WHY BE AN ASSHOLE
On this episode of The Karen Kenney Show, I’m discussing a topic that's been kinda’ burning a hole in my brain: Why do people feel the need to be such jerks online?
I was already planning on talking about this - but after hearing about a friend's experience receiving not-so-nice feedback from strangers after her free webinar, I was doubly committed!
I read two specific email examples from people who went out of their way to share their unsolicited opinion about my friend's presentation.
The kicker? These were for a FREE online event that they didn’t have to pay for and that they could have simply stopped watching at any time.
This episode is a passionate plea for a little more kindness in a world that seems to reward snark, sarcasm, and criticism.
I’m challenging all of us to hit pause before hitting "send" and to ask ourselves the three ancient gate questions: This thing that I'm about to say/type/send…
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
We've somehow normalized being cruel, especially online, and it's time we remember that real strength isn't in cutting others down - it's in lifting them up!
My top messages here?
Why be an asshole, when you can just be quiet.
You always have a choice. Choose kindness.
Use your words to make people feel seen, supported, and valued.
In a world that's increasingly divided and violent, we need compassion more than ever.
Let's be part of the "Kind Kids Club" and consciously do our best to leave people, animals, places, and spaces better than we found them. ❤️
KK’S KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Sharing your work with the world takes courage and vulnerability.
• Before sending a critical message, ask yourself: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
• Social media has convinced everyone they should share their opinion, but not every thought needs to be voiced.
• Kindness is a strength, it doesn’t take much to be mean.
• Your words have power - they can build people up or tear them down. Choose wisely.
• Just because you can comment doesn't mean you should.
• Sometimes staying quiet is the most compassionate action.
• Personal responsibility matters: Consider how your words might impact someone who could be struggling or vulnerable.
• The current cultural climate often rewards being provocative or cruel over being kind, but you can choose to be different.
• Creativity and putting yourself out there is challenging enough without added negativity from others.
• Always ask yourself: "Would I want someone to speak to me this way?" If not, don't say it to someone else.
BIO:
Spiritual mentor and writer Karen Kenney uses humor and dynamic storytelling to bring a down-to-earth, no-BS perspective to self-development.
Bringing together tools that coach the conscious and unconscious mind, Karen helps clients deepen their connections with Self, and discover their unique understandings of spirituality.
Her practice combines neuroscience, subconscious reprogramming, Integrative Hypnosis, somatics, spiritual mentoring, and other holistic modalities to help regulate the nervous system, examine internal narratives, remove blocks, and reimagine what’s possible.
A passionate yoga teacher, long-time student of A Course in Miracles, and Gateless Writing instructor, Karen is a frequent speaker and retreat leader. Via her programs The Quest and The Nest, she coaches individuals and groups.
With The Karen Kenney Podcast, she encourages listeners to shift from a thought system of fear to one of love, compassion, and personal responsibility.
KK WEBSITE: www.karenkenney.com
Transcript
Hey, welcome to the Karen Kenney show. I hope
Karen Kenney:you're doing super duper. I hope you're doing fantastic. And I'm
Karen Kenney:going to try to keep this sucker short and maybe not totally
Karen Kenney:sweet, but sure, certainly going to do my best to just kind of
Karen Kenney:keep it kind of on the, on the on the shorter side. Okay, let's
Karen Kenney:just dive right into it. I'm sure that you saw the title of
Karen Kenney:this episode right and but there's a reason why I'm finally
Karen Kenney:doing this episode. I've talked about this, this topic, in
Karen Kenney:written form online several times. I don't know if I've ever
Karen Kenney:done I looked back. I'm like, after like, 320 some shows. I'm
Karen Kenney:like, How did I have I talked about this before, but maybe not
Karen Kenney:in this particular way. And what's inspiring this episode
Karen Kenney:is, first of all, just humanity and where it's at right now,
Karen Kenney:also the state of online social media platforms where people
Karen Kenney:just feel like they can say and do whatever they want to do. But
Karen Kenney:also, on a more personal level, I was recently talking with a
Karen Kenney:friend, and this is really the hot beat of the inspiration of
Karen Kenney:this episode. I was recently talking with a friend, and
Karen Kenney:they've been going through some things, right? Some stuff had
Karen Kenney:been happening in their family, like, you know, they there was a
Karen Kenney:loved one that had died, like, back to back, a loved one that
Karen Kenney:had died, and then another elderly relative, like, fell
Karen Kenney:down, and they didn't know if they were, you know, they were
Karen Kenney:in the hospital. And, you know, we don't know what the, you
Karen Kenney:know, the recoup time is going to be, if they're going to ever
Karen Kenney:be the same again. Because that's something that happens,
Karen Kenney:right with older folks, is sometimes, once they fall, they
Karen Kenney:don't always recover. That's not true for everybody, but Right?
