The annual leftist Thanksgiving-bashing began this year with MSNBC’s Joy Reid trashing the “food holiday” for its “problematic” history while advising her viewers on ways to debate their Trump-supporting family members at the dinner table.
“We are just over two weeks away from one of the most beloved American food holidays,” Reid began, as reported by Fox News. “Thanksgiving, where problematic actual history meets delicious cuisine, and many will be heading home to spend time with family and friends, eat a little too much and perhaps engage in a dreaded, contentious political debate with your cranky Uncle Roscoe when he starts yelling, ‘Read the transcript!’ at the dinner table between bites of turkey and pumpkin pie.”
Reid then went on to instruct viewers that they should not be concerned with minute details or terms like “quid pro quo,” advising them to instead focus on terms like “bribery” and “extortion.”
“Here’s a hint: Do not worry about trying to explain the cast of characters … or the very overused term, ‘quid pro quo,'” Reid continued. “Most people can’t say it, spell it or understand it. What we’re actually talking about here is not a pithy Latin phrase. It’s something a lot simpler: Bribery and extortion. Beyond the whistleblower and over 100 hours of testimony backing up that fact, Donald Trump admitted to it, and even released edited notes from his call with the Ukrainian president — which, by the way, is not a transcript — that actually proved he did it! Even Uncle Roscoe and Auntie Carol ought to understand that.”
Reid’s instruction for leftists to use the Thanksgiving holiday as a venue to school their conservative family members has been a sensation among Trump haters ever since he won the White House in 2016. Last year, The New York Times profiled ways for liberals to argue with their conservative family members at the dinner table, which was quickly outdone by Eater asserting that people are morally obligated to debate racist Trump supporters before asking them to pass the gravy.
“Moderates everywhere still insist that being nice to your racist, Trump-supporting relatives at the Thanksgiving table is somehow going to be the balm that prevents us from ending up in Margaret Atwood’s Gilead,” Eater’s Amy McCarthy argued. “That assessment is, frankly, a steaming pile of bulls***.”
“There is no amount of civility that can balance the harm of xenophobic nationalism, and no amount of sitting silently while listening to someone spew racial epithets that will repair what Trump and his ilk have broken,” continued McCarthy. “Being progressive doesn’t just mean clicking ‘like’ on left-leaning Facebook statuses. It requires a commitment to pursuing justice, even when it’s your weird uncle, even when it’s uncomfortable, and especially when there are other people in the room who you care about.”
Dr. Karin Tamerius, a former psychiatrist and founder of Smart Politics, outlined in the Times a “five-step method to help people have difficult conversations” over the Thanksgiving table.
“The civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the anti-war movement, the gay rights movement, the struggle for marriage equality — all gained acceptance through difficult conversations among family members who initially disagreed vehemently with one another” argued Tamerius.