So, I saw this big guy in the swamp, catching the last of the evening rays:
Sweet dreams, Mnemosyne!
Speaking of which, I plan to use the Mnemosyne technique this weekend when my wingnuttiest family members go all QAnon on me, i.e., act like I’ve never heard of the absurd conspiracy theory they’re spinning and ask questions in a neutral tone until even the wingnut realizes he’s gone so far down the rabbit hole that he sounds like a blithering idiot. In certain situations, this works like a charm, I’ve found.
If that isn’t effective, I use the big gator technique and just bite their fucking heads off. Whatever works — shruggies!
Got any wingnut-repellent suggestions to share? Otherwise, open thread!
Chris T.
I want to hear how that works out. Do they ever realize how stupid they sound, or do they just keep going deeper?
lahke
Wow, that’s gorgeous, Betty!
Cat-impeded typing–can’t continue…..
Bonnie
I heard trump was going to Florida. Oh, I probably just insulted all alligators/crocodiles. Sorry.
Corner Stone
@Chris T.: IME, they just get louder with each repetition. Like you didn’t hear their genius the first four times.
Corner Stone
@Chris T.: Again, IME, you have to have a minor child ask them these questions. I’ve stopped a few times and walked out before it came to physical interaction. But they can’t do that to a pre-teen or child.
zhena gogolia
Betty, have you seen Wind Across the Everglades? I saw it when I was a kid and fell in love with Christopher Plummer. Yesterday it was on TCM and I fell in love all over again.
Death Panel Truck
I’m gonna watch football and hope the Bears administer an asswhoopin’. After 38 years (from Billy Sims’ rookie year), I’m tired of tolerating mediocrity.
The Detroit Lions are dead to me.
Corner Stone
I didn’t have any interest in Thanksgiving this year but my mom hasn’t been doing too well recently and this gives her a few hours of time with her only grandchild. On the plus side, I structured it so that there’s a hard cut time because my son and his mom have to be at *her* mom’s later that afternoon. Yay me!
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
It’s Thanksgiving, not Passover!
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Sorry about your mom. I hope she’s doing better soon.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: Hmmm…how about a miner’s child?
HumboldtBlue
https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/SJM-L-ANIMALRESC-1114-5.jpg?w=620 being cared for at the Chico Airport ranging in size from cats to horses. Monetary donations are more than welcome, they have all the material items they need.
You can help get evacuees reunited with their animals by donating to the North Valley Animal Disaster Group
lamh36
I’ve got to work for Thanksgiving and the day after. But I’m off the weekend. I’ve got a term paper due next Tuesday though, I’ve already written the bulk of the paper, now I’m in the 2nd draft phase. If I can get all the final edits done before this weekend…I hope to catch up on some movies I’ve missed. I’m hoping to check out Widows.
NotMax
Politifact’s Thanksgiving guide.
Corner Stone
@lamh36: I always tell my son that once you get a solid outline done then it’s pretty much over. First draft, second, third, etc. They all flow from that initial work.
He still prefers to wing it. Kids these days…
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
“Why is this
nightpresident different from all othernightspresidents?”:)
Yarrow
That’s my technique too! Been doing it for years. Just keep playing dumb and asking questions. It’s actually kind of fun.
@Chris T.: They get louder and sometimes get angry and stomp out. That’s always fun.
A Ghost To Most
Move 1800 miles, and don’t maintain contact. Works for us.
Wapiti
Speaking of wingnuts… the closest I have to a wingnut in my family is my elder brother, a Berkeley, California, Republican. He was bemoaning his choices today, wishing he had a moderate to vote for. “What do moderates stand for?” I ask. “Taking care of people, being fiscally responsible…”
Shee-it. He’s looking for Candidate Goodbar. Nancy “Smash” Pelosi is carrying the water on taking care of people *and* being fiscally prudent and gets no credit for that pay-go stance. She might as well abandon it, because people like my brother will apparently only see political parties that exist in their imaginations.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
I don’t know. You would have to ask our blogmaster, Coal.
lgerard
I can attest to the efficacy of that particular wingnut management system, I use myself quite frequently. I also like to throw in occasional “Where did you hear that?” question as well.
Every once in a while you will strike gold with an “Info Wars” or Gateway Pundit” response and you can ask “Isn’t that the gay frogs guy?” or “Isn’t that the guy who is always falling for those internet hoaxes?” while trying to maintain a straight face.
dmsilev
@Wapiti:
I assume that, like any member of a near-mythical species, he’s wearing a radio tag and is occasionally captured by naturalists for captive breeding purposes?
lamh36
@Corner Stone: The paper is written. I’m in the re-reading phase…checking for grammer and missed words and what not.
Gotta tweak my citations a bit, and actually put together an actual introduction. If I didn’t have to work, I could whip something up pretty easily….but work beckons.
laura
Got any wingnut-repellent suggestions to share?
Any talk involving a ‘period’ is guaranteed to clear the room of conservatives. Then you can resume whatever conversation they derailed.
lamh36
Ok, I’m with Charles Blow (he tweeted this)…I’m so confused…what the hell is happening with this thing…
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: I seem to remember he considered fostering a child at some point but lost them somewhere amongst the shelves of mustard he can’t seem to find any longer.
Jane Coal, now. She would have done an excellent job.
HumboldtBlue
@Wapiti:
He’s in Berkeley where he can’t get close enough to see Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. in Sacramento. That fucking Jesuit is the walking talking embodiment of
lgerard
@laura:
(in a loud voice)
Hey Look outside!
Isn’t that George Soros?
HumboldtBlue
@lamh36:
It appears surveillance video contradicts the victim’s claims.
Barbara
@Corner Stone: Does he try to dictate his work? I feel like whackamole with my kid on this sort of thing. I hope you have some quality time with your mom. I am still a little shocked at losing my mom earlier this year.
Steve in the ATL
@Corner Stone: I had a teacher in 10th grade who required us to write an outline at the beginning of our response to every essay question.
He was an asshole, but that was one of the best things I was ever taught/forced to do.
Jay
@lamh36:
The Insane Clown POSus loving TMZ was on scene when the 9/11 call went through,
They reported wrong, and are getting sued,
The Idiot Wohl took credit,
The “actress” who filed charges doesn’t appear to be a real person.
Wapiti
@HumboldtBlue: Yup. Plenty of examples that my brother can’t see, blinded by his Goldwater Republican spectacles.
Jay
@Wapiti:
Goldwater’s dead.
Hillary Clinton campaigned for Goldwater.
Corner Stone
@Barbara: No, he doesn’t. Honestly, I am so confused by how school has changed in lo these many years. It seems so easy to me. The answer keys are all online and every person in the class can share resources at the touch of a button. They teach math some crazy ass way and then if you don’t turn in homework you can turn it in later that week. I feel like an old.
NotMax
@Corner Stone
Tip of the iceberg. Plenty more to come.
;)
Gelfling 545
@Steve in the ATL: We had to do thst in high school as well. For any subject having essay questions and especially in history there was what they called Regents Form – the proper form for answering NY State Regents exam questions. You can write a paper on anything once you’ve mastered that form. That has now, of course, gone the way of the dinosaur. I did teach my granddaughter to do it when she was in high school, though.
Gelfling 545
@Jay: Doesn’t exist, you say? There’s a lot of that going around just now.
PaulWartenberg
If your wingnut family members act up, threaten to take them to the Wreck-It Ralph movie.
RAVEN
@Death Panel Truck: Da Berz
Jay
@Gelfling 545:
Well it’s “weird”.
Hit #1 was an IMBD profile listing films I had never seen or heard of, no biography.
Hit #2 was an “empty” IMBD type “hype” site that was unclaimed. These sites exist to allow actor/actresses to generate “clicks”,
Hit #3 -7 were pay to play media sites giving reviews of the movies “she” had been in, that I had never heard of or seen, not even previews.
Hit #8 was a foot fetish site.
No Linked in, no twitter, no facebook, no imagur, no instagram.
Uber weird for anyone, let alone an “actress”.
She Who Must Be Obeyed got a job offer from a Company in Milwaukee offering her a great digital job online. It was a bit weird, so I did a google search. All the articles about the Company were on pay to play tech sites, and a bog standard cut and past mish mash of technobabble.
As near as I can tell, the Techbro Dude creates a “virtual” company, “virtual” employees, a “virtual” technobabble disrupter product and scams investors State by State.
espierce
@bettycracker
Myakka River?
Evap
We’re hosting tomorrow and everyone who will be at the table – from my 91 year old mother to my 25 year old niece – is a liberal/progressive. Thank god. Apart from the turkey and gravy, all food will be vegan. I can’t wait!
FlyingToaster
I live far, far away, don’t have a facebook account, and stay outta contact.
My youngest sister lives even further away (in the “other” Cambridge), and happily stays in contact with them, but they’re all afraid of her.
***
I get to spend the day up in Sean Moulton country. So here’s what I know from the past 12 or so years going up for Thanksgiving/Xmas:
This is a seriously bigoted bunch. The largest ethnic group is probably lace-curtain Irish, and they kinda hate everybody. At the schools, all the girls do “girl stuff” and boys do “boy stuff” and heaven help you if you’re in any way interesting (queer, tomboy, ethnic other than Jewish). My SIL loves the area, but is pretty clear on its shortcomings.
This district had one of the last two Republican congressmen in MA: Peter fucking Blute. Charlie Baker lives up there, Romney’s Lt.G. lived up there, and honest to God, if they didn’t find the national GOP an embarrassment, it’d be majority Republican.
So I’ll mostly skip talking politics, and hope my SIL’s husband does the same. Besides, of course, we’re cooking ???.
JDM
Another technique I’ve found effective is to give a bemused, slight, smile and say, “I’m sorry ___, but that’s a load of horseshit.” Keep the same smile throughout.
Pogonip
Do your families have no interests besides politics? Why would it even come up? (MY family, most now deceased, would end up arguing over the Rook card game.)
Pogonip
I forgot to mention, Rook was invented by a member of some fundamentalist Christian denomination, I forget which one, so they could play cards without playing CARDS, so to speak. My grandmother (Church of the Nazarene) also liked Flinch, another proprietary card game, but wouldn’t use regular playing cards. Takes all kinds!
BruceFromOhio
Spill something smelly on them so they leave. Or set them on fire.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Pogonip:
My brothers and I learned to play Rook as kids from our grandmother on the farm in Tennessee. They were Church of Christ, but I don’t remember them as being particularly religious. That may just have been the common card game in that place and time.
Funny, I was just thinking about Rook the other day and wondering if I could even remember it well enough to play. Might end up teaching it to my niece and nephew when they get a little older. Preserving a little piece of Saltine-American culture.
Betty Cracker
@espierce: Withlacoochee. Myakka is the most gator-infested river in FL, AFAIK.
Uncle Cosmo
@BruceFromOhio: Perche non tutti le due? In that order. (Keep a fire extinguisher handy in case s/he grabs the drapes.)