Karen Kenney:And they were just like, they have a lot of lot of kind of
Karen Kenney:balls in the air, juggling a lot of things. And they were just
Karen Kenney:feeling a little rundown. But then under the under that, you
Karen Kenney:know, in addition to that, I should say I could just hear
Karen Kenney:that there was maybe a little, I don't know if it was sadness or
Karen Kenney:whatever. And as we continue to talk, they just kind of made a
Karen Kenney:quick statement of, yeah. And then I just got a couple of
Karen Kenney:comments on my thing that were like, and I was like, Excuse me,
Karen Kenney:right? Because one of the things about me is I'm very protective,
Karen Kenney:first of all, of animals. You all know that, but I'm also very
Karen Kenney:protective of people I love and my friends, etc, and I don't
Karen Kenney:like, I don't like when people are mean, period. I don't like
Karen Kenney:bullies, right? I don't like that at all. I certainly don't
Karen Kenney:like it when people are doing it in a way where it's totally
Karen Kenney:uncalled for and unnecessary. So I basically just dug for a
Karen Kenney:little more information, and I said, Hey, what's going on? And
Karen Kenney:we can all relate. I'm sure the details of this story might be
Karen Kenney:slightly different, but I guarantee you, if you if you've
Karen Kenney:ever owned a business of any kind, if you've been in a
Karen Kenney:relationship of any kind, if you're a creative of any kind,
Karen Kenney:anytime you try, have tried to put something out into the
Karen Kenney:world, whether it was a project or a product or a program or
Karen Kenney:promoting something, or you just shared your feelings, or
Karen Kenney:something you had written, or something you painted, or music
Karen Kenney:you create, whatever, when you take something from inside of
Karen Kenney:yourself, and then you have the courage, you you have the
Karen Kenney:courage, and you're brave enough to share it and put it out into
Karen Kenney:The world, especially the way the world is right now, and
Karen Kenney:we'll get to that in a second. You know, that takes a lot of
Karen Kenney:vulnerability, it takes a lot of courage, it takes a lot of
Karen Kenney:chutzpah, it takes a lot of balls, it takes a lot of grit to
Karen Kenney:be like, Okay, I'm gonna, like, take this thing that I created
Karen Kenney:and share it. Okay? So she has been doing like a webinar, and
Karen Kenney:she was putting it out there, trying to help women with
Karen Kenney:menopausal symptoms or whatever. Okay? And then I said, Well,
Karen Kenney:what did these people say to you? And she said, you know,
Karen Kenney:well, they didn't verbally say it. They sent me emails. And I
Karen Kenney:was like, Okay, do you feel comfortable sharing with me what
Karen Kenney:they said? And she said, yeah, and she shared that with me. And
Karen Kenney:if you, if you're not watching this, you can't see right now,
Karen Kenney:like I'm kind of pinching the bridge of my nose where it
Karen Kenney:connects to, like my forehead, cuz it's so painful to me.
Karen Kenney:People, sometimes look people, I love you. You are my brothers
Karen Kenney:and sisters. You are God's kids as well. But sometimes you act
Karen Kenney:like colossal assholes, myself included. And I try and like, I
Karen Kenney:really try hard, like, I really do my best to be so mindful, so
Karen Kenney:aware, less mindful and more like aware, like, of what comes
Karen Kenney:out of my mouth and what my fingers type. You know what I
Karen Kenney:mean? Like, like, what I am taking from my mind, out of my I
Karen Kenney:would say, head, hot hands, right? And also, sometimes your
Karen Kenney:pie hole. It's like, what is coming out of your mouth.
Karen Kenney:Because a lot of times people are saying things and writing
Karen Kenney:things and doing things, and they are not thinking. About the
Karen Kenney:consequences of them being themselves. They are not
Karen Kenney:thinking about how that thing is going to land. So this person
Karen Kenney:here, and I said to her, send me what they wrote to you, because
Karen Kenney:I'm going to read them on the air, because I want people to
Karen Kenney:see what it's like to be a creator, to be a creative, to be
Karen Kenney:somebody who's trying to do good in the world and help people
Karen Kenney:with problems to literally show up with solutions, and then this
Karen Kenney:is how some people do Now, mind you, this was a free they didn't
Karen Kenney:even pay any money for it. This was a free webinar, okay, so at
Karen Kenney:least this person started with, just wanted to let you know how
Karen Kenney:informative and interesting the menopause live webinar was.
