We’ve forgotten a great deal of age-old wisdoms over the years, but here’s a reminder about a rule most of us grew up with: Religion and politics have no place at the dinner table.
In my family, either topic might have been a welcome distraction from fighting about everything else in our lives; politics and religion were two of the less heated issues in a whole bevy of off-limit conversation topics. Nobody ever followed the rules, of course, and it was standard for voices to get heated at my Irish-Catholic Thanksgiving meal. Holidays filled with arguments are, I can assure you, a sure-fire way to spoil memories, relationships and associations with holidays for the rest of your life.
Approaching the Thanksgiving holiday, countless pieces across the partisan Internet will emerge about how to “win” an argument with your relative of the opposite political persuasion. On the New York Times website, there is even an argument simulator meant to help users hone their debate skills with an angry uncle before the big night.
Say you use the Times advice, and you create flashcards of all the awful things Hillary Clinton or President Trump have done this year, ready to spar. You spend the entire pre-dinner part of the evening and most of the first course simply walloping Uncle Irving into submission. In the online world of likes and heart icons, you would have racked up your online gratification and moved on.
But tragically, we have conflated real life with virtual life. The table isn’t the Internet — and you’ve got another few hours trying to make small talk with a guy you just made it your mission to destroy. You and Uncle Irv aren’t the only ones grinning and bearing it through the meal at this point either; it’s likely pretty awkward for the rest of the…
