When they go low, we... do too?

Until decorum is back in style, keep your heels off, because unfiltered rage is in.

Not long ago, everything was about “cancel culture.” Influencers feared it and republicans cursed it. The court of public opinion did away with checks & balances, giving already-edgy personalities a new enemy and America’s sweethearts an emotional landmine to tiptoe around. It was an exhausting justice system — one in desperate need of a revolution.

A prompt I gave to ChatGPT, along with creative liberty.

ChatGPT’s response to “Create an image of: a bleached, blonde, bad built, butch body.”

The United States’ most qualified and uncanny representatives met on Capitol Hill last year when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., accused Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-TX. of her “fake eyelashes messing up” her understanding of the meeting — to which the room erupted in condemnation.

But Crockett didn’t require a defense squad:

“I’m just curious, just to better understand your ruling — if someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleached, blonde, bad built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”

Jasmine Crockett said in reference to Greene’s appearance.

The now-viral exchange sparked widespread criticism, lots of laughter, and perhaps, resonance.

Take the NBA: The father of Indiana Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton, confronted another player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, after the Pacers won against the Milwaukee Bucks, closing out the series.

“A fan came onto the floor — at least, at the time I thought he was a fan. But then I realized it was Tyrese’s dad,” Antetokounmpo said in post-game press conference. “His dad came onto the floor and showed me a towel with Tyrese’s face on it. ‘This is what we do. This is what we fucking do!’ I feel like that’s very, very disrespectful.”

By the next morning, sports radio shows debated whether the confrontation was an embarrassing or authentic display of emotion.

Days prior, Fox News reacted to Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-NM., calling Republicans grilling Democratic mayors on their compliance with Trump’s immigration policy “total bullshit.” To which Fox host, Dana Perino, criticized as “unpersuasive” and “undignified.”

Bhavik Lathia, a communications consultant for the Wisconsin Democratic Party told the New York Times on Monday:

“Republicans have essentially put Democrats in a respectability prison,” Lathia said. “There is an extreme imbalance in strategy that allows Republicans to say stuff that really grabs voters’ attention, where we’re stuck saying boring pablum. I see this as a strategic shift within Democratic messaging — I’m a big fan of ‘dark woke.’”

Is the performance of “professionalism” collapsing? And why does it matter?

Historically, professionalism meant being calm, cool and collected. It looked like appropriately long ties and pants that fit even when sitting. And whether we’re talking about the President or your corporate office — it looked like tone policing and an unemotional leadership.

Michelle Obama famously marked respectability politics by saying, “When they go low, we go high.” But for many, “going high” meant gritting your teeth while being disrespected. “Classiness” was determined by the successful of your attempt at not making anyone else uncomfortable — even if you were deeply uncomfortable yourself.

This cultural shift didn’t happen in a vacuum. The literal President of the United States just returned to office after years of unrelenting public humiliation and name-calling of his opponents.

Asking ChatGPT to compose a total Trump-esque Truth Social post.

And let’s be honest: if your cousin or coworker posted the way Trump does, you’d check on them — maybe even stage an intervention. At the very least, you’d stop taking them seriously.

ChatGPT’s imitation of a Trump Truth Social post.

Now, the bar’s been lowered — not just for leaders, but for what we expect of communication itself. When the most powerful man in the country — and arguably, the world — communicates like a Facebook uncle on the frontlines in comment sections, the performance of professionalism doesn’t just erode. It becomes laughable and arguably unnecessary.

Perhaps composition has become equated with weakness in the face of a person expressing emotions without restraint.

“It is the greatest manifestation of power to be calm. It is easy to be active,” Philosopher Swami Vivekananda wrote in Raja Yoga. Let the reins go and the horses will run away with you. Anyone can do that; but he who can stop the plunging horses is the strong man. Which requires the greater strength — letting go or restraining?”

Professionalism has arguably been weaponized throughout history — often against the already-marginalized. But what happens when everyone rejects it and only some get criticized for it — when decency, clarity and self restraint are no longer expectations, but liabilities?

Maybe we didn’t just abandon professionalism. Maybe we watched it get mocked, memed and murdered at the podium — and now we’re just following suit. Uninterested in the performance of inner strength, the two-time President of the US calls reporters “losers,” House minutes include representatives insulting each other’s appearances, and I’ve begun wondering — when everyone gets rude, does anyone still listen?

Until decorum is back in style, keep your heels off, because it seems that unfiltered rage is in.

Reply

or to participate.