Karen Kenney:Okay. Then, then they say my husband even watched it with me.
Karen Kenney:They could have just stopped there. They could have just
Karen Kenney:like, said that said, hey, it was informative. It was
Karen Kenney:interesting. Thank you. Even my husband, like watched it with
Karen Kenney:me. End of email. But no, no, they felt like they had to go on
Karen Kenney:to say the following. My only comment is now as soon as
Karen Kenney:somebody says that, that's like when people use the word, but I
Karen Kenney:love you, but, yeah, that was really good. But my only comment
Karen Kenney:is, is a faction, right? So it's like an offshoot of that kind of
Karen Kenney:thing, you know, that some shit is about to roll downhill, okay?
Karen Kenney:My only comment is, we came very close to having a drinking game
Karen Kenney:and taking a sip every time you said the word right. Oh my god,
Karen Kenney:right. OMG, you said that word more than 1000 times, I would
Karen Kenney:bet. So I'm glad we didn't do the sipping game, because we
Karen Kenney:would have been completely drunk. Thanks again for the
Karen Kenney:seminar, or is it a webinar? Well, you know what I mean, I'm
Karen Kenney:reading this, and I just want to take one of these pens and,
Karen Kenney:like, stab myself in the eyeball with it, because this is so
Karen Kenney:painful to me, because guys hear me out, you are entitled to have
Karen Kenney:an opinion. You know that old saying, you know opinions are
Karen Kenney:like assholes, like everybody's got one, right, but they're
Karen Kenney:nowhere, nowhere, nowhere. Is it required? Or do you need to
Karen Kenney:share said opinion with other people, especially if they
Karen Kenney:didn't ask for your opinion, for your feedback, for your POV and
Karen Kenney:point of view. You know what I mean? It's like you had to go
Karen Kenney:ahead and ruin the kindness of your first sentences because you
Karen Kenney:couldn't your ego. Your ego just couldn't resist letting that
Karen Kenney:other person know, right? Get a slip, a little meanness in
Karen Kenney:there, a little sarcasm, a little, oh, my only comment is,
Karen Kenney:you know, here's the thing that I will tell you,
Karen Kenney:there are a ton of things like podcasts and stuff out there.
Karen Kenney:There's like, millions and millions and millions and
Karen Kenney:millions of podcasts. Do you know how many podcasts actually
Karen Kenney:survived the first three? Like, it's something like, there's an
Karen Kenney:obscene amount of people who start podcasts, but more than,
Karen Kenney:like, a third like, whatever the number is, let's say it was 3
Karen Kenney:million, right? Only, like, a million actually survive after
Karen Kenney:the third episode. You know why? Because people realize how hard
Karen Kenney:it is to put yourself out there, to keep coming up with content,
Karen Kenney:to keep coming up with ways where you're quote, unquote,
Karen Kenney:adding value to the world, and you're benefiting other people,
Karen Kenney:and you're trying to, like, help them and do something right? So
Karen Kenney:when another human being goes out of their way to offer
Karen Kenney:something for free. Now look a webinar or a quote, unquote
Karen Kenney:seminar is not designed to give you all of the answers. It's
Karen Kenney:designed to give you enough information that you can see if
Karen Kenney:this program, this product, this thing, is going to be a good fit
Karen Kenney:for you, if you resonate with the person leading it or
Karen Kenney:teaching it, if you walk away with at least one thing and you
Karen Kenney:go, like, okay, that's really helpful. That's really good
Karen Kenney:information. I'm in like, I'm going to give this person a
Karen Kenney:shot. I'm going to spend a little money. I'm going to
Karen Kenney:whatever, right? Because I have some symptoms. I have a problem.
