DBAD Party- Don’t Be A Dick

I’ve written here a number of times about my view on various political topics. Sometimes I’ve been guilty of exactly what I’m going to talk about today. Today I want to take a bigger picture look at things in an effort to summarize what could be the simplest (and therefore most difficult and impractical) solution to most of life’s issues.

This is the “Don’t Be A Dick” political theory. The crux of a believer in DBAD is that you shouldn’t act like a dick. If a comedy website can make an article about what you’re doing, and summarize your actions as “dickish”, then you’ve failed.

What does this mean in specific terms? That’s pretty hard to define. What’s a dick move in some cases is not always true in others. It is really less about any particular action and more about personality. Some people are just dicks. You know who they are. So stop electing them. Stop working for them. Stop letting them succeed in life by being dicks.

There are many people with power and wealth in the world who are dicks. They got there by being dicks. But only because we let it happen. Sometimes because we forced them to be. See, not everyone who is a dick now has always been one. In many cases, the only way to deal with a dick is to become one yourself. And it’s like the dark side. Once you start down the dick path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Those are the people we can save.

So how do we help advocate the DBAD agenda?

First,  don’t be a dick yourself.  This is the most important step.

Enacting DBAD is a two way street. People need to stop acting like dicks, starting with yourself. But people also need to stop rewarding dickish behavior. It also means not accepting the bullshit that people being dicks say. It’s important to not let being polite keep you from stopping someone from being a dick.

If you can, call them on it. For many people, just having it pointed out will get them to stop for a moment and reassess what they were doing. They aren’t full time dicks, they’re just human. We’ve all done it.

If someone tells you you’re being a dick, listen to them. Don’t be an even bigger dick and get defensive. There will be times people will be wrong and you really weren’t being a dick. But, even in those cases, they perceived that you were so there’s probably at least a grain of truth to it.

Being told your being a dick doesn’t mean your stance on an issue is wrong. Or that you have to surrender and do whatever they say. It just means you’ve been being a dick about something. Maybe the consequences of your argument would result in dickish things happening. Think about it some more. And definitely stop acting like a dick during your discussion.

Now, you can’t do this in all situations. Calling someone on being a dick is hard to do without being a dick yourself. And it’s usually a bad idea to tell your manager he’s being a dick. Especially in front of a crowd. But some managers, even ones who act like dicks sometimes, are willing to listen to constructive criticism. Or maybe your company has a policy where you review your managers. Those would be more appropriate times.

The important thing is to not tolerate dickishness. DBAD is all about changing what is acceptable behavior in society.  We just need to start treating people who are dicks like people who are racist. It won’t stop everyone but they’ll be recognized as  the small minded group that they are.  While most people can be dicks, most people aren’t a majority of the time. That needs to be recognized and celebrated.

So really, Don’t Be A Dick. Just don’t.