Never mind having to deal with this at your family gathering next week:

Salon never ceases to amuse me on a Sunday afternoon. Yesterday was no exception. They are now offering up the mouth-breathers, sky-screamers, community organizers, pussy hat models and pajama boys that make up some of our family trees advice on “how to survive Trump supporters” this Thanksgiving. From an article originally penned on AlterNet:

For some of us, the approaching holidays are a time of dread. Beyond beloved traditions like overindulging on food, alcohol and shopping, for some people, it’s inevitably a time when they will clash with loved ones over politics. Plenty of Americans have family members with opposing political views, and Trump has made these divisions even more severe. If progressives are having trouble understanding the conservatives in our own families, how can we begin to empathize with Trumpers who don’t share our blood?

The article cites Narrative 4, an organization which was launched five years ago with the goal of spreading the practice of “radical empathy” across the world using the act of storytelling.

“Every story has a place, even the stories we don’t like,”-Narrative 4 Founder, Colum McCann

Are you back to the weaponizing Ridicule, Salon? The real question, is how to survive Thanksgiving w/relatives who have been brainwashed by propaganda outlets like Salon

Weaponizing Ridicule – A Potent Weapon from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for radicals https://t.co/6OmpgECIL7 pic.twitter.com/64gdLV20zk

— Verdad Teller (@Truthteller1349) November 12, 2017

In my family, there are Trump supporters, #NeverTrump Republicans and even liberals. However, we enjoy Thanksgiving together as a family and even discuss politics without using the divisive, petty talking points @Salon fawns over. We, unlike @Salon, choose civility. pic.twitter.com/q2U4hUXUTt

— Sam Roberts (@RealSamRoberts) November 12, 2017

Behold the perpetual childhood of the liberal. These Thanksgiving “how-tos” always reveal the intolerance and immaturity of those who need instructions on how to be around people who are different.

— Virginia Plain (@AlyceWellington) November 12, 2017

How about one with tips for dealing with Thanksgiving with a Salon employee?

— Fiscal Tweets (@FiscalTweets) November 12, 2017

Hey Salon! Please expand this article to include how to survive Thanksgiving with relatives that are “virtuous pedos” (see your articles) it will probably cover your demographics better! pic.twitter.com/6W5un6LzMs

— Mr. Dbob (@MrDbob) November 12, 2017

“Empathy takes a massive amount of courage, even though it’s considered a soft skill. We have to be vulnerable, be ready to let go. You have to listen to what somebody is saying. That doesn’t mean accept it blindly, but you learn nothing from talking and everything from listening. All people’s stories matter.

Go in, open your ears, watch your tone. Then tell them your story. A lot of these conversations are bred from fear and ignorance. That turns into hate later. But empathy is about being vulnerable and courageous, and listening and being present. Those are leadership skills. If you can’t do that, how can you lead your conversation forward?”-Lee Keylock, Narrative 4’s director of global programs

A year later, and outlets such as Salon are still offering advice to wounded Hillary Clinton supporters on how to survive the holidays with their insufferable Trump-supporting family members and friends. WaPo highlighted this in detail last year and Harvard even made nifty place mats with key social justice talking points in 2015. But for how many years have we been saying “All Lives Matter” to be shut down by our liberal friends and family members as insensitive and racist? How many times have we tried to tell pro-abortion friends and family members, without shouting, cussing or name-calling, stories of other friends who could not have children and who desperately wanted to adopt to have their plight fall on deaf ears? How many liberal friends and family members displayed their “courage” by blocking us on social media or shunning us because we don’t follow the same script? How many times have we seen, “If you voted for Donald Trump, you are no friend of mine” or “If you’re a Republican, go ahead and un-friend me right now” posts over the past year? How many times have Trump-supporters been told how intellectually inferior they are to their Hillary-supporting family members? They’re “woke” and we’re fast-asleep in the mashed potatoes, apparently. How many friends or family members said they “admired” what the NFL players were doing to “be a voice” in front of a veteran who spent the better part of a year dodging bullets?

Empathy involves growing a set of rock-hard cojones and having a spine which, sadly, some of our friends and family on the left do not have. They are malleable and easily influenced by the celebrity, the politician and their virtue signal du jour. Can I have empathy for someone with liberal viewpoints? Sure, I can. But empathy goes straight out the window when someone throws a political insult across a table at me instead of a dinner roll. That’s not “intelligent discourse”. Empathy involves maturity, which, again, tragically, some of these people are seriously lacking. Let’s be completely honest here. They haven’t had to grow the frig up! Open your ears but tell them your story, they say. Because again, it’s all about you and how butt hurt you have been over the past 365-plus days. You hurled insults because you were hurt. Because you felt injustice, you felt scared. Because you want a better world. Because you feel your political views are right and the opposite views are wrong. Tell them your story because a political agenda and getting someone to understand and buy into yours is so much more important this holiday season than just being thankful and sharing a meal with people you love (but so happen to hate who they voted for).

So to quote Narrative 4 Founder, Colum McCann: “Every story has a place, even the stories we don’t like.” We all have our stories and our stories have shaped our political ideologies. These people are in need a big helping of suck-it-up soup this holiday season. Let us all pray for civility, shall we? Pass the stuffing, the bird, the butternut squash, the ammo and, yep. We’re going to need some of that wine, too.