Karen Kenney:I don't know the solution. This person seems like they do. So to
Karen Kenney:think that you're just going to go into a free webinar and like,
Karen Kenney:get all your questions answered is, like, obnoxious. But the
Karen Kenney:fact that this person didn't even have a problem with the
Karen Kenney:information, they said it was interesting as well, but they
Karen Kenney:had to make a comment. Comment about the way that this person
Karen Kenney:talks and what I was trying to say about also, in addition to
Karen Kenney:having a podcast, we all have rhythms in ways that we speak in
Karen Kenney:words that we say. Some people say the word um a lot. Some
Karen Kenney:people say the word like a lot. Some people say the word right a
Karen Kenney:lot, some people say, does that make sense a lot? We all have
Karen Kenney:these little quirks to the way that we talk, and there are a
Karen Kenney:lot of people who do online presentations of all kinds who
Karen Kenney:don't like to sound human. They don't want their humanity to
Karen Kenney:slip through, so they are highly polished and edited content,
Karen Kenney:right? They hire a whole team, or they themselves spend hours
Karen Kenney:going in and taking out every pause and every um and every
Karen Kenney:whatever. And I've never done that with my show, what you see
Karen Kenney:is what you get. We tack on an intro, we tack on an outro, but
Karen Kenney:you just get me as I am even right now, like, Look at my hair
Karen Kenney:and my face, right? I just got back from a run, and I'm still
Karen Kenney:kind of, like, finishing down, sweating. So, like, what you see
Karen Kenney:is what you get. And first of all, for my friend to go out
Karen Kenney:there and to create this thing and to put it out into the
Karen Kenney:world, right? If that's what you see, I just said the word right,
Karen Kenney:if you're, if you're if that's what you're gonna focus on,
Karen Kenney:you're focusing on the wrong shit that she said the word
Karen Kenney:right, but the fact that you feel the need to comment on it,
Karen Kenney:to go out of your way to try to make somebody feel whatever the
Karen Kenney:word is stupid, not good enough, to shame them, to make them
Karen Kenney:insecure, to Pull them down a notch, whatever it is. And I'm
Karen Kenney:not saying that this person went out of their way to consciously
Karen Kenney:be an asshole, but again, why be an asshole when you could just
Karen Kenney:be quiet? It didn't like think of all the steps that this
Karen Kenney:person had to go through. They signed up for the webinar. It
Karen Kenney:caught their attention. They thought it was interesting
Karen Kenney:enough that they signed up for it, like gave away an hour and
Karen Kenney:90 minutes, whatever it was of their time. And it's an hour, I
Karen Kenney:think it was like an hour long. So they do an hour of it, and
Karen Kenney:afterwards, they thought, Oh, that was informative and
Karen Kenney:interesting. But then they felt the need to make some commentary
Karen Kenney:about another person not knowing, because this is the
Karen Kenney:thing. When you send something out into the world, you have no
Karen Kenney:idea how the other person on the other end of that thing is going
Karen Kenney:to receive it, what state of mind they're going to be in,
Karen Kenney:what's going on in their life? Maybe they had a loss, maybe
Karen Kenney:they had something awful happen. Maybe they're struggling with
Karen Kenney:their mental illness. With a mental illness, maybe their
Karen Kenney:mental health isn't in the best place. Maybe they're going
Karen Kenney:through a divorce, maybe one of their kids is sick. Maybe
Karen Kenney:they're struggling with alcohol. Isn't like you don't know. So
Karen Kenney:why? Why go out of your way to do this? And this is what I was
Karen Kenney:trying to get at. I distracted myself. Do you know how many
Karen Kenney:steps a person had to take? You had to go, you had to listen to
Karen Kenney:it right then you had to decide, oh, my opinion is important
Karen Kenney:enough that now I gotta look up somebody's email address. I have
Karen Kenney:to write this whole thing out, and then I have to hit send. I'm
Karen Kenney:like, at any one of those mock is, at any one of those points,
Karen Kenney:this person could have said, No, I don't need to send this. I
Karen Kenney:don't need to say this. But no, the internet and social media
Karen Kenney:has convinced everybody that they have a voice, which, yes,
Karen Kenney:we do all have a voice, but man, this social media does not teach
Karen Kenney:you that you might want to think about how you use that voice and
Karen Kenney:what you say to another human being, what you type, what you
Karen Kenney:write, and I'm like, I'm just so fucking over it. I gotta tell
Karen Kenney:you, like, every like, just about, I'm not kidding, like,
Karen Kenney:once a day, I probably think to myself, yeah, my days online are
Karen Kenney:kind of like my days on social media are, like, highly
Karen Kenney:numbered. I don't post nearly as much as I used to. And the thing
Karen Kenney:is, is that people are super mean to me in my comments. Once
Karen Kenney:in a blue moon, somebody says something that I'm like, you're
Karen Kenney:like, whatever, and I just leave it there so other people can see
Karen Kenney:them acting like an asshole, right? I'm like, whatever, you
Karen Kenney:know, but people aren't, people don't like take a lot of time to
Karen Kenney:send me comments about things in a bad or negative way. It's not
Karen Kenney:that it's it's not that that hasn't always been true. Trust
Karen Kenney:me, I have a hate I have a I have a file folder of things
Karen Kenney:that I have received over the years, um, where people have
Karen Kenney:said and done some, like, pretty uncool things, and just so I can
Karen Kenney:remember, like, in case it like I'm talking like people.
