It may surprise liberal Hollywood, but Trump and Kanye have more in common than you think

Yesterday, the self-centered provocateur Kanye West called Trump his ‘brother’, posted a signed MAGA hat and criticised Obama. Twitter’s response? Critics slammed the musician, many claiming his political conversion is rooted in mental health problems – as many have of Trump. However, while criticisms based on facts should be encouraged, the trend for casually diagnosing mental health issues in those you disagree is a worrying trend.

Amid the praise for Trump, there was a tweet worthy of Voltaire: “You don't have to agree with trump but the mob can't make me not love him...I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.”

West is making an important point: we need to be more tolerant of those with differing views. And his wife, Kim Kardashian, added to the Trump/Kanye fiasco, writing that people with different views shouldn’t be tarred with having mental health problems.

West’s support for Trump may come as a surprise to some of his peers in the Hollywood hills, but Trump and the rapper actually have a lot in common. Both are their own biggest fans, both consider themselves geniuses and both are outcasts in their own worlds. Rightly or wrongly they have gravitas – in different ways, they are the embodiment of the American dream.

Trump understandably has his critics. He has said and tweeted highly controversial things and is a loose cannon in the White House. But there’s an overeagerness to medicalise controversial speech. Michael Woolf speculated over Trump’s in Fire and Fury, as did Bandy X Lee in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.

Speculation over someone’s mental health from afar is shunned by the American Psychological Association as ‘armchair psychology’. In the psychiatric profession, The Goldwater Rule stipulates that it’s unethical and inaccurate for anyone to make judgements on someone’s mental health from a few media appearances and tweets.

Speculation from afar trivialises the relationship between patient and psychologist – someone’s psyche can only be analysed through a series of personal encounters.

If Michael Woolf and Bandy X Lee can diagnose Trump with mental health issues from afar, this completely discredits the whole profession and those undergoing therapy. And it’s not just Trump being accused of suffering from mental health. Others are using mental health as the sole reason why anyone would support Trump. Suggesting that someone has mental health issues because they think differently to you is narrow-minded and counterproductive for debate.

This ties into a wider problem of political adversaries failing to engage. Too often, the left complacently assumes black support for the Democrats. In light of the tweets, Chance the Rapper came out yesterday and said “Black people don’t have to be democrats.” Yes, only 8% of black voters backed Trump, while 88% voted for Clinton – but that 8% can’t be ignored.  They both are trying to challenge stereotypes, and we should listen to them.

Both of their views are considered as ‘out there’ among the Hollywood hangouts that they frequent. There’s an irony to this. George Mason University’s Professor Tyler Cowen argues LA is the most right-wing city in America: “In which American city is risk-taking and the resultant income inequality so much a part of the founding culture, in this case the business of entertainment? ... In which city are the market outcomes — the winners and losers — so accepted as the final verdict of relevance?”

There’s also an irony in the fact that many of the same people who are making the case for employees to have mental health days off work, are casually weaponising mental health to dismiss those they disagree with. This is callous, contradictory and should be stamped out.

Kim Kardashian, Kanye’s wife, rightly said on Twitter last night, “Mental Health is no joke and the media needs to stop spitting that out so casually. Bottom line”. Let’s stop politicising mental health.

For more from Refresh, including lively debate, videos and events,  join our Facebook group here and follow us on Twitter at @TeleRefresh