The “keep the peace at Thanksgiving” articles that are published every year with minor variations – this year’s flavor: impeachment! – tend to ignore the simplest solution: don’t go.
If your family has truly odious opinions, and they are bound and determined to let fly with them over a holiday dinner knowing full well people at the table disagree with them, why subject yourself to it unless you like fighting (which is fine!)? Make your own Thanksgiving traditions with like-minded friends. Visit your family at other times of the year when you can plan activities that keep everyone busy instead of sitting around the living room staring at each other for several hours while the bird cooks, waiting with clenched teeth for Dad to say “fake news.”
Sorry, we had Indigenous People's Day (or as we call it Native American's Day) back in October. But then, as everyone knows, South Dakota is the vanguard for the 4th International
There was one time that one of my brothers and I were really going at it on Facebook, actually getting really nasty, as is normal when we have political discussions, since my brothers are right wing assholes. And another friend got on and said: Now come on stop it, you wouldn't do this if you were face to face. My response was to tell him that he had obviously never been to a Thanksgiving at my parents' house. It was the only thing my brother agreed with me on.
As I've noted ad nauseum, I don't understand the establishment media's certitude that Trump's reelection is assured. I mean, I get the Why -- because they're full of shit on the national affairs beat -- but the How. I still see every tailwind he had in 2016 gone.
The economy looks good enough -- except on the level of many if not most people's personal economics, for one.
But the petty resentments over bullshit, I dunno, I think it's going to be like death by a thousand cuts. In addition to all the other negatives, most voters are just going to be repelled by Donnie first and foremost. (I write of course hopefully because I have zero faith in the American voters.)
As for this issue -- which as someone parsing a shit ton of pinko blogs and websites regularly -- it was news to me that changing Thanksgiving's name was any sort of thing.
Whatever. As always, when it comes to those people, fuck their feelings.
Hang around Righties for a while and you'll learn that we're up to all sorts of astonishing no-good stuff. Getting rid of Thanksgiving is just one. We also:
Want to take away everyone's healthcare, but give free healthcare to illegal immigrants;
Outlaw cars, trucks, and airplanes;
Outlaw religion (while imposing Sharia);
Outlaw "traditional" marriage;
Outlaw honest discussion of why Black people are genetically stupid;
It's like a discussion I had years ago when Davey Johnson left Sid Fernandez in a game for two innings despite a fusillade of hits launched against him: "He's their ace," the respondent said. Similarly the incumbent is considered the favorite to win no matter what, unless Wall Street gives a bad report, which it won't. And don't forget the MSM has been pushing the Dems in Disarray story through all the off-year elections that the Dems have crushed.
That's what really struck me about Fiona Hill's testimony, as she described the moment when she recognized the divergence: Sondland was doing domestic political errands and the real diplomats were doing diplomacy. It's all of a piece, the impossible and yet obvious diverging of perceived realities. The establishment media, bless most of their hearts, has tried to deal with this in the most useless way, the tired old nervous "both sides" way, which leads to "everything is of interest, but nothing matters".
Oh, happy Thanksgiving. I have been invited to a Fun Time gathering. It's going to be great.
I'm going to take the advice of someone I saw in Twitter and celebrate Thanksgiving in the most traditional way possible: I'm going to infect the neighbors with smallpox and take their land.
The Police Action On Thanksgiving was apparently over before anybody knew it happened. However, now that the Peace of Fox News has been signed, everyone can get back to planning for the next war.
Thankfully, it's been years since a family member called me a Communist after truly over-indulgence. The great American tradition of moving far away from one's relatives has mitigated a lot of potential argumentation.
But without segue, I watched "Home for the Holidays," the only Thanksgiving movie I know of, for the first time since 1995 and I note that the discussion of gay marriage has come a long way these past two and a half decades.