Karen Kenney:Stealing, like, verbatim my bio. People stealing verbatim stuff
Karen Kenney:from my website. Like, I'm talking about that kind of
Karen Kenney:stuff, right? But it's just so unnecessary. And then going back
Karen Kenney:to my friend, right? And I'm talking about this because I
Karen Kenney:want each of us to just slow our roll a little bit to slow, like,
Karen Kenney:to create a greater gap between what you think and what you say,
Karen Kenney:what you think and what you do, what you think
Unknown:and what you write,
Karen Kenney:because you're not always aware of how your words
Karen Kenney:are going to affect another person. And I'm always like, you
Karen Kenney:know, I'm a kid from, like, the Mister Rogers era and and I also
Karen Kenney:grew up right in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in Boston,
Karen Kenney:Massachusetts. It's literally, like, the capital of, like, mass
Karen Kenney:holism, but the capital of sarcasm, like taking digs at
Karen Kenney:each other, tearing each other down. I've often talked about
Karen Kenney:how you know where I grew up if you had a if you had a
Karen Kenney:vulnerable, vulnerable spot, if you had, like, a tender spot, we
Karen Kenney:weren't taught that if somebody has a tender spot, that our
Karen Kenney:reaction and our response should be that we're tender with that
Karen Kenney:spot. No, if we find out as kids that you had a tend to spot. We
Karen Kenney:saw that you were vulnerable. We pressed on that spot. We
Karen Kenney:attacked that spot, you know. And as I've gotten older, I
Karen Kenney:don't find sarcasm taking cheap shots at people. It's like, how
Karen Kenney:do I say it? It's a very conflicting thing for me,
Karen Kenney:because I'll be like, Oh, that's the sound of my people. Like, I
Karen Kenney:get it. I know how this operates, and I've been trying
Karen Kenney:to extract myself from that behavior for many, many, many,
Karen Kenney:many years, because I don't think that we need to be mean to
Karen Kenney:each other to show affection. I understand why we do it. I
Karen Kenney:understand how it happens. I've been on the receiving and giving
Karen Kenney:end of it, and as I continue to grow and mature, hopefully
Karen Kenney:emotionally. You know, because being sarcastic is easy,
Karen Kenney:knocking each other down is easy. You know, loving each
Karen Kenney:other that takes real that loving each other and being
Karen Kenney:vulnerable that takes real strength. It doesn't take any
Karen Kenney:strength at all to have a fucking wise ass mouth. You know
Karen Kenney:what I mean? Okay, here's example number two. Remember I
Karen Kenney:said my friend was bummed because she's like, I got these
Karen Kenney:two I got these two comments. This woman wrote to her and said
Karen Kenney:this, I was excited to be able to see this and to participate
Karen Kenney:in the quote, unquote masterclass, which turned out to
Karen Kenney:be a misnomer. Oh no, I just want to bang my face off my
Karen Kenney:microphone, which turns out to be a misnomer. Okay, let's just
Karen Kenney:educate my friend on what she was actually doing and what her
Karen Kenney:intention was, okay? And we're back. This woman continues to
Karen Kenney:say this was an hour long infomercial, and I can't point
Karen Kenney:to a single takeaway that I can use in my life. I am
Karen Kenney:disappointed, to be honest. And once again, once again, this
Karen Kenney:person felt the need I just this is me in my head, motherfucker,
Karen Kenney:this was a free hour long thing. You could have left at the five
Karen Kenney:minute mark, the 10 minute mark, the 15 minute mark, the 20
Karen Kenney:minute mark, the 25 minute mark, you could have left at any time
Karen Kenney:if you didn't think it was worth your time. But no, you stayed
Karen Kenney:for the whole thing. And I'm thinking to myself, Why? Why? So
Karen Kenney:you could just stay and then later go write this fucking
Karen Kenney:email so that you could let this other person know how you feel,
Karen Kenney:as if your opinion matters that much. Why be an asshole when you
Karen Kenney:could just be quiet. She could have just said, Hey, that wasn't
Karen Kenney:for me. She could even have thought to herself something
Karen Kenney:like, Oh, that was a waste of my time, in her opinion.
