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  • debating saying "free palestine" around my black israelite uncle to see what his reaction is but I know everyone else will be like "come the fuck on ABC...."

    • Like I know that the black Israelites exist but the thought of one being in your family is wild to me.

      • the thought of one being in your family is wild to me.

        he's the most soft-spoken/not physically threatening guy but you go on his Facebook & he's posting 24/7 shit like "HELL-oween is for the world…not for the saints." and "The Bible is being fulfilled 🇮🇱" (on October 14th

        ) but someone else already roasted him earlier at breakfast (by asking if he was gonna see his son today...) so I'll probably give him a pass unless he says something

    • ive cut off the black isrealites in my family, they disgust me.

      • real. Thankfully it is just the one uncle and both my dad & my other uncle both are basically non-religious despite growing up with a pastor dad, so it doesn't really ever have a chance to bleed into anything - but yeah it was contentious when grandma died and he wanted to plan the funeral & everyone was like "absolutely not"

        whenever he starts posting shit like "Straight Pride ✝️🇮🇱" in July though (literal post I just copied from his Facebook wall smh) I'm always like 'my man this is why no one likes you and you were fired from your nursing job & now work at walmart....'

        What makes it funnier though is that literally no one else in our family or extended family has fallen for the black israelite ''knowledge'' - again, because my dad and us are all non-religious - he literally found this shit as a pretty hardcore Christian and did a whole conversion for a girl he then knocked up and had a child with but subsequently broke up with cause, his words, she wasn't 'feminine and submissive & didn't respect the Most High' like what bro....she is raising your child???

      • I mean - it definitely depends. Besides my uncle I've known a handful of Black Israelites who have varying degrees of belief but in my experience, it is usually a fringe belief in the sense that you have to be exposed to some facet of by someone/something. You're far less likely to just learn about it in school or at a bar. My uncle definitely discovered it through Facebook. It doesn't help that the local Christian church they go to is very pro-Israel either though. I'd imagine if you lived somewhere like NYC where you can find a group of Black Israelite preachers in public on the sidewalk, it may be a little easier to get into.

  • I wouldn't say it was a raging argument, but I had a family member "both sides" Gaza. They stopped responding when I asked why Isn'trael was also conducting operations in West Bank.

    • Yesterday I had a liberal respond to me with "We should be careful about what we say about countries we don't live in." when I called Israel a settler-colonial fundamentalist religious ethnonationalist apartheid state. This person is the one who brought up the conflict (it was an old childhood friend who claimed to be a leftist) and said my takes on Israel were "Left Qanon"

      Cut a lib etc etc etc

    • Similar here

  • I did not have a raging political discussion, however I did have my sister, who considers herself a leftist but probably doesn’t know who Marx was, attempt to express her extremely vibes-based politics in entertaining ways. She showed up to our dinner late and extremely high. A family friend of ours came for dinner who is from South America and is extremely cool, often regaling us with stories of El Salvador and Chile in the 60s. She’d fit in on the site. She brought up Allende and my sister rolled her eyes and said that he was just like “every other mediocre white man who is overconfident”. I asked her why she felt that way and she said she was “just kidding”. I later brought up the book the Jakarta Method and my sister said that “what is happening in Jakarta and the other places in Africa is terrible on both sides”. She then said she’s in favor of the rest of the world adopting the American dollar because it would be “more socialist”.

    The subject of the CIA came up in the context of intervention in South America, and my sister related it to the CIA distributing crack in American inner cities in the 80s. This stood out to me simply because I was surprised she knew about it. She then talked about the healing power of psychedelic medicine for about forty five minutes.

    Later on, we watched Its A Wonderful Life, which she said was “a good argument for why we need to replace capitalism with Bitcoin” during the scene when Uncle Billy loses the money. I didn’t even ask. I love her and I actually do think her heart is basically in the right place but she’s like a random number generator and seems to invent her completely incoherent world view as she goes along. I’ve thought about recommending at least some theory but I kind of think she’s happier and pretty much harmless in her mind castle.

  • Not a huge argument on my side. Old grandfather consistently asks me to enlist, I always tell him it's not a Christian thing to do, to massacre the people of the world for the benefit of the wealthy. Usually my parents back me up even though they're conservative boomers. Same old same old.

  • Ooh, I posted it in another thread but it seems relevant here.

    Ladies and gentlemen: I give you the official DragonBallZinn's guide to holiday politics!

    Number one and also the TL;DR: Do not engage. This is so important I wrote an essay in the rest of this comment about it!

