Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s appearance on Kitchen Cabinet sparked outrage that the show glorified the man despite his crimes, writes Dr. Jennifer Wilson.
Annabel Crabb, host of ABC TV’s Kitchen Cabinet, took to Twitter/X over the weekend to denounce what she described as an “orgy of outrage” from users at the appearance of opposition leader Peter Dutton on her show.
Crabb claims her series offers politicians a rare opportunity to conduct a “gentle” interview in the kitchen of their own home while preparing and sharing a meal with her.
As Crabb points out, she can hardly walk into the subject’s kitchen and be anything but polite. The show wouldn’t last five minutes. Instead, politicians are guaranteed a safe environment where they can talk about who they are and how they got to where they are without being confronted or feeling uncomfortable.
At this point one can only ask: Why?
Hello Twitter / X
I’m not on this platform much anymore and have been avoiding it for the last two weeks as I figured the mere announcement of a #KitchenCabinet Peter Dutton episode would spark an orgy of outrage / Hitler memes etc even before that it was aired. This turned out to be correct. 1/6
— Annabel Crabb (@annabelcrabb) August 27, 2023
The premise is that we need to see an “other side” of our elected officials to appreciate their full humanity. It’s reminiscent of the Bring Your Whole Self to Work initiative, where you express your “authentic” or “true” self in the workplace, rather than developing a workplace personality.
It’s probably choosy to wonder what an authentic or true self actually is and if you really want to flaunt it in your workplace when you find it, but that’s another story.
Critic Jane Goodall has a different opinion in her review of Crabbs Show, describing the social media reaction to Dutton’s performance as “visceral moral outrage”.
So “orgy of outrage” or “visceral moral outrage”?
First off, there’s never been a monstrous human who didn’t have an “other side,” and Peter Dutton is no exception. The question Crabb should answer is why it is important that we see another side of a politician who has brought so much terror and misery to others, including children, and who will no doubt do the same again when he does given the opportunity to do so.
At what point does a politician’s behavior lose so much morality and humanity that portraying his “other side” is no more than an attempt to minimize his abuses while treating his victims with disregard that borders on contempt?
When does the focus on the “other side” become an attitude that minimizes the terrible suffering inflicted on others by suggesting that, despite his monstrous behavior, there is a quality in Dutton that deserves recognition?
In fact there is none. Any politician who uses his power to humiliate and torment the powerless has forfeited his right to show “another side.” The focus should always and forever be on their monstrous deeds. That’s not unforgiving. It’s about respecting the suffering of their victims and holding the unrepentant perpetrator accountable.
During his conversation with Crabb, Dutton refers to the “wickedness” and “depravity” of the people he encountered during his years as a Queensland police officer.
One might ask how many of them imprisoned a family seeking refuge from persecution in a most vicious and depraved attempt to win votes and retain power?
As reported in the Guardian in 2019:
Peter Dutton has labeled the two children of the Tamil Biloela family “anchor babies” and accused them of costing taxpayers millions of dollars in inflammatory comments in defense of the government’s decision to deport the family.
In an interview on Thursday, the Home Secretary echoed anti-immigrant rhetoric from the United States and seized on a term used by Donald Trump to justify a plan to abolish citizenship with birthrights to claim Labor, the Greens and refugee activists were trying to ” “harassing” the Morrison government to allow the family to stay.
Crabb also gives Dutton a chance to explain his racism, another deeply disturbing interlude. A racist politician should certainly be condemned for his racism and not invited to explain it in a convivial manner over a slab of custard and a good glass of Riesling. The discrepancy between setting and subject seems completely elusive to Crabb, who seems unable to comprehend the reasonable anger it evokes.
There has never been a monstrous human who didn’t have an “other side”. While Crabb invokes Hitler, I’ll also go there and recall that the Führer loved his dog and became a vegetarian because he hated seeing animals suffer.
The point is that “another side” of a monstrous individual is irrelevant to his monstrosity. There comes a point when invoking it can only be understood as an attempt to make acceptable what is unacceptable and should never be acceptable. That the monster cooks good soup doesn’t normalize its monstrosity.
At what point does a politician’s behavior become so inhuman and moral that he no longer has the right to explain himself in “soft interviews”?
At what point does the offer of a gentle interview with a politician morph into a public relations initiative aimed at hiding or normalizing their abject moral inadequacy?
We know Dutton from his politics and its consequences, which are the only thing that matters. They rightfully overshadow every other aspect of his life and personality.
It’s no wonder that many people react with deep moral outrage when his disgust is downplayed or ignored. Note that Crabb carefully refrains from asking any questions about the Murugappan family, although Dutton treats them viciously for political reasons.
Kitchen Cabinet is the ruling class that literally tells us to eat cake while they light us with gas. The “orgy of outrage” is nothing less than our refusal to accept it.
It can be argued that politicians should not be involved in such a show at all. Honoring elected officials is probably one of the worst trends in our politics.
Sometimes we just have to get up and turn away.
dr Jennifer Wilson is an IA columnist, psychotherapist and academic. You can follow Jennifer on Twitter @NoPlaceForSheep.
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