Unknown:But why reach out and say that? And
Karen Kenney:it's so fascinating because another
Karen Kenney:person watched it and said, this was informative and interesting.
Karen Kenney:So do you see what I'm saying here? And you know what's
Karen Kenney:fascinating about this? When my friend forwarded me the email, I
Karen Kenney:looked at the name, and I look at the email address, and so I
Karen Kenney:was, like, interesting. So I googled it. She doesn't even
Karen Kenney:know that I did this. I Googled it. The woman that sent this
Karen Kenney:email, she works at a Christian school. I looked her up, I found
Karen Kenney:her name, I found her picture, I found what her role was at this
Karen Kenney:school. And you know, what's so fascinating, it's so fascinating
Karen Kenney:is that this Christian school that this woman works at, do you
Karen Kenney:know what their mission statement is? Listen to this.
Karen Kenney:Here's our mission statement, this Episcopal blah, blah blah,
Karen Kenney:blah blah Christian School it develops, this is its mission
Karen Kenney:statement. It develops in students, a love of learning,
Karen Kenney:Respect for self and others, faith in God, and a sense of
Karen Kenney:service to the world community. And the one that jumped off the
Karen Kenney:page for me here was respect for others, because I'm not seeing a
Karen Kenney:lot of jesusy kind of response here. I don't think Jesus would
Karen Kenney:have sent this email. I don't think somebody who, like, you
Karen Kenney:know, is in the Christian faith and is pretending to be all
Karen Kenney:Christian. E all Christ like I think to myself, I'm actually a
Karen Kenney:fan. I actually wish. I actually wish, right back in the day,
Karen Kenney:remember all the WW, JD bracelets, the What would Jesus
Karen Kenney:do? Bracelets? I never had one, but I saw them all the time. And
Karen Kenney:I just think people should go back to wearing them. And before
Karen Kenney:they open their big fat mouths, they take a look at their wrists
Karen Kenney:and they see that WWJD, because I guarantee you this, about 90%
Karen Kenney:of their shenanigans, about 90% of their bullshit, would be
Karen Kenney:stopped right in its tracks if they were wicked honest with
Karen Kenney:themselves and said, Would Jesus think this? Would Jesus say
Karen Kenney:this? Would Jesus Do this? Would Jesus feel the need to let this
Karen Kenney:brother or this sister know where they failed? Isn't there
Karen Kenney:some quote about, like, before you try to point out the
Karen Kenney:splinter in somebody else's eye, like, look at the log in yours.
Karen Kenney:Like, look at the fucking tree in your own eyeball. I mean, I'm
Karen Kenney:just fascinated. I'm just fascinated. And the thing is, is
Karen Kenney:that people think that, because there's a comment section, that
Karen Kenney:their commentary is necessary, and it's not, and it's not, you
Karen Kenney:guys, you guys. You know, I've done an episode before about the
Karen Kenney:three gates. And it's this idea I first learned about it through
Karen Kenney:my meditation teacher, ecknatta schwaren, but it goes back. It's
Karen Kenney:like, it goes back to, like the Sufi. It's like old old, right?
Karen Kenney:And it's basically like your words, your words, should pass
Karen Kenney:through three gates before you say a thing. You ask yourself,
Karen Kenney:Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Now, while these
Karen Kenney:opinions may be true to these two people who felt the need to
Karen Kenney:send these they were not kind, and they certainly weren't
Karen Kenney:necessary. They would not have passed the Jesus test, right?
