On Thanksgiving, semi-post-COVID, and clarity (or lack thereof)

 Today is the day we praise Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and wink at the world's historic failure to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, for some goddamned reason.  What?  No?  But...  turkey!  Ooooooh!  I get it.  Anyway, this may be the first Thanksgiving for many with large family gatherings in what we are considering the post-COVID era, or at least, the normalized COVID era.  For many, large gatherings never went away, and for others, their return was something to rejoice, and yet Thanksgiving has always been a strange tradition.  Let's set aside the historical blatherings and simply note that the cliche is for family members to argue about contentious topics, such as politics, and ruin the whole, damned thing.  Depending on the degree of conformity within a family, enforced or otherwise, this may or may not be a thing, but it is at least a cliche, even before getting into Festivus-style airings of personal grievances.

Yet consider politics.  The politics of this country had been sliding into fuckery for decades.  Nostalgic bullshit requires the oldstir to wax poetic about a glory era that never existed, and truly, there never was a glory era.  Humans are flawed, and have always been flawed, so any construction of humans will be flawed, yet one can point to specific events and specific trends.  Broadly speaking, I think Steven Pinker is correct and that the swath of human history has been one of improvement when we consider reduction in poverty and the other measures that he traces over the long term, yet whether we note the rise of right-wing conspiracy theories, like QAnon and 2020 election nuttiness, or left-wing conspiracy theories, like critical race theory and other cultural lunacy, we see problems.  Moreover, Jonathan Haidt is probably onto something with his assessments of the rise of mental health problems among younger generations and social media.  None of this necessarily contradicts Pinker's thesis, but we have seen some of the most contentious aspects of left-wing and right-wing lunacy come to crisis points over the last couple of years.

Coincidentally or not, as people were often isolated due to COVID.

My reaction is always to read quantitative research, which shows me just how full of shit these people are, and hence as these crisis points have been reached, I have recoiled from all sides.  I'd say, "a pox on both your houses," but that line seems like it'd be in bad taste.

And today, people gather again, possibly for the first large family Thanksgiving since the acceleration of insanity.

This suggests an obvious question.  To whom am I writing?  Well obviously, nobody, since nobody reads this obscure, pretentious, little blog.  I am, as ever, nothing more than a schlub, shouting into the void.  Once upon a time, we political scientists were interested in the topic of "asymmetric polarization," which is unnecessarily abstruse verbiage intended to convey/obscure the observation that as the parties moved away from the center of the liberal-conservative spectrum, the Republican Party had moved further from the center than the Democratic Party.  I must note that "center" does not definitionally mean "sane."  Susan Collins is an insufferable moron, and the Freedom Caucus and the Squad are equally batshit.

That said, polarization is no longer quite as asymmetric.  The Squad and the trends within the far left show a movement attempting to catch up with the craziness of the Republican Party, and that trend accelerated in the last couple of years.

Hence, I return to the question, to whom am I writing?  Moonbats to the left of me, wingnuts to the right, here I am, stuck not quite in the middle but neither with anyone.  As the GOP has gone crazier and crazier, while the Democrats have tried to keep up with the Joneses, the last couple of years have left my data nerd, "there are four lights" tendencies in a constant state of facepalm, with the COVID problem being that the first thing they told us:  don't touch your fucking face!

In the hypothetical case that any fellow four-light-counters were to read my exasperated ramblings, in which I excoriate the right for their Trump cultism, the left for their identitarianism, and generally speaking, refuse to comply, what does one do?  How does one now interact with 2020 election conspiracy theorists?  Blue-haired SJWs?  Take your pick.  And what if you have to ask one to pass the turkey, and the other the gravy?

Don't engage.

The trouble with Thanksgiving is that you are trapped by the ritual.  To the degree possible, walk away.

One of the things I have found at least somewhat amusing over the years is the willingness of people to rant about politics, back and forth to each other, in my presence, as though I am, let's say, a literary critic.  Hey, I kinda am!  It is easier for them, as they run no risk of having me tell them how full of shit they are, and it is easier for me to keep my exasperation quiet.  So I do, if I am just trapped by the situation.

Perhaps you know more than the people around you.  Perhaps you have data that they are missing.  Will you accomplish anything by providing those data?  No.  So don't bother.  Of course, maybe there is information you do not have.  Cultivate some humility.

Which is difficult to do when one is a professor surrounded by people who get their information from cable news and FaceBook, but oy.

Regardless, disengage.  Also, don't drink and drive, try not to overindulge (ha!), and your cooking tip for this year:  spatchcock the bird.  That way, you cook it more quickly without a risk of it drying out.

Chon, "Thanks," from their self-titled album.