How to talk politics with friends, family this holiday season
The dinner table can be a hotbed for political conversation this holiday season. While large gatherings might not happen due to the pandemic, some families will get together for Thanksgiving and competing views on politics can disrupt the festive mood.
ABC7 News spoke with Arlington clinical psychologist Dr. Amy Bowers about how to handle tense situations. She says before heading to a gathering, know what it is you want to communicate if politics comes up. Do you want to be right and argue your point or do you want to be heard and understood?
The holidays should be a reprieve from hard feelings, but the election can be the elephant in the room even while trying to stay cordial.
"If you talk to your family about this, it's helpful to know what it is that you're wanting to talk about. Anything that is conflictual is probably not going to change anyone's mind at this point; it's probably just going to have people more upset. And given the stress of this pandemic and lots of other things in our lives right now, we don't have a whole lot of margin,” said Dr. Bowers.
Convincing your friends or family that your viewpoint is the correct one is probably not going to happen over turkey and cranberry sauce but listening and being kind can go a long way. Besides just agreeing to disagree, Bowers suggests talking about how you’re dealing with the stress of the situation. That funny Netflix series your watching or a laughable Zoom meeting is a good jumping-off point.
“You might think, what sorts of things bring us joy? What are we grateful for right now? When, I think, many of us would agree there’s a lot of turmoil in the world. So, right now, what are we grateful for, what lifts our mood,” she said.
