We can’t share Thanksgiving. You voted to deport people who look like me.
The election has been over for weeks and, honestly, reacting to it is starting to get boring. So, let us skip to the point of this column.
It’s perfectly fine that people are out here blocking each other on social media or cutting each other off in real life as we head into the holidays and the new Trump administration.
More than that, it makes total sense, and I support it. Also, people ditching X, formerly known as Twitter, is long overdue. They’re not running to the dreaded “safe spaces.” They’re running to peace. Conservatives have been doing that for years.
But I’ll get to that later.
Conversation around 2024 election is deeper than ‘politics’
Protesters in support of abortion rights near the Supreme Court of Ohio in 2022.
The most significant lie people are telling themselves is that this conversation is about “politics.” Imagine that. Imagine blocking and ignoring someone because of something so passé as “politics.”
We have all disagreed on politics for generations. It’s the foundation of our governmental and voting systems. One side thinks we need less taxes, for example, and another is fine with taxes if it helps improve quality of life. Or whatever. Do we disagree on the economy? Cool. Disagree on whether we need gun control? Fine. These are the usual “politics” and have long made family gatherings worth attending.
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That’s not what this is.
This, my friends, is about the core beliefs we all hold near and dear to our identity. This is about what each side believes people can do in their own lives. This is about who can exist and where they’re allowed to exist. This is about what our children will be taught in schools. This is about whether or not a woman and her doctor have control of their health care decisions.
This is deeper than the shallow political disagreements many of us secretly love. It’s more than the passive-aggressive social media URL sharing we’ve engaged with since the inception of the internet.
People who look like me are those you want to mass deport
Delegates hold “MASS DEPORTATION NOW” signs at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 17, 2024.
Let me put it another way. I am one generation from family members who came to America from Mexico. My family is here because of a guest worker program that today’s political climate would never allow, mostly because of Republicans.
I grew up, went to school and lived my life with the very people many of you think should be part of Donald Trump’s promised militarized mass deportation. I am them. They are me. We are who you voted against.
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Why would I sit at the same table and pass the stuffing around with those voters on Thanksgiving?
I’m not even judging or dismissing people who voted for that. It makes sense to me that people who have no connection to that community would follow the Trumpian scare tactics and vote for that. It honestly does. It’s easy to dismiss members of a community you don’t know. Now, it makes no sense that people from that community would vote for it, but everybody had a decision to make.
But I’m not breaking bread with that. No chance.
Let’s be honest. Republicans have done it for years.
The Truth social network logo is seen displayed in this picture illustration taken February 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Now, carry that thought process over to social media, where a flurry of people are finally ditching X, formerly known as Twitter, for Bluesky, which recently hit 20 million users.
I can tell you from experience that many of the people leaving Elon Musk’s vision of “free speech” are doing it to find a moment of peace from the nonstop arguing and agitation that social media has become. That doesn’t come from staying on X and watching Musk spread all his nonsense.
Sure, progressives are licking their wounds from Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss. But riddle me this. How is that different from what Republicans did during the entirety of Joe Biden’s presidency?
Are we supposed to ignore the list of conservative social media safe spaces? Are we just going to pretend that Gab, Rumble and Truth Social don’t exist? I’m not even naming all of them. Wait, didn’t somebody create a conservative dating app?
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And, I guess, that means we’re also ignoring the lucrative cottage industry of conservative media outlets that have dominated Republican messaging meant to create and feed political thought islands.
Fox News, Breitbart, Daily Caller and One America News Network don’t exist, right?
Conservatives haven’t spent years huddling in their digital safe spaces echoing each other, right?
Wait, no. They totally did. Progressives seem to be waking up to the idea that they can do the same. Let’s not even get into the “patriots” who were so triggered by Trump’s 2020 loss they stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Like it or not, we’re in a state of American politics where the debates are no longer about mundane Republican versus Democratic policies. Anybody who believes they can share a plate of turkey in the current environment probably has nothing at stake that is dear to their existence.
In which case, enjoy the arguments. The rest of us probably won’t hear them.
Louie Villalobos is Gannett’s director of opinion. If you feel compelled to reach out, try Bluesky. Honestly, who still uses Twitter, or X, or whatever it’s called?
You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Boycott Thanksgiving? It’s OK to ignore family over Trump | Opinion
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