the disabled for example.
However, we also take issue with people trying to compare us to Donald Trump, Keep in mind, most people with mental illness are not like Trump. Most of them are generally nice people. And most of them have had to deal with random people, be it family members, people in their churches (assuming they go to church), and even people they've never met in any context, trying to play armchair doctor.
Usually they end up suggesting some bunk hippie treatment. For the disabled, mentally or otherwise, this is irritating. Especially when the person does not actually have the diagnosis in question. Take it from the guy who writes the book that defines mental disorders.
Constantly saying Trump's crazy wrong & misses point.
— Allen Frances (@AllenFrancesMD) January 30, 2017
He doesn't meet DSM Narcisssistic criteria(I wrote them).
Its worse-he's bad,not mad. https://t.co/izsw4Yy6Vu
Don't compare Trump to actual disabled people
A lot of things annoy disabled people.
A big one is the fact that so many people excuse other people's, or even their own, bad behavior by claiming they have a Disability they don't have. Until his doctor confirms otherwise we should assume that Donald Trump does not have mental illness.
Instead, we should try to find ways to support the disability community. We should find ways to help them become more involved even if they can't always be a part of the direct protest line.
This is especially important since Donald Trump and the far right has many services geared towards disabled people in their crosshairs. More importantly, we should stop trying to play armchair doctor. A jerk can just be a jerk.