My family's not so bad: the grandparents generally keep their increasingly fascist opinions to themselves, the other likely offenders stay far away, my immediate fam's usually okay (one brother-in-law drinks enough to step in it upon occasion), and I'm often with friends anyways since I live so far away. So yay me, I guess. I kind of want a bit of drama, but I get bored of shitposting strangers.
Well, I certainly wouldn't want your Thanksgiving to be incomplete. So read this in the voice of your least favorite relative:
FUCK YOU! Donald Trump is the greatest president in American--no WORLD!!!-- history, and it's just you libtards and the Deep State that are keeping everyone from knowing that!!!11!!
Thanks D. I really appreciate it. Last time I was absent when the BiL tossed off about liberals hating Dumpster. My mom, 65 and wiry, taking no shits, smacked him the fuck down and left his fee-fees singed all weekend.
I have this feeling I've met your mom, years ago on the barricades or during an action. Give her the special 65+ girlfriend/comrade signal from me. Oh wait, you may not know what it is. So tell her hi and do a fist-bump.
Wonkette offers help. Seriously, even if they're just regular Trump people and not QAnon, this will help, if you're determined to go at all, which I don't recommend, but I more or less cut my family off for way better reasons than incivility over turkey, and will be spending this holiday as all others with my own family: my partner and my cat.
Thanks for linking this, it really is a good post.
There was a Thanksgiving luncheon at my apartment building yesterday, and I deflected a vaccine squirmish, instead of taking the bait. Someone was talking about maybe getting the shingles vaccine, "although I hate vaccines, don't trust 'em", and I just said cheerfully, "Oh, I'm on Team Vaccine!" This person is smart and nice and we both knew to drop it right then. It doesn't exactly follow the Wonkette playbook, but it was so much more pleasant than deploying logic and interrogatories.
I wondered where The War on Thanksgiving was coming from; good to find out it's just another way of framing Fuchs News' viewers bêtes noires and cementing their allegiance to unreality. Let's help them go over the edge. When Uncle Cletus starts in about the WOTday, mention that the progressives are now going after St. Swithin's Day. See if you can work him up to stroke level with it.
Aw geez, no one tells me anything. Another Special Action? I'm still exhausted from two Jade Helm tours with the Muslim Brotherhood training our valiant leftist soldiers to genocide Christians and Real American Patriots. Heck, just last weekend I pulled guard duty at a Walmart in Poughkeepsie (contrary to popular belief, even among comrades, Operation Jade Helm wasn't directed only at Texas -- Leader Obama was much too crafty for that!)
So when do I get my orders? It's already Indigenous Peoples Day, and I've got Black Friday trampling duty tomorrow in the the War on Christmas. Should I call Soros HQ?
Personally, I’m sick of waiting for those Soros checks. From now on, cash on the barrelhead or I cease all covert revolutionary activities to destroy America and just put my feet up for a change.
One of the more confusing aspects of conservatism is the constant need to be angry. I mean, the need to convince yourself that leftists are "at war" with Thanksgiving. Isn't it exhausting? One reason I cut back on Twitter was because I got tired of waking up and instantly pissing myself off. I don't understand why they enjoy making themselves angry so much.
Being angry means you're right. I get that. Sometimes a little anger is just what you need. But yeah, too much is exhausting, and it almost always means feeling victimized too, and that's exhausting too.
Anyway, once you stop being angry, you have to start thinking, and that's kind of an issue for these folks, so they make sure to keep them angry.
After it’s all over with (and I do hope there’s some drinking and good cooking along with the arguing — I’ve started doing all three already), may I recommend a fine late-night tonic in the form of the film BABETTE’S FEAST. “An artist is never poor.”
<i>Whither came this particular crop of brain worms?</i>
One so rarely gets the chance to be pedantic over archaic grammar, so I have to take the opportunity: the word should be "whence." Whither means "where to."
