They way people talk about politics in general frustrates me, but there is something particular I wanted to bring to light that seems to happen to me. And I'm wondering if it happens to other mental health professionals who lean left.
It's like people forget, when they talk politics with me, that I am a therapist. I work with a lot of Medicaid and Medicare patients, I don't choose my patients (and wouldn't want to). I meet people where they're at. To the extent that I might discuss "politics" with my patients it's because I'm trying to understand their worldview. I hear peoples' racism sometimes. More when they begin to trust me. I can't always call them on that, it's not always the right moment. I am trying to treat depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, mental illnesses, there's no ethical way for me to always address the racism I hear or the bad political takes (or address them at all), that would be imposing my views on people. I hear many, many things I disagree with that I have to accept are part of a person's worldview that I can't change. I wish I could change this stuff but that's not what I'm there for, these persons would not stay engaged in therapy if I attacked their worldviews.
So it's not like I can't tolerate disagreement or dissent. It's not like I live in a bubble. I'm not an academic, I run a mental health clinic that primarily serves working class people in a county with a blue collar reputation, and when I'm not reviewing peoples' paperwork and providing clinical supervision, I'm doing outpatient therapy with a diverse set of clients. I have almost 40 patients. I hear all kinds of things. Spiritual and psychosocial enlightenment. Grandiosity. Passion. Compassion. Conspiracy theories. Hallucinations. Delusions. Paranoias. Phobia. Bigotry. I get the full spectrum of human behaviors.
And I've been in the mental health field over ten years and have had over a hundred clients, maybe something like two hundred, I would have to sit down and do some guesstimate math. But it's a broad experience of the human multi-spectrum to draw from. I've seen just about everything. So I don't use language lightly. I dislike when even leftists misuse words like "cult" to describe strict religious traditions that don't meet the criteria for a destructive cult. I try to be precise with my language and not engage with hyperbole.
I find hyperbole dishonest. It's like endorsing lies because they "feel right." I don't have time for the ultra-negative perspective that everyone is a hypocrite because I know plenty of people who are struggling in earnest, and they are not always perfect but their struggles are valid. I don't think I'm going to change the world in a generation but I'm content with being part of peoples' healing process, and by modeling tolerance I am helping to spread it.
So, there's a political component to all that, in terms of my need to frame my work according to principles I can endorse, but it's primarily about best therapeutic practice. So, I think I'm entitled to be a bit more critical in my personal life of things people say, especially if those things reinforce a prejudiced view of another group or a rejection of modernity. You'll forgive me for that :)