    Actually arguing with CHUDs is what they want, it's the TV trope of can't argue with elves. So therefore, the winning move is to not play, but you can do this in a way that makes you look good.

    Put out an air that you are too good for politics. You can do this in many ways "why talk about politics when we can be enjoying time together?" You can look at some of your other relatives and say "could we talk about something else? It's Christmas!". If you slip up and give them something to bite on, just say "oops, sorry. now's not the time for me to explain but we can discuss this some other time if you're really interested." Even if it doesn't register to them, it registers to relatives, even more conservative relatives that your uncle/grandparent/cousin/whatever, the conservative, is the one being a burden and not the "wokescold". How pathetic is that when a progressive is outdoing them in the "just enjoy things like normal people" department?

    Number two: If you're feeling confident, push back a little bit but refuse to elaborate.

    This is more of a plan B if you slip up and engage. For example, for whatever reason China was brought up yesterday and my uncle was going on about how they ban religion in communist countries. I mentioned that China does have Christmas but it's just commercial, and that China recognizes 5 religions including Xinjiang having a huge Muslim population. Obviously the Uyghurs were brought up, but I really just mentioned that the Uyghurs have been there for decades and now's not really the time to go into detail: it's Christmas after all and we can discuss it later (and "later" will never come). The psychology is that I'm openly left-wing, I know some things they don't but I have the tact to know 'now's not the time for argument, we have a holiday to enjoy.' so if he brings up politics afterwards: he's the asshole.

    Number three: Especially if you're younger, NEVER go on the offensive.

    Follows with tip 1. Make them feel like the burden. If these types can sense that you came here with a chip on your shoulder, they're going to try to make their Christmas dream of "triggering their SJW moral[slur] relative" come true. Even if it feels like you're 'letting them win', the worst case scenario is that they will chalk it up in their heads that they 'won', but it will be a hollow victory because they never got to see you squirm or actually get an argument out of you. I know I'm repeating myself here, but it's more like giving off the impression that you're just a normal guy enjoying the holidays. That does more for the left than any argument ever will.

    Number four: If they start going for the jugular and start getting too fashy, and they don't openly hate you, try pulling them aside.

    Pull them aside and mention that what they said kinda sucked, and if you want to explain why say something like "I know a few black/trans people and they're alright." obviously they'll double down and at that point just say "I'm not mad or trying to argue, I'm just saying."

    Number five: If you're a dude, help out with the setting up or cleaning especially if you simply must show some disagreement.

    • Actions speak louder than words. Your aunt can be as much of a tradwife as she wants, she's probably not going to decline when you ask to assist with washing dishes or bringing food you made yourself. It shows that as a man you don't see yourself above "women's work" or her as 'the help' for men. Not only does it establish maturity that you're now part of making it special for the kids, but it can get some of the gears turning on two things: "maybe people who disagree with me aren't all hypocrites if my woke nephew is willing to walk the walk and lend me a hand." to maybe "Hey, why don't the men help out?"
    • For anyone who has a more competitive personality type, this can be your avenue for winning a dick measuring contest with your CHUD relatives that can make them look bad by comparison. In addition, you can make some tasty ass food, dress super well for the occasion, or fluff up some of your accomplishments this year.

    Number six: here's another plan B if you do get baited and need an out: If your family is white and/or Christian, you can use respectability politics right back.

    • CHUDs think they're the oppressed ones, or that they're being subject to excessive punishment for their crimes at best. So if they say something particularly racist, play along with their victimhood and say "No wonder liberals/minorities/LGBT people think we're all a bunch of nazis. Maybe if we weren't such assholes, we'd get the respect we deserve. Just saying"

    TL;DR: You have too much class to argue during the Holidays, so don't because investing too much about politics is dumb. If you feel like it, try to win the dick-measuring contest some other way. Make the tastier cookies, tell some cool stories about your accomplishments or skills you're developing. Outdress everyone.

  • Trying to figure out my wife's cousin-in-law's views. Back when I was still on Facebook we posted similar hot takes and memes but it's was mostly stuff that could just easily be Demposting. So I've always just assumed he was a Dem maybe. We were talking quietly about the current political things on Saturday and he did a comical looking over his shoulder bit. I was like "so you are Dem leaning or..." but all he said was that he his views were closer to Dem.

    So now I'm overthinking it lol. That could mean he's like Christian left or it could mean he's a libertarian or centrist or whatever.