As far as I can see, a whole lot of the ethnic and racial stereotype entertainment used to be a way for the whitest people to acknowledge urges they'd rather not. You're not supposed to admit that you'd like some physical time with your sweetie? There's a 'coon song for that': "Shine On Harvest Moon". You're supposed to _embrace_ your six-day, ten-hour, work-week and not allow as how you'd be better-off if you didn't have to do? There's another one, "Everybody Works but Father". Our host has covered the Irish and family donnybrooks; I'm at a loss for a song in the genre about drinking—the closest to which I can come is for the Scots, "I Belong to Glasgow"—but enlighten me if you know of it or a vaudeville or variety routine. Wish you could put one over on everybody else? Monroe Silver was the American Quartet's Jew lead for "I Ate the Baloney", which also has a dig against seeking your reward in Heaven….
Not exactly the same, but a song that admits that Girls Got Urges Too and musicians can excite them, "Yip-I-Addy-I-Ay" (which has an orgasmic chorus), may deflect criticism by making their object a German musician playing around with a cello.
I recall old Irishmen in my youth had a version of "I want a girl just like the girl that married dear old dad" that began "I want a beer just like the beer that plastered dear old dad." And what state do you think "the Mick that thew the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder" was in?
The “keep the peace at Thanksgiving” articles that are published every year with minor variations – this year’s flavor: impeachment! – tend to ignore the simplest solution: don’t go.
If your family has truly odious opinions, and they are bound and determined to let fly with them over a holiday dinner knowing full well people at the table disagree with them, why subject yourself to it unless you like fighting (which is fine!)? Make your own Thanksgiving traditions with like-minded friends. Visit your family at other times of the year when you can plan activities that keep everyone busy instead of sitting around the living room staring at each other for several hours while the bird cooks, waiting with clenched teeth for Dad to say “fake news.”
Anyway, Happy Indigenous People’s Day, comrades!
Indigenous People or however you workshop!
Sorry, we had Indigenous People's Day (or as we call it Native American's Day) back in October. But then, as everyone knows, South Dakota is the vanguard for the 4th International
Only when the Indigenous Peoples control the means of gambling can the proletariat truly be fleeced!
Karl Yourthe Marx
Y’all on the meth? Or is that North Dakota?
No we're on Meth in the SD
There was one time that one of my brothers and I were really going at it on Facebook, actually getting really nasty, as is normal when we have political discussions, since my brothers are right wing assholes. And another friend got on and said: Now come on stop it, you wouldn't do this if you were face to face. My response was to tell him that he had obviously never been to a Thanksgiving at my parents' house. It was the only thing my brother agreed with me on.
As I've noted ad nauseum, I don't understand the establishment media's certitude that Trump's reelection is assured. I mean, I get the Why -- because they're full of shit on the national affairs beat -- but the How. I still see every tailwind he had in 2016 gone.
The economy looks good enough -- except on the level of many if not most people's personal economics, for one.
But the petty resentments over bullshit, I dunno, I think it's going to be like death by a thousand cuts. In addition to all the other negatives, most voters are just going to be repelled by Donnie first and foremost. (I write of course hopefully because I have zero faith in the American voters.)
As for this issue -- which as someone parsing a shit ton of pinko blogs and websites regularly -- it was news to me that changing Thanksgiving's name was any sort of thing.
Whatever. As always, when it comes to those people, fuck their feelings.
Hang around Righties for a while and you'll learn that we're up to all sorts of astonishing no-good stuff. Getting rid of Thanksgiving is just one. We also:
Want to take away everyone's healthcare, but give free healthcare to illegal immigrants;
Outlaw cars, trucks, and airplanes;
Outlaw religion (while imposing Sharia);
Outlaw "traditional" marriage;
Outlaw honest discussion of why Black people are genetically stupid;
Block all White people from voting.
I guess we really do hate 'Murica.
It's like a discussion I had years ago when Davey Johnson left Sid Fernandez in a game for two innings despite a fusillade of hits launched against him: "He's their ace," the respondent said. Similarly the incumbent is considered the favorite to win no matter what, unless Wall Street gives a bad report, which it won't. And don't forget the MSM has been pushing the Dems in Disarray story through all the off-year elections that the Dems have crushed.