Karen Kenney:And they certainly wouldn't have passed the test of, hey, right,
Karen Kenney:what I call being in the kind Kids Club. I'm from a generation
Karen Kenney:of Mister Rogers. Mr. Rogers taught us how to be kind to
Karen Kenney:others, right? Bob Ross, you can see him back there on my little
Karen Kenney:seat next to Priscilla, right? He taught us to be kind to
Karen Kenney:ourselves. And then Steve Irwin, we call it like the holy trinity
Karen Kenney:of kindness. Mr. Rogers was like, be kind to others, be kind
Karen Kenney:to your neighbors, right? Bob Ross was like, be kind to
Karen Kenney:yourself. Oh, you made a mistake. Well, it's birds now,
Karen Kenney:right? And then Steve Irwin taught us how to be kind to
Karen Kenney:animals. But something is lacking in this day and age. And
Karen Kenney:here's a reality. You can get mad at me or not if you're
Karen Kenney:somebody who listens to this and you're a Trump fan, but he is
Karen Kenney:reality when the President of the United States, when I look
Karen Kenney:back and like, what was it? 2016 when he mocked, when he mocked a
Karen Kenney:reporter with a disability, and people thought that that was
Karen Kenney:okay, because, like, that should have ended his chances of
Karen Kenney:running the free world right then and there, when you saw
Karen Kenney:what a colossal, colossal asshole move that was, and you
Karen Kenney:think, Oh, this is this person's way of being like he thinks
Karen Kenney:that's okay. And the fact that we exist in an environment where
Karen Kenney:people think that cruelty is cool, and we're seeing more and
Karen Kenney:more and more of it in the world. Because when the person
Karen Kenney:who quote, unquote is the example of the one who like
Karen Kenney:people, and not all of us, but people voted into office, and
Karen Kenney:people think that, Oh, that behavior, that way of being, is
Karen Kenney:okay, it just spreads a message. It just spreads a message, and
Karen Kenney:we're in a world right now where people care more about clicks
Karen Kenney:than class, like being classy. Do you know what I mean? Like,
Karen Kenney:like not being a piece of shit? Like, they care more about like
Karen Kenney:bait, like clicking, like putting up the headlines and
Karen Kenney:tricking people, because they want to get the clicks, they
Karen Kenney:want to get the likes, they want to get the follows right. They
Karen Kenney:care more about going viral than their virtues, who and how
Karen Kenney:they're being in the world. They don't care how their content
Karen Kenney:like, what content is getting them to go viral. They care more
Karen Kenney:about the comments than they do about having a code I'm going to
Karen Kenney:do a whole podcast. Us about having a code. I jokingly will
Karen Kenney:often say, man's gotta have a code. What's your code? I'll say
Karen Kenney:to people, right? And we seem to be in a code of cruelty lately.
Karen Kenney:We seem to be in a code of like, well, my opinion matters, and I
Karen Kenney:have to let everybody know. No, no. Why be an asshole when you
Karen Kenney:can just be quiet. Ask yourself, is this true? Is it kind? Is it
Karen Kenney:necessary, if you're a person of faith, ask yourself, What would
Karen Kenney:Jesus do? Is what I'm about to say? Why am I saying it? Why am
Karen Kenney:I about to say this thing and think about the person, because
Karen Kenney:there is a person on the other side of that screen, there is a
Karen Kenney:person on the other side of that comment box, there is a person
Karen Kenney:on the other side of that email address. And I don't know you
Karen Kenney:might want to be asking yourself if you are truly representing
Karen Kenney:yourself and how and who you want to be in the world. I don't
Karen Kenney:know. I've been talking now. I don't even know if this one is
Karen Kenney:short. It certainly doesn't, hasn't felt sweet, because I
Karen Kenney:really just, I'm kind of over it. I'm just kind of over the
Karen Kenney:lackadaisical attitude that people have with slinging around
Karen Kenney:their unkind words and their meanness and their cruelty and
Karen Kenney:their comments, their snide comments. You know, just as I've
Karen Kenney:talked about this 1000 times, like just being vegan in the
Karen Kenney:world, I don't know what it is about vegans and why people get
Karen Kenney:so threatened by a group of people who are choosing not to
Karen Kenney:harm animals. It does something to the I mean, I actually know
Karen Kenney:what's going on. I because there's so much cognitive
Karen Kenney:dissonance in the world, because we are a country, especially
Karen Kenney:here in America, where people spend so much money on their
Karen Kenney:pets, and they say that they love animals, they say that they
Karen Kenney:love animals while they're still paying somebody else to murder
Karen Kenney:them and rape them and beat them and abuse them and kill them so
Karen Kenney:they can have a burger. There's so much cognitive dissonance in
Karen Kenney:the world, and so you're a person like, who, like, you just
Karen Kenney:post like a vegan recipe, or you post something about animal
Karen Kenney:cruelty, and people go crazy, and then they go in your
Karen Kenney:comments and they write things like, bacon. Mmm, bacon. I'm
Karen Kenney:like, what is it about our compassion and kindness towards
Karen Kenney:our animal friends that makes people so threatened? I know
Karen Kenney:what it is. It's their own cognitive dissident shit, it's
Karen Kenney:their own guilt, it's their own shame, it's their own weirdness,
Karen Kenney:but they have to deflect it and, like, throw it on back at the
Karen Kenney:vegans. Right? It's so crazy to me. So so much you guys, so much
Karen Kenney:of what I talk about on this show is about like taking some
Karen Kenney:personal responsibility for the way you're showing up in the
Karen Kenney:world, for the kind of life that you're leading, for the things
Karen Kenney:that you're saying, the things that you're doing, how you're
Karen Kenney:spending your money, how you're talking, how you're speaking,
Karen Kenney:how you're all of it like we have to be the adults now, and
Karen Kenney:we have to take some responsibility and take a look
Karen Kenney:around. So if you're somebody who's been just, just like,
Karen Kenney:using the comment section to say whatever you want, not thinking
Karen Kenney:about, is this kind? Is this true? Is it necessary, if you're
Karen Kenney:doing that, in your relationships, in your
Karen Kenney:friendships, with your family, like whatever, just understand
Karen Kenney:that your words have power. The things that you say, they can
Karen Kenney:affect other people, and it doesn't kill us, like be a part
Karen Kenney:of the kind kids club. You know, I think I talked about that. I
Karen Kenney:got this little I saw this really cute. This is a while.
