Let's try emotional correctness

[SuperDandy]

I watched this Ted talk yesterday, and thought it might have some relevance on this board. The topic is emotional correctness, and its role in effective debate in persuasive politics.

Sally Kohn is the speaker, and this link includes a transcript if you'd rather read than watch.

MNHQ is keen for this board to find some equilibrium of tone that is manageable, and I'm posting this in the hope that it may be helpful.

Please note.. I'm not a troll, a seagull, plopper, TRA, MRA etc etc, just a normal mner who reads stuff here but is not a regular poster.

Makes a good point. I think that is much easier to do face to face than in text though

Yes i think she is right

There have been posters on here ive disagreed with but they sound so lovely whilst disagreeing with me that i know we could thrash out the issues over a pint

And others who in theory i agree with but whose attitude i think would get us both beaten up and thrown out of the same pub

Ploppy plop pants

Oh, I really enjoyed reading that OP!

So someone who says they hate immigrants, I try to imagine how scared they must be that their community is changing from what they've always known. Or someone who says they don't like teachers' unions, I bet they're really devastated to see their kid's school going into the gutter, and they're just looking for someone to blame. Our challenge is to find the compassion for others that we want them to have for us. That is emotional correctness.

Absolutely, totally cool to have a name for something I'm keen to strive for.

I'm not saying it's easy. An average of, like, 5.6 times per day I have to stop myself from responding to all of my hate mail with a flurry of vile profanities. This whole finding compassion and common ground with your enemies thing is kind of like a political-spiritual practice for me, and I ain't the Dalai Lama. I'm not perfect, but what I am is optimistic.

Again, yup. I used to tear shreds of people when I first joined MN (under a different name). It's knee-jerk, it feels clever, anyone can do it. But the inevitable regret... didn't feel good. And reading more about posters - this is something I've since found on the feminism boards in particular - hearing more about them as individuals over the course of thread after thread, it's really changed how I post.

Not all the time of course (only human and all that), but a lot of the time. Most of the time, I hope.

Interesting OP, thanks.

I can't be arsed, because nobody does that for me. I spent so many years 'understanding' why someone, anyone, might possibly be doing the horrible thing they were doing, until a friend said to me one day "There is no 'why'. They're wankers, that's all.". Life has been easier since then.

It's curious that out of all the chat forums I've ever come across, MN feminism chat already seems to be the most emotionally intelligent, "emotionally correct" forum around. Other chat groups could do well with a dose of EI.

Is this a TGLWGH thing? Or is it that you would like us to find other fluffy ways of talking about feminist issues while making sure we always say namalt?