The establishment media have been dissing the Dems since Carter. Nothing there new now.
And more or less what I said: Wall Street and the media say the economy is awesome while peoples’ wallets maybe don’t agree.
That's what really struck me about Fiona Hill's testimony, as she described the moment when she recognized the divergence: Sondland was doing domestic political errands and the real diplomats were doing diplomacy. It's all of a piece, the impossible and yet obvious diverging of perceived realities. The establishment media, bless most of their hearts, has tried to deal with this in the most useless way, the tired old nervous "both sides" way, which leads to "everything is of interest, but nothing matters".
Oh, happy Thanksgiving. I have been invited to a Fun Time gathering. It's going to be great.
I'm going to take the advice of someone I saw in Twitter and celebrate Thanksgiving in the most traditional way possible: I'm going to infect the neighbors with smallpox and take their land.
This year it's; Infect with measles and take land for border wall
Mig Greengard twittered
It's hard to celebrate Thanksgiving in the original way anymore, so I'm going to settle for giving my Uber driver smallpox and stealing his car.
That's who it was! Thanks!
The Police Action On Thanksgiving was apparently over before anybody knew it happened. However, now that the Peace of Fox News has been signed, everyone can get back to planning for the next war.
too late for Ken Cucinelli
Thankfully, it's been years since a family member called me a Communist after truly over-indulgence. The great American tradition of moving far away from one's relatives has mitigated a lot of potential argumentation.
But without segue, I watched "Home for the Holidays," the only Thanksgiving movie I know of, for the first time since 1995 and I note that the discussion of gay marriage has come a long way these past two and a half decades.
Amen on both counts. Happy Thanksgiving, folks. I'm grateful for you guys, as corny as it may sound.
My family's not so bad: the grandparents generally keep their increasingly fascist opinions to themselves, the other likely offenders stay far away, my immediate fam's usually okay (one brother-in-law drinks enough to step in it upon occasion), and I'm often with friends anyways since I live so far away. So yay me, I guess. I kind of want a bit of drama, but I get bored of shitposting strangers.
Well, I certainly wouldn't want your Thanksgiving to be incomplete. So read this in the voice of your least favorite relative:
FUCK YOU! Donald Trump is the greatest president in American--no WORLD!!!-- history, and it's just you libtards and the Deep State that are keeping everyone from knowing that!!!11!!
Thanks D. I really appreciate it. Last time I was absent when the BiL tossed off about liberals hating Dumpster. My mom, 65 and wiry, taking no shits, smacked him the fuck down and left his fee-fees singed all weekend.
I have this feeling I've met your mom, years ago on the barricades or during an action. Give her the special 65+ girlfriend/comrade signal from me. Oh wait, you may not know what it is. So tell her hi and do a fist-bump.
Small group but no discussion of politics. I feel deprived :)
Oops, make that :(
Wonkette offers help. Seriously, even if they're just regular Trump people and not QAnon, this will help, if you're determined to go at all, which I don't recommend, but I more or less cut my family off for way better reasons than incivility over turkey, and will be spending this holiday as all others with my own family: my partner and my cat.
https://www.wonkette.com/a-handy-guide-for-dealing-with-your-qaanon-relatives-this-thanksgiving
Thanks for linking this, it really is a good post.
There was a Thanksgiving luncheon at my apartment building yesterday, and I deflected a vaccine squirmish, instead of taking the bait. Someone was talking about maybe getting the shingles vaccine, "although I hate vaccines, don't trust 'em", and I just said cheerfully, "Oh, I'm on Team Vaccine!" This person is smart and nice and we both knew to drop it right then. It doesn't exactly follow the Wonkette playbook, but it was so much more pleasant than deploying logic and interrogatories.
The right's metaphorical turkeys are a feast for the misinformed.
