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Showing Original Post only (View all)Avoiding MAGA relatives over Thanksgiving (asking for advice) [View all]
My MAGA sister and her MAGA husband live in the house next to mine. Their two MAGA sons (early 40s/late 30s) and families will be gathering at her house next week. I do not mind someone having a normal differing political view from me. I don't think voting for Trump qualifies as a normal differing point of political view. Voting for Trump was/is an embrace of racism and misogyny. I don't want to pretend that that is OK.
So, I am trying to balance my responsibility to humanity, i.e. stand against racism, vs. personal considerations. To be clear, My MAGA sisters aren't as depraved as Trump. Probably you would like them if you met them. Being old people, we have a lifetime of history together.
When my husband died in 2019, I asked my MAGA sister to address his funeral service with a Biblical message for the benefit of my husband's parents. I am gay, btw. She spoke. It was nice. Marketing classes tell us that it is natural for humans to feel an obligation if another human gives you time or gifts. (Hence, the Moonies handing out flowers in airports in the '70s.)
[I added this paragraph upon re-read: I think funerals are stupid. My husband's service was unusual. I only wanted a service for the sake of his parents. I thought he would want his parents to be as whole as possible. There is nothing anyone could say for my sake. So, it's not like my sister carried the service. I asked 4 other people to say something briefly and I asked for my sister to address the gathering with a hopeful, religious offering.]
So, I'm caught between the natural human inclination to transactional interaction to grease the wheels of social intercourse, and my absolute disgust that Trump voters knew or should have known that he was(is) a white supremacist who most likely was involved in a child sex ring.
I'm leaning toward visiting out of town friends as a solution. Though that feels cowardly. Don't I owe the 66,000 people being held without due process by ICE an effort at least to make the people voting for the travesty aware of what they voted for? That number (66,000) is about half the number (120,000 to 125,000) Japanese Americans who were wrongfully interred during WWII. The people currently in ICE custody have had personal property confiscated too, just like what happened earlier.
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In my Alabama county, 78% of voters supported Trump. 72% of the population is white. 17% is black or African American. 8% is 2 or more races.
Scientifically, race is a social construct. You statistically share just as much genetically with any random person you meet on the street as you do with your 6th (or 7th --in that range) ancestor. This will most likely hold true for your progeny if you have any.
It's frustrating and disappointing that the false concept of race played such an important part in electing the vacuously depraved sitting president, well sitting is too kind of an adjective, the vacuously depraved slouching president.
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I'm leaning towards being out of town, because no matter how good/passionate/clear my stand against racism; it will have no effect on these MAGAs. Maybe Thanksgiving isn't the proper time to confront people. But it also isn't a good idea to give tacit approval to their actions.