Stop hating Trump, he’s just a mirror of the world we live in.

There’s something interesting about all of the hate & anger being directed at Trump at the moment.

That is, that although there is obvious anger at his policies and statements, there is also a substantial amount of anger towards Trump as an individual, as a human. I’ve increasingly found that, especially among liberal circles, there is barely a comment about Trump that doesn’t end with some variant of “Trump…that ginger haired, evil, wanker”. We all seem to find it very important to tell ourselves again and again that he’s a terrible person, so much so that he’s even fair-game for the kind of playground personal insults we expect our children to refrain from.

Why?

Partly, I think we’re only responding in kind to the child-like name-calling and insults that characterised a lot of Trump’s campaign, and seemingly continues to characterise his presidency. However, I feel like perhaps it goes deeper than that.

One of the oldest stories humans have told is that of good vs evil, the hero vs the villain.

We’ve become so used to this story that it profoundly shapes the way we view the world, and we’re constantly making judgements about which side of the story we, and other people, are on. Think about the last time someone did something that annoyed you — if you’re anything like me you probably started to create a story in your head in which you were ‘in the right’ and they were ‘in the wrong’. It takes so little effort to fall into this way of thinking because it pervades the world we live in. On both sides of the political spectrum you find people who believe that they are ‘good’ and the other side is ‘evil’. How can these both be true, or is one just truer than the other? When we really look at it, it becomes pretty obvious that these statements don’t really have any objective, factual basis, rather they are stories. So why do we continue to act as though these stories are true?Perhaps an answer comes from looking at the alternative.

If people don’t take certain actions because they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ then why do they?

In social psychology, it is basically accepted that people don’t generally act from some set of unchanging beliefs, values, and characteristics, but rather they react to the situation they find themselves in. This situationist viewpoint states that essentially we all try to do the best we can depending on our circumstances, and that if you were to truly be in the exact same situation as someone else (upbringing, culture, influences etc.) then you would almost certainly act in the exact same way. That’s right, if you were Trump — not who you are now just transplanted into Trump’s current position as POTUS, but if were actually him, had been through all of the same experiences, read the same books, met the same people — you would probably be banning Muslims right now too. That’s pretty tough for a lot of us to take, and perhaps it’s why we cling so strongly to our ideas of right and wrong, good and evil.

So if it isn’t Trump’s fault, then whose is it?

Let’s look at another example that might help to unpack this question a bit. In the UK, especially in Scotland, we have a problem with deer overgrazing. An alarming amount of ancient woodland is lost due to these deer every year, and I think I know why. It’s because the deer are greedy, branch-headed idiots who only think about themselves. They haven’t given a second thought to the other people who might want to use the forest, or for the animals whose habitat they’re destroying. And they’re also clearly climate change deniers — how else can you explain their wanton destruction of carbon storing trees at a time when we need them more than ever?!

Sounds pretty crazy right?

So why does this attitude sound crazy when applied to deer but not to Trump? We don’t blame the deer for their actions because we don’t think they have a choice — they are merely reacting to the environment in which they live, and if there are trees to eat then they’re going to eat them. Doesn’t this sound similar to the situationist explanation of human behaviour?

Even if this is true, it doesn’t mean that we have to just lie down and take whatever Trump does or says, nor does it mean that ‘that’s just the way it is’ and nothing can change. The question is what should change & how?

With the example above, we wouldn’t necessarily just carry on allowing the overgrazing to happen. But rather than blame the deer, what would we do? We’d try to understand what’s caused the situation to arise and see if there’s anything we can do to change it. And ultimately, if we went deep enough, we’d find some stories lurking there. Stories about our relationship to nature (where did the deers’ natural predators go?), our dominance and control over the natural world, and our perhaps misguided ideas about conservation.

So, rather than blaming Trump and wondering why he’s such an ‘awful’ person, why don’t we ask what kind of a world creates a man like Trump? What are the collective stories that we tell ourselves and that we live by, that create the kind of mentality we find so hard to look at it in the mirror of Trump? As we’ve seen already, we constantly tell ourselves that each of us is an island, that our actions spring from ‘who we are’ and that we have ourselves to blame for what we do. Many of us are also in the habit of telling ourselves that the ‘market knows best’, and that unfettered capitalism is the best way forward. That success is money, that we have ownership of the piece of land in which we happen to have been born, that people are poor because they just don’t work hard enough, and those that are rich deserve to be so.

The Stories we tell ourselves have power. They shape our world. This is the only level at which real change can happen. Without new stories we’re doomed to repeat the old ones we’ve heard before. But with them, who knows what kind of world may be waiting for us.

Looking to do your part? One way to get involved is to read the Indivisible Guide, which is written by former congressional staffers and is loaded with best practices for making Congress listen. Or follow this publication, connect with us on Twitter, and join us on Facebook.