I wondered where The War on Thanksgiving was coming from; good to find out it's just another way of framing Fuchs News' viewers bêtes noires and cementing their allegiance to unreality. Let's help them go over the edge. When Uncle Cletus starts in about the WOTday, mention that the progressives are now going after St. Swithin's Day. See if you can work him up to stroke level with it.
Shhh. Don't let on about St Swithin's yet. We witches are still working on Walpurgisnacht, we haven't really gotten organized for July.
Aw geez, no one tells me anything. Another Special Action? I'm still exhausted from two Jade Helm tours with the Muslim Brotherhood training our valiant leftist soldiers to genocide Christians and Real American Patriots. Heck, just last weekend I pulled guard duty at a Walmart in Poughkeepsie (contrary to popular belief, even among comrades, Operation Jade Helm wasn't directed only at Texas -- Leader Obama was much too crafty for that!)
So when do I get my orders? It's already Indigenous Peoples Day, and I've got Black Friday trampling duty tomorrow in the the War on Christmas. Should I call Soros HQ?
Personally, I’m sick of waiting for those Soros checks. From now on, cash on the barrelhead or I cease all covert revolutionary activities to destroy America and just put my feet up for a change.
Can I interest you in Green Stamps?
One of the more confusing aspects of conservatism is the constant need to be angry. I mean, the need to convince yourself that leftists are "at war" with Thanksgiving. Isn't it exhausting? One reason I cut back on Twitter was because I got tired of waking up and instantly pissing myself off. I don't understand why they enjoy making themselves angry so much.
Being angry means you're right. I get that. Sometimes a little anger is just what you need. But yeah, too much is exhausting, and it almost always means feeling victimized too, and that's exhausting too.
Anyway, once you stop being angry, you have to start thinking, and that's kind of an issue for these folks, so they make sure to keep them angry.
After it’s all over with (and I do hope there’s some drinking and good cooking along with the arguing — I’ve started doing all three already), may I recommend a fine late-night tonic in the form of the film BABETTE’S FEAST. “An artist is never poor.”
<i>Whither came this particular crop of brain worms?</i>
One so rarely gets the chance to be pedantic over archaic grammar, so I have to take the opportunity: the word should be "whence." Whither means "where to."
Always happy for a chance to learn!
And then there's this, the best TV Turkey Day show ever and you know I'm right:
https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/wkrp-in-cinncinati-best-thanksgiving-tv-episode.html
With regard to the fighting Irish:
As far as I can see, a whole lot of the ethnic and racial stereotype entertainment used to be a way for the whitest people to acknowledge urges they'd rather not. You're not supposed to admit that you'd like some physical time with your sweetie? There's a 'coon song for that': "Shine On Harvest Moon". You're supposed to _embrace_ your six-day, ten-hour, work-week and not allow as how you'd be better-off if you didn't have to do? There's another one, "Everybody Works but Father". Our host has covered the Irish and family donnybrooks; I'm at a loss for a song in the genre about drinking—the closest to which I can come is for the Scots, "I Belong to Glasgow"—but enlighten me if you know of it or a vaudeville or variety routine. Wish you could put one over on everybody else? Monroe Silver was the American Quartet's Jew lead for "I Ate the Baloney", which also has a dig against seeking your reward in Heaven….
Not exactly the same, but a song that admits that Girls Got Urges Too and musicians can excite them, "Yip-I-Addy-I-Ay" (which has an orgasmic chorus), may deflect criticism by making their object a German musician playing around with a cello.
s/'coon song for that'/'coon song' for that/1
…or maybe even…
'There's a "coon song" for that!'
…even though that joke's a bit stale.
I recall old Irishmen in my youth had a version of "I want a girl just like the girl that married dear old dad" that began "I want a beer just like the beer that plastered dear old dad." And what state do you think "the Mick that thew the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder" was in?
I have the perfect response to my MAGA FIL. I start laughing my ass off until he's too embarrassed to continue.