Okay, there’s a lot of history to this story. Short summary, my aunt and uncle are paying my airfare for me to come see them in northern Georgia, close to Tennessee. I’m grateful, really I am. But my entire family are massive Trumpists. They don’t go to rallies or anything, but so much tension over certain topics of conversation.
Worse, they are active Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they see me as a stray sheep they must bring back into the fold. Um, no. To paraphrase Rhett Butler, I’ve had the disease, and now I’m immune. This subject somehow works its way into, I would say, a good third of conversations I had with my aunt. My uncle is practically deaf, so it’s less of a problem with him.
All I do is smile and nod, and change the subject when I can.
This last phone call to my aunt drifted into the Ukraine War. Get this, Putin is invading the Ukraine in order to bring on Armageddon. Yeah, fine, smile. Covid? Pestilence of the Last Days. Part of God’s Promise yadda yadda yadda. My face hurts from smiling until I remember that I’m on the phone and don’t have to.
So, why do I want to go? Because they’re good people, and I don’t have any other folks that aren’t too infirm to visit. And I have some cool cousins. And I wanna see the mountains again, and I don’t have the funds to go myself.
I would love to tell them that as Jehovah’s Witnesses, they should spurn praising Trump because those are worldly political matters, and Witnesses are supposed to be strictly neutral in politics. But I don’t think I have the stomach to start an argument.
From the thread title, I thought the OP might have an opportunity to go on a cruise with Trump supporters. Imagine, days and nights of luxury aboard ship, plus a better than average chance of being quarantined indefinitely with conspiracy-spouting, Covid-infected loons.
Speaking of the conspiracy angle, there was a real-life Conspira-Sea Cruise a few years ago, in which devotees were treated to, in addition to the usual cruise ship benefits, lectures from a flock of nutbars promoting a wide range of conspiracies involving GMOs, crop circles, vaccines (Andrew Wakefield was a presenter) and much more.
There’s supposed to be a followup Conspira-Sea and UFO cruise to Hawaii this October, organized by the same outfit (Divine Travels) but no details are available yet.
Just make it clear, even before you travel, that you have no interest in discussing politics or religion during your visit. If the topics come up, just change the subject. “So… how about those Yankees?” (Or the sportsball team of your choice.)
Oh c’mon, I can’t be the only Doper with Trumpist relations? Would you really sacrifice family ties to the great orange idiot? Because, if I did, I would be totally alone in this world.
My wife’s family are soft-core Trumpists. They’re not very political and don’t bring it up (my MIL will parrot Fox talking points, but we just ignore her) I’d say they don’t like Trump but fear the Democrats more. So, they’re not Trump loving. I do find their politics hard to accept, but we can avoid talking about it. If they were full blown MAGA asses, I would sever all ties.
Deflection is not that hard, once you develop the knack for it. When someone starts in on a topic that you know is going to be rancorous, pay very close attention to the word noises and find a thread you can grab to yank the whole conversation into different, less aggravating territory. It can be a fun and rewarding game.
Two_Many_Cats2, you sound like a thoughtful, wise person. I hope your visit goes well and I admire the way you reasoned this out. My dad died in 2014, and he was starting to watch WAY too much of the Faux News Channel, but I’d never have cut him off, he was the best dad and I’m grateful to have had him.
My family members are Trumpublicans too. They are also Christians, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty, I can’t say that they are good people. The best I can do is say that they’re deluded people who probably mean well.
I think discussing politics with my family has done permanent damage to my feelings about them. I love them and they love me, but it’s best if certain topics never come up again.