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Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

nytimes.com

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Re: Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

#71

Post by rootusrootus »

emodendroket wrote: post #26
49bc wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You hold your tongue and value family relationships above petty squabbles. It’s not some pious virtue. It’s just what you learn to do as a functioning adult.

And what are you supposed to do when several of your relatives do not exercise this level of restraint and insist on steering the conversation toward politics?

Turn the other cheek. Steer the conversation back towards something less contentious. If necessary, confront them... but not as a partisan. Challenge them to abstain from political discussion in favor of a happier conversation. If they really cannot be adult enough to make that choice, then it really isn't politics that is the problem, it's just a symptom.

Re: Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

#72

Post by [deleted] »

losteric wrote: post #54
rootusrootus wrote: post #6

If true, then people are losing focus on what's important. Half of my family is extremely conservative. Half is very liberal. We get along great at family gatherings, because we just agreed that discussing politics is less important than family relationships. Maybe that will play out over the next couple years, now that the latest political developments seem to have really stretched the boundaries. Perhaps we will co…

My family is similarly divided, except we do talk about politics. If anything, our last Thanksgiving was longer than usual... Politics is not "squabbling". America is a democracy - decentralized discussion of ideas is how democracy works. Social cohesion through silence is what creates hyperpartisan cultures like our own. The problem is most Americans use mass media as their role model for communication... and modern…

[deleted]

Re: Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

#73

Post by rootusrootus »

chepaslaaa wrote: post #16
rootusrootus wrote: post #6

If true, then people are losing focus on what's important. Half of my family is extremely conservative. Half is very liberal. We get along great at family gatherings, because we just agreed that discussing politics is less important than family relationships. Maybe that will play out over the next couple years, now that the latest political developments seem to have really stretched the boundaries. Perhaps we will co…

When your grandfather says racist shit about your girlfriend you might start understanding.

I have a [southern baptist] brother who, while visiting us for Thanksgiving, lectured to his children in front of us about how we were all sinners who lived evil lives doing evil things. I assure you he said some things that were every bit as offensive as racist comments.

Re: Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

#74

Post by GhostVII »

mywittyname wrote: post #42
GhostVII wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Racism isn't a political issue, it's accepted that it is a bad thing.

I disagree. Lots of people think it's perfectly acceptable to say terrible things about (people they think are) Mexican. You can readily predict the political alignment of the people who do think such things are acceptable. I would not be surprised if their behavior extended to other groups, such as Muslims. Additionally, a subset of these people also believe that it should be socially acceptable to say disparaging t…

That doesn't make it a political issue though, because there isn't really any serious debate about it. Just because more racists support Republicans doesn't make it a political issue unless racism is something a significant amount of Republicans are supportive of.

Re: Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

#75

Post by GhostVII »

yardie wrote: post #49
GhostVII wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Racism isn't a political issue, it's accepted that it is a bad thing.

> it's accepted that it is a bad thing. I believe the recent presidential election has proven otherwise.

How so? Were there politicians debating on whether it was OK to be racist? Being anti-immigration is not racism regardless of how you feel about the topic.

Re: Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

#76

Post by GhostVII »

mintplant wrote: post #52
GhostVII wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do politics dominate every faucet of your life? My life is not affected at all when the government changes, except I pay slightly different taxes, and the news is different.

This is a privilege that not all get to enjoy.

Even if politics significantly affect you, I don't see why you can't get along with someone who's beliefs could negatively affect you, as long as they don't hold those beliefs with the goal of hurting you personally. Everyone has reasons for their political beliefs, I think those reasons are more important than the beliefs themselves - if someone is anti-immigration because they are worried about national security, I think that is a fine opinion and I could get along with that person. If they have that opinion because they dislike mexicans, I would probably not like them so much.

Re: Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

#77

Post by dang »

Andre_Wanglin wrote: post #66
emodendroket wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To take an obvious example, I'm sure his friends thought he was a swell guy, but I don't think we need to revisit Hitler's ideas about the Jews. I don't think we need to give much serious thought to theories about moon landing hoaxes or theories about how the Earth is flat either, no matter how nice the people promulgating them may be. We are only given so much time on this Earth; I can think of better ways to spend…

Everyone I know (and know of) espouses obvious claptrap from time to time. If that is the sieve with which you denote undesirables to remove from your personal sphere, your circle either has a radius of 1 or you delude yourself about your detection abilities.

We've banned this account for using HN primarily for ideological battle. That's not what this site is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

#78

Post by reitanqild »

GhostVII wrote: post #76
mintplant wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a privilege that not all get to enjoy.

Even if politics significantly affect you, I don't see why you can't get along with someone who's beliefs could negatively affect you, as long as they don't hold those beliefs with the goal of hurting you personally. Everyone has reasons for their political beliefs, I think those reasons are more important than the beliefs themselves - if someone is anti-immigration because they are worried about national security, I…

Agree.

I got a few downvotes around the time Trump got elected[0] because I tried to say here that maybe we should look into why people made this choice instead of being angry with them.

At that time, for days on end it felt a good chunk of users would bulk downvote everyone whos opinion was more nuanced than black and white and most voters are too dumb to understand their own good. (A good chunk of users also upvoted but since I think I write reasonable comments I hope they upvoted me because of that, not just because I seemed more aligned with them :-P )

[0] I still don't like him, and I repeatedly said so then too

Re: Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

#79

Post by Andre_Wanglin »

dang wrote: post #77
Andre_Wanglin wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone I know (and know of) espouses obvious claptrap from time to time. If that is the sieve with which you denote undesirables to remove from your personal sphere, your circle either has a radius of 1 or you delude yourself about your detection abilities.

We've banned this account for using HN primarily for ideological battle. That's not what this site is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Then why not remove posts that inevitably lead to ideological battle? I do not see that you have banned the accounts of my interlocutors. I also do not see that my account was used primarily for ideological battle.

Re: Thanksgiving Got Shorter After the 2016 Election, Study Says

#80

Post by emodendroket »

rootusrootus wrote: post #71
emodendroket wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what are you supposed to do when several of your relatives do not exercise this level of restraint and insist on steering the conversation toward politics?

Turn the other cheek. Steer the conversation back towards something less contentious. If necessary, confront them... but not as a partisan. Challenge them to abstain from political discussion in favor of a happier conversation. If they really cannot be adult enough to make that choice, then it really isn't politics that is the problem, it's just a symptom.

At a certain point you're just tired of that and want to excuse yourself and go home.
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