Political Pie

   The holiday season is here, which means that many of us will be attending family gatherings of some kind. With lots of people together under one roof, there will more than likely be differences of opinions, which is totally fine! The thing is, not everyone knows how to disagree well. I don't claim to be an expert in the area of debate, but there are some general rules of etiquette that everyone should probably be reminded of if you plan to discuss anything remotely controversial.

• Remember your relationship. At the end of the day, you're still family. Yeah, squabbles happen, but you can't escape family; they'll always be in your life.
• Keep it clean. A cardinal rule of debate is to keep personal jabs off the table. It's one thing to throw in a harmless joke or to tease someone, but if you want to have a productive conversation, leave hurtful comments out of it.
• To booze or not to booze? This is one where you really need to know yourself and your counterpart. If alcohol is going to make you more sensitive or inhibit your thought processes, don't drink. Generally, I would say being sober is your best bet. On the other hand, if the only way you can stomach being around the other person is to have loosened up a bit, then I digress. 
• Let each other talk. And listen. If one side doesn't let the other get a full sentence in without interrupting, there's no point. Or if nobody plans on actually listening to the other side and only plans to say what they want to say, also no point. 
• Inside voices please. Make a conscious effort to keep your voices at a reasonable decibel. Raising voices instantly puts you on the fast track to annoyance.
• Establish common ground. When you first start discussing a topic, you need to establish common ground before getting into what you disagree about. Otherwise, you could be discussing completely different things, which would make the conversation pointless.
• End on an agreement. It's really important to finish up on a positive note, to wrap things up with something you can agree on. Even if it's the opinion that sweet potatoes taste best with marshmallows or that the turkey you had was a little too dry.

Ultimately, it's unlikely that anyone is going to have their mind changed when it comes to politics or issues within our social climate. Just remember that whomever you are debating/having a discussion with is a person, not a conquest. There are more important things in the world than winning a debate.