    I'll take overlapping views tho since the rest of the family is yuppity chud-central a lot of the time.

    For example my brother-in-law just made a dumb comment on "if we are allowed to still call them tomboys" as if the commies have some sort of stranglehold on PC words or what he can and can't call people showing trans-positive traits or girls that just don't wanna wear frilly fucking dresses all the time. Like "here's my casual transphobe comment for the day!"

  • I just stayed home with my wife this year. My whole family is some kind of neuro-atypical but my wife and I being the most atypical, we always get bullied, my wife especially. Its just not worth the long drive to get drunk in the balmy south. My sister in law is always making snide comments, my brother tries to keep peace to a fault, my dad ignores it all, my mom is a narcissist, and my sister is weird like me but defends herself with being mean. I love them but they're exhausting and I want my wife to have a nice christmas.

    We made a spinach lasagna for christmas eve, a big ham that we'll be processing for weeks for christmas day, and far more cookies than 2 people should be able to eat.

  • Pretty bad one for pre-christmas get together. Grandma fear mongered about fent, dad and uncle were talking completely about chud politics and how the abortion rights protection referendum would allow abortion up to the date of birth, and sister started ranting about trans people.

    We were at a restaurant, so I just announced that the food was making me sick and waited it out in the car.

  • Avoided extended family entirely this year. My partner and I hung out at home for the holidays, with Christmas movies on in the background and cookies in the oven. It was wonderful and relaxing without the social obligations and expectations.

    Of course we got a little bit of the guilt trip, but we got COVID 2 weeks ago and that put a real damper on everything. Between social anxiety and still feeling like dogshit, we didn’t let the guilt get to us.

    Fuck everyone, do what you want!

  • Didn't have an argument because I had to remain shut the whole dinner. But let me tell you if I had remained there 1 more fucking minute I would probably be hated by now.

    They didn't touch on the Palestinian genocide or anything of that sort, but the antivax narrative, which is new comming from them, and the stuff they said about the 2 poorest neighbourhoods in our city is disgusting. Not only that, but there's also their praise of rich people, which is just, uuuhgh.

    New Year's eve is gonna be worse, I can tell already.

  • explaining to my family that the reason i dont wear a wedding ring isnt because im a slut but because im not into consumerist rocks that cost 20k usd. im a fucking communist how do they not comprehend this ive said it a billion times. these same people will complain about shit like hijabs

    also, despite them being christian, they were bewildered that i spend so much time helping homeless people. theyre so profit brained that jesus would lynch them for calling themselves christian

  • My dad knows that if he defends nato in front of me I'll call him a dumb motherfucker until he shuts up. My mom doesn't really care

  • Not me, but my dad and study abroad dad got into an argument about the Ukraine war. My dad is a standard pro Ukraine American liberal. Study abroad dad is also a liberal, but he stans Mearsheimer, so he has this weird hodgepodge ideology where he criticizes NATO expansionism but also loves Gorbachev and Yeltsin.

  • Can we have wholesome stuff too?

    My fam (mostly centrists) watched Barbie on Christmas Eve and they now kinda start getting what the difference between liberal feminism and actual feminism is, without me having to interfere, this is the most i could get out of this i think so it was a good day.

  • had my political fight with the dumbfuck when the wizard game came out, he's still licking his wounds ig

    was kinda hoping he would start shit so everyone could see that HE is the one trying to start shit forcing me to educate his ass, but no dice

    overall a lovely dinner was had

  • Mine wasn't too bad. My brother-in-law said the standard (both sides) lib shit that John Oliver didn't really bother to dispell. I just dropped the subject, honestly.

  • Not a raging argument as such but still a

    opinion from a relative.

    My mother in law does some off the books housekeeping work for an aristocratic family. They're the kind of upper class people who are utterly helpless when it comes to practical stuff and who can afford never to have learned to cook, clean and do laundry. My mother in law has assumed a weird kind of parental relation to the wife and talks a lot with her.

    This Christmas my in-laws were going on and on about how poor these aristocrats were and how bad it was for them. My in-laws are as working class as it gets, they are both on disability, they don't own property, they've broken their bodies doing manual labour all their lives, they have to resort to off the books work and black market trading to enjoy just a little financial comfort and here they are feeling sad about the finances of someone who owns a fucking castle, a sizable amount of farmland and several rental properties. They can afford to serve their kid to some fancy foreign elite athletics school and to employ a housekeeper and I'm supposed to feel sorry for them for having no money?

    False consciousness is one hell of a drug.

192 comments