Semi-review/Thoughts on Sally Kohn's TED Talk: Emotional Correctness

I recently watched a TED Talk by Sally Kohn about Emotional Correctness. For those of you who may not recognize that name, Sally Kohn is a progressive political commentator. She used to be featured on Fox News and now is on CNN. During this talk, she discussed her experience on Fox and what it taught her. What she highlighted from her experience was that we (liberals) have been focusing too much on political correctness rather than emotional correctness. Emotional correctness is the tone of what we say and how we say it, the respect and compassion we show one another. She mentioned how as liberals we can be “self-righteous, condescending, and dismissive of anyone who doesn’t agree with us.” This makes us politically right, but emotionally wrong, and because of that we can be seen as unappealing. Conservatives can be very nice. She even talked about Sean Hannity and how he’s “one of the sweetest guys (she’s) ever met.” She said he was “99% wrong politically, but his emotional correctness is strikingly impressive.” No one is going to agree with you if they don’t listen to you first. We’ve become severely politically divided and because we only talk over each other, we aren’t able to talk through our disagreements. If we show compassion towards one another, then we can build common ground. Throughout the past couple of months, I have been able to evolve politically. Going away to college and speaking politics with one of my friends, helped me realize my political shield and stubbornness. I learned that I have to be willing to understand the other side in order to intellectually talk with them on topics of concern and help us both figure out why it is that we’re so passionate about our political beliefs. This has also helped me keep the peace and have new friends. Staying open-minded to other people and their beliefs is beautiful and powerful because its a learning experience for the both of you. I never had much respect for conservatives before until I met people who were also intellectuals just passionate about a different topic and that helped me understand we really aren’t as divided as we seem. We all want good (for the most part) and sometimes we understand that differently, but educating each other can helped broaden our horizons to new thoughts and ideas to better the world. I never thought that I would like a conservative commentator and then I met Ben Shapiro. I think he’s highly intelligent and fun to watch and I consider his perspective because of the way he brings it to the table, he’s simple and to the point and easy to understand. Honestly, we need to be more emotionally correct on both sides in order to live a more peaceful, understanding, and compassionate life. Please consider listening to others and above all—show them respect. Maybe the world could get along just a little bit better. This is the only way change can happen; by talking to one another with an open-mind. xx Mad