If you know anyone who has watched Morning Joe or Rachel Maddow on MSNBC for serious political commentary, they may be entitled to an intervention.

That’s if you can get near them this holiday season. MSNBC is pulling out all the stops and taking the gloves off this holiday season. Enter Yale psychiatrist, Dr. Amanda Calhoun.

So, if you are going into a situation where you have family members, where you have close friends who you know have voted in ways that are against you… it’s completely fine to not be around those people and to tell them why.

You know, to say, ‘I have a problem with the way that you voted because it went against my very livelihood, and I’m not going to be around you this holiday. I need to take some space for me.’

I think you should very much be entitled to do so, and I think it may be essential for your mental health.”-Dr. Amanda Calhoun

Mental health and taking care of one’s mental wellbeing is a very real thing and I want to emphasize this as someone who has battled depression myself. But, I always felt, in times of political differences, that the relationship was worth more than the issue. I know that I have friends and family members who voted differently than I did. Most of us are adults and we find other common ground because we love one another. This advice is essentially encouraging individuals to isolate and sever relationships during a time of year that can be very trying and lonely. The progressives had COVID as an excuse years ago. They’re now going with the election.

Now, if a single person or couple sans kids chooses to have a quiet holiday without their Trump-voting-garbage relatives, that is their prerogative. But what about the kids? Glad you’ve asked. The SF Chronicle has some advice. Scream under a blanket. Cry it out. Go for a walk in the woods (hey, Hillary did in 2016). Then, come up with a “Goldilocks recipe” of not over-sharing your feelings while telling your child that Trump is a fascist-hitler-like-racist-nazi-biggoted-racist-orange-man-who-will-start-a-nuclear-war. Use your intellect, though, when you explain that half the country voted for a womanizing-trans-hating-nazi-like-white-supremacist-evil-big-bad-totalitarian-bigot, though…

Even at young ages, millions of children nationwide are aware that Donald Trump doesn’t play by the rules, often speaks cruelly and disrespectfully toward others, and makes comments that denigrate women and people of other races. It’s no surprise that kids sense the magnitude of this moment: an unstable, unpredictable figure will soon take the country’s helm for a second tour.

How does one explain Trump’s criminal convictions, barely concealed hatred for so many groups and vows of revenge against his rivals — and his broad base of support that accepts all of that — to children who are also being taught to do and be none of those things?

Over the next months and years, American parents who opposed Trump’s reelection will now have to answer kids’ intelligent questions and concerns. So will educators and others who work with children. We can’t just shrug and say this is politics as usual. So, what do parents say?”-Ariella Cook-Shonkoff

My guess is that in these households who believe water is wet, “no human is illegal”, “women’s rights are human rights” and they are morally and intellectually better than you in every way, there will be no explanation of how their side does not play by the rules. How their side unjustly treats women and people of other races. How their side engaged in criminal activity. How their side is the bigger bully. The children’s intelligent questions will be met with scripted, unintelligent answers in these households.

And, progressive parents? If you cannot come up with the words to explain to your kids why they won’t be opening presents with their cousins this year, you can always rely on the State and the educators and counselors at your kids’ schools to help during this trying time wrought with uncertainty. This guy in California is a prime example of what students will see and hear:

Oh, boy.

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— Saharath Vichitlakakran (@SaharathV) November 11, 2024

More:

TURN IT OFF AND GO BACK TO YOUR FREAKING SEAT NOW! GO! Can you send security up? I have a boy who has a Trump hat on & I’m not going to tolerate it today.. Tell [Principal] Miller ‘I should have the right to vote for a rapist and a child molester,’ go for it. I don’t give a F!”

This is what close to $119,000-a-year and summers off will get your kids in a California classroom. Granted, $119,000 is not much in the state of Gavin Newsom’s California but, no doubt, this clown voted for that nightmare. And, he had the better part of two years off in 2020. Rapist/child molester? Tell us WHO showered with his own daughter again?

Tell [Principal] Miller that you’re allowed to wear a freaking rapist hat. Go for it! Tell your mom. Get out of my class. You can’t take a teacher that stands up for girls’ rights.”

Seems the student donning the Trump hat got a good dose of Morning Joy. Girls’ rights? Does that include boys in girls’ sports, Mr. TDS? (His name is actually Mr. Clyde Colinco, an English Teacher at Chino High School…let’s make him famous.)

It’s true your holiday table may be a bit emptier this year. MSNBC is telling their viewers that it may be time to isolate and sever ties with family and friends. Having trouble finding the right words to say, oh, moms of the blue-haired club? Don’t co-mingle with those family members who voted for Donald Trump, even the ones under 18. Don’t show your children that you can get past this and move the F on because that’s not healthy for YOU and YOU need to heal. Instead, keep the kiddos home, place trust your educators or just plant your kiddos in front of MSNBC for intellectual political commentary that will, for sure, encourage them with all their “journalistic excellence” on how to be free thinkers.

May your holidays be merry and bright and if a family member mentions MSNBC, it may be time for an intervention. This is your brain. This is your brain on MSNBC. Any questions?

Photo Credit: Matthew Murdoch, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons