The Real War on Christmas (By Wil Wheaton, Salon)

[jon strad]

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2005/12/22/wheaton/index.htm

What a difference five minutes makes. While he screamed at me, I wanted to ask, "Who are you, and what have you done with the man who raised me to be tolerant, patient, peaceful and charitable?" Instead, I said, as calmly as I could, "Dad, I just don't believe in the death penalty. It is unevenly applied to poor people, and clearly doesn't work as a deterrent."
...
He turned quickly, and stormed out of the room, followed by my sister.
...
I felt stunned, somewhere between dizzy and numb.
...
The thing is, though, I know better than to bring up politics with my dad. Ever since he started listening to talk radio for hours out of the day, he's slowly lost his ability to objectively look at the facts and draw his own conclusions. If Rush, Hannity, Dennis Prager or O'Reilly say it, my dad believes it as surely as he believes anything.
...
I want to make something clear, here: I know I'm not the only 33-year-old liberal who has watched his parents grow older and more conservative, and I know that I'm not the first guy to have political disagreements with his father. In fact, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with people who don't see the world the same way I do.
...
The one waging the war is right-wing talk radio and its relentless drive to polarize and divide our country, and our holiday dinners, and make a nice profit while it does.


This is a great read by the always interesting Wil Wheaton(http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/)on the effect bullshit talking heads have on people. So a word of warning for this holiday weekend: Avoid talking about politics with family, it only leads to trouble!

[dorktv]

1. I used to have a crush on him as a kid. Now I will admire him for

not being a conservative.

[joannc]

2. I'm 61

I was born liberal,the only one in my family.The older I get the more liberal I get.My only child is more conservative then I am.I sometimes wonder if the hospital switched her at birth,naw she looks just like me.Maybe she has taken after my 2 brothers.For the most part,I do not talk politics with them,I learned that when we were teenagers,although I told them before Bush took this country into war,that Bush was a lier,boy hell broke loose on that one.The youngest told me that every bleeding heart liberal needed to get out of this country.What's he gonna say when Bush is impeached,I live for that day.

[Bellamia]

3. This Holiday Dinner.....

will be just like any other night when a cetain member of the family, or a friend drops by. "We just don't go there" on many a subject......the dead silences are increasing. Unless you consider, "Pass the butter" a conversation.;>)Very stressful and its why I'll be happier Dec.26th.

[benfranklin1776]

4. He should have said what came to his mind first

It might have made his father stop and think about what he had become thanks to the purveyors of hate:

"Who are you, and what have you done with the man who raised me to be tolerant, patient, peaceful and charitable?"

I don't think biting one's tongue or treating these people with kid gloves is the answer. They need a dose of stiff medicine and they need to hear the unvarnished truth. Family members who are foaming at the mouth rabid, brainwashed right wingers should not be allowed to intimidate or browbeat others into silence or force them to leave the room, nor should their nonsense be left unchallenged.

Damn sad to see what this country has turned into as the result of their noxious bilge.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Nice piece

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

6. How sad but true. Tomorrow night when Mr. Wonderful and I

arrive at my nephew's house, the same rule will be in place.

No politics and this from the great-grandson of a union organizer of the Rock Island Railroad, my paternal grandfather; and a two-time delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1952 and 1956, my maternal grandfather.

The conversation will revolve around my niece's (his sister) upcoming wedding, the Bears game on Sunday and various other inane things.

I really wonder sometimes about genetics...