Karen Kenney:This is before, before the target boycotts, right? But back
Karen Kenney:in the day, I found this cute little
Karen Kenney:lunch box, and it said kind kids club on it, and I was like, I'm
Karen Kenney:in the kind kids club. I want that, right? And that's how I
Karen Kenney:kind of think about what the nest is, right? My group
Karen Kenney:mentoring program, my spiritual mentoring group program, it's
Karen Kenney:like it's for the kind kids it's the kind kids club. It's for the
Karen Kenney:people who just don't want to operate status quo, all this
Karen Kenney:bullshit, all this meanness in the world. It's people who
Karen Kenney:actually want to take responsibility for who they are
Karen Kenney:and how they're being and why they're being that way, and
Karen Kenney:knowing their own shit, like owning, owning both their
Karen Kenney:brilliance and their bullshit. You know, so many people don't
Karen Kenney:want to take a look at the fact that they're just walking around
Karen Kenney:reacting out of fear all the time. We have an opportunity to
Karen Kenney:double down on love. We have an opportunity to double down on
Karen Kenney:love, and the world needs it now more than ever. I can go on. I
Karen Kenney:can just go on and on and on about this, but I'm over it. I'm
Karen Kenney:just over it. I'm over people being unkind to one another.
Karen Kenney:It's just not even interesting. It's not sexy, it's not cool,
Karen Kenney:it's not interesting, it's gross, is what it is. It's
Karen Kenney:immature and it's gross, and it shows absolutely no discipline.
Karen Kenney:Lack of discipline if you're not able to. It. Now this doesn't
Karen Kenney:mean that you don't get to have opinions, you guys, you get to
Karen Kenney:have opinions. And I'm not saying that you don't ever speak
Karen Kenney:up, because there is a time and a place, but man, do people just
Karen Kenney:feel the need to just say their opinion about things when it's
Karen Kenney:just totally unnecessary. It's not needed, and I see the
Karen Kenney:effects of it. I work with people too, right? I mean, I
Karen Kenney:grew up in a household where a lot of unnecessary, unkind,
Karen Kenney:cruel, mean, fucking things were said too. You know, I was a kid.
Karen Kenney:I was a byproduct of that environment, and I've had to do
Karen Kenney:a lot of work, a lot of work over the years, right, to come
Karen Kenney:to a place of, like, self love, right? Like, getting back to a
Karen Kenney:place where I was like, oh, you know, like I am actually
Karen Kenney:lovable. Oh, gosh, all right, I just gonna end it there. I'm
Karen Kenney:just gonna end it there, for the love of all things holy wherever
Karen Kenney:you go. I mean, think about how i the whole premise of this show
Karen Kenney:is to spread more love in the world, to use spirituality and
Karen Kenney:storytelling to help people to understand themselves more. When
Karen Kenney:you understand yourself more, and you start to take a look
Karen Kenney:around, you start to understand other people more, and you start
Karen Kenney:to understand that all we want to do is be loved and accepted
Karen Kenney:and belong and to feel like that we matter, and our words are so
Karen Kenney:powerful, and we could be using our words to build each other up
Karen Kenney:rather than tear each other down. So wherever you go, may
Karen Kenney:you leave the people better the animals better right yourself,
Karen Kenney:better the environment in the planet, better than how you
Karen Kenney:first found them. Think about that is my being here and the
Karen Kenney:quality of my thoughts, my words and my actions going to leave
Karen Kenney:this person, this program, this thing better for my having been
Karen Kenney:here, wherever you go, may you and your energy and your love
Karen Kenney:and your presence, your kindness, be a blessing. Bye,
Karen Kenney:you.
