Vietnam War military strategy debate and the N-word, all at my Christmas dinner ugh

[steve2470]

The Christmas dinner was at someone's house who is in my singles social group. I had no family in town for the holiday.

N-word: I'm watching a big screen TV with two other guys. I said "Who's playing ?" Then I read off the names of the NY Knicks and the Oklahoma Thunder for my own edification. The guy next to me says: " A bunch of N-words". I was absolutely fucking appalled. Scratch him off my "must talk to" list. I got away from him as fast as possible.

Vietnam War: Mind you, I know only one person at this dinner at all. The rest of the people I've either never seen before or only have met one time. A debate on the military strategy of the Vietnam War breaks out between two guys. Color me very uncomfortable, especially since 1) N-word incident only one hour previous and 2) I don't debate politics with people I don't know at a social event, it always goes south in my past experience. I know other people don't mind these debates no matter where, but my cardinal rule is to never discuss anything political with people I don't know well.

Despite all that, I managed to salvage the evening. Happy Holidays !

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear steve2470!

It must have been hard to relax and enjoy the food with all that going on.

Here's hoping 2014 brings all good things to you and your son!

[steve2470]

2. thanks Peggy, I hope your Christmas was a very lovely one with your family

I was socially anxious with not knowing anyone, so yes, this did not help my digestion lol

I hope 2014 brings many blessings to your family as well !

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Thanks, Steve, we had a lovely Christmas!

I am more than ready for 2014.........this year has not been fun. Nothing serious, just not fun!

[Lunacee_2013]

4. Sounds like my family's X-mas dinner...

Just replace the talk of war with duck dynasty and throw in some homophobia along with the racism.

Oh, and my crazy born again uncle showed up packing heat. Yes, he brought a loaded gun into a home with a new born inside on Christmas Eve. No one even knew about until about 10 min. before he left. It's a little unnerving telling an armed homophobic person that you don't think every gay person is going to hell just because they're gay.

[Locut0s]

6. Nope. I simply wouldn't attend those dinners :P...

Once I have a few glasses of wine in me I tend to get over my excessive shyness and social anxiety. I'm pretty opinionated and like to talk politics and world new subjects with the family at large. I couldn't handle a scene like that. Like I was saying in the post above I'm just glad that the one really conservative uncle in our family doesn't attend the parties. He's nowhere near at that level and we have difficulties with him as it is!

[steve2470]

7. wow...scary stuff indeed nt

[Locut0s]

5. Happy Holidays to you too steve!...

Glad to hear you managed to salvage things and have a good time. Politics is a common dinner party discussion for our family. Luckily those that are usually there (3 uncles and their families) are mostly on the same page. My own family and one of my uncles are particularly far left. The other uncle is fairly wealthy and a little bit conservative but he's extremely intelligent and pretty damn liveral on most of the topics we bring up.

Thank god the 4th uncle lives on the other side of the country. We would never survive our family dinners if he got involved. He's even more wealthy and hyper conservative.

How are things going for you BTW? Haven't seen you post for a while.

[steve2470]

8. I'm good, have just taken a posting break

I hope all is well with you too !

[Calista241]

9. All I have to say is...

If you're going to fight a war, you might as well try to win it.

[Aristus]

10. My niece brought her new boyfriend to our annual Christmas Eve bash.

Young kid. Very nice; all of 23 or so.

I was having a nice discussion about the ACA with the husband of another one of my nieces; we both support it. When this young kid came over, eager to join in a political discussion with people he assumed were co-travellers.

He started extolling the virtues of Wal-Mart, and how they're such great job-creators, etc. I didn't last long. I mentioned the burden Wal-Mart places on the tax payers by encouraging their scandalously underpaid workers to sign up for state and Federal benefits, and that the practical upshot is that the tax payers are subsidizing a billion-dollar company. Then I checked out of the conversation. It was my house; I can walk away from any discussion I want.

Poor kid had probably just read Atlas Shrugged or some shit, and must have thought he was all that...