That Time-Honored Tradition of Ruining Thanksgiving with Politics
[guest post by JVW]
We’ve talked about it before: that present mania of various political advocacy organizations to suggest that you steer the family Thanksgiving discussion into the realm of hotly contested debate. I mean, why let a family gathering ostensibly set around an elongated weekend of quiet reflection on the things for which we are extremely grateful be devoid of peckish quarrels about taxes, or health care, or foreign policy, or the Deep State, or wokedy-wokeness? You’ve got your captivated audience; why not use the opportunity to unload your entire sense of injustice and victimization?
Fortunately, as in years past, social media is full of ideas as to how to ensure that mom ends up quietly crying in the kitchen, Uncle Ben storms out of the house in a huff, and cousin Kate nervously drinks herself into a stupor. First up, the ever-redoubtable ACLU:
Some of our personal favorite Thanksgiving conversation starters:
💬 "My pronouns are…"
💬 "Firing people for being LGBTQ is illegal and Trump asked SCOTUS to change that"
💬 "Who loved Pose season 2?"
💬 "Please pass the pie, and the Equality Act"
— ACLU (@ACLU) November 27, 2019
Maybe those topics are too safe and generic for you, though. Perhaps you want to ensure that a quiet yet earnest discussion quickly escalates into a red-faced shouting match. I know: bring up abortion, a suggestion that elicited this hilarious response from National Review’s Charles W. Cooke:
“Hi guys! It’s so great to see you. Hold on, let me go back to the car to get the graphs, articles, and toolkit for my abortion presentation.”https://t.co/55oixmnVez
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2019
I don’t know about you guys, but in my family we always stuck to pretty safe and conventional topics at holiday meals: the severity of the recent snowstorm, whether the Broncos will be able to bounce back next year, and mild gossip regarding a cousin who was away at college and didn’t make it home for the holiday. I think in the long run that will be much better for family cohesion than knowing that Katie’s new “boyfriend” prefers to use “ze” and “zer” for the third-person pronoun.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
– JVW