Sunday, November 23, 2025

Thanksgiving in the Age of Authoritarianism

Thanksgiving used to be simple: food, family, and that one uncle who always fell asleep in the recliner by 3 p.m. But now, thanks to Trump's second term, the turkey is not the only thing getting carved up. Reality is.

Posted by A_Friend at 03:18 PM | 4 COMMENTS | permalink

Comments

snip ...

The holiday table has become a miniature stage for the country's ongoing psychodrama. Cranberry sauce mixes with conspiracy theories, and relatives arrive carrying both a side dish and a storyline pulled straight from the MAGA content mill.

Many of you are not just prepping a meal. You are bracing for impact. You are about to sit across from relatives who do not merely disagree with you but who have stepped off the shared map of reality altogether. You are speaking English and they are speaking the dialect you get after forty hours a week inside a grievance factory calibrated to keep them furious and certain. Even the most basic exchange can feel less like a conversation and more like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands.

#1 | Posted by A_Friend at 2025-11-23 03:19 PM

snip ...

That is why I created three letters you can use at any point, whether it is before the holiday, in the middle of the gathering, or at the exact moment you feel the table start to tilt. Each one carries a distinct tone and strategy, giving you messaging you can offer to your relatives or keep as an internal anchor:

#2 | Posted by A_Friend at 2025-11-23 03:20 PM

Who stays in touch with ---- ups and psychos because "the holidays"?

As Otto would say, ---- That.

#3 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2025-11-23 04:26 PM

@#1 ... The holiday table has become a miniature stage for the country's ongoing psychodrama. Cranberry sauce mixes with conspiracy theories, and relatives arrive carrying both a side dish and a storyline pulled straight from the MAGA content mill. ...

I remember a Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house a couple decades or so ago.

An in-law was a southern Republican (pre-MAGA).

During Thanksgiving dinner the in-law just started saying, with no provocation... ~the reason why n****s in the US are so stupid is because the are the ones who could not outrun or hide from being brought the the US.~

There was a silence at the table. An aghast silence.

Finally, that in-law's spouse said, ~let's change the subject...~

Oddly, no one went back for second helpings that Thanksgiving.



#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-11-23 06:39 PM

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