I
agree
with
Ezra
Klein
on
a
lot.
Heck,
I
even
recommended
his
latest
book.
However,
he
recently
made
a
comment
on
his
podcast
the
substance
of
which
was
that
he
thinks
it’s
nuts
to
cut
off
contact
with
a
family
member
because
of
vastly
different
political
views.
To
which
I
say,
“The
f*ck?!”
It
is
pretty
much
the
archetypal
essence
of
being
an
American
not
to
cut
off
contact
with
a
family
member
for
stringently
disagreeing
politically
but
to
cut
off
the
flow
of
blood
to
the
brain
of
a
family
member
for
stringently
disagreeing
politically.
There
are
tons
of
examples
of
brothers
fighting
brothers,
fathers
fighting
sons,
etc.,
ad
nauseam,
in
the
Civil
War
over
political
differences.
Yne
could
argue
that
the
Civil
War
was
a
special
circumstance
—
good
versus
evil,
slavery
versus
freedom,
and
the
like
—
and
it
most
certainly
was
unique
in
many
respects.
Yet,
the
Civil
War
is
not
unique
at
all
in
terms
of
American
family
members
splitting
with
one
another
in
matters
of
life
and
death
because
of
differing
political
opinions,
like
American
patriots
antagonizing
loyalist
relatives
in
the
American
Revolution,
for
instance.
I
am
by
no
means
saying
you
should
go
out
and
slaughter
your
relatives
who
disagree
with
you.
What
I
am
saying
is
that
in
the
scope
of
American
history
it
is
quite
a
paltry
consequence
of
holding
a
clearly
incorrect
political
opinion
just
to
have
a
relative
decide
you
are
no
longer
worth
talking
to.
I’ve
just
recently
seen
my
brother
for
pretty
much
the
only
time
of
the
year
I
ever
see
him
anymore:
deer
hunting
season
back
home.
We
used
to
be
close.
We
went
on
a
trip
together
every
year.
One
time
in
Boston
we
bought
a
round
of
Sam
Adams
beer,
snuck
it
outside,
scaled
the
fence
at
the
historic
Granary
Burying
Ground
cemetery,
and
shared
a
midnight
beer
with
Samuel
Adams
himself,
or
what
is
left
of
him,
on
his
grave
(I
think
the
statute
of
limitations
has
passed
on
anything
related
to
that).
All
the
good
memories
aside,
the
last
ten
years
have
not
been
kind
to
our
relationship.
I
am
unabashedly
progressive,
and
my
brother
is
an
unthinking
reflexive
MAGA
gun
nut
whose
mind
has
been
pickled
by
the
right-wing
internet.
He’s
also
not
a
very
good
brother:
I
don’t
need
to
worry
too
much
about
insulting
him
because
he
doesn’t
even
care
enough
about
his
only
sibling
to
spend
six
minutes
reading
this
column
every
week.
I
have
not
cut
off
my
brother
from
all
contact.
I
just
don’t
go
out
of
my
way
to
initiate
it
anymore,
and
make
a
point
of
challenging
the
more
heinous
viewpoints
he
expresses
when
we
do
encounter
one
another.
Like
Ezra
Klein,
many
people
are
averse
to
politics
coming
between
relatives.
I
think
such
people
lack
charm.
I
have
many,
many
friends
who
have
helped
me
out
and
who
I
have
helped
out
much
more
than
has
been
the
case
with
my
brother.
I
have
many,
many
friends
who
I
enjoy
spending
time
with
more
than
my
brother.
I
have
many,
many
friends
whose
decisions
have
not
contributed
to
the
deaths
of
millions
of
people
due
to
support
for
Trump’s
second-term
policies,
to
say
nothing
of
the
countless
daily
nonfatal
miseries
his
supporters
continue
to
inflict.
To
spend
extra
time
with
someone
whose
company
you
do
not
generally
enjoy,
who
you
find
overall
to
be
an
odious
human
being,
just
because
you
share
some
DNA,
reeks
of
eugenics
to
me.
For
the
sake
of
my
aging
parents,
I
still
try
to
pretend
to
mostly
get
along
with
my
brother
for
the
three
or
four
days
a
year
we
see
each
other.
I
will
never
forgive
him
and
all
the
other
fake
patriots
out
there
for
what
I
see
as
being
a
traitor
to
the
country
and
the
Constitution,
though.
I
think
it
is
the
obligation
of
every
real
American
to
either
try
to
deradicalize
such
people,
or,
if
that
fails,
to
shame
them
back
into
the
shadows.
So,
as
Thanksgiving
approaches,
remember
you
are
not
obliged
to
spend
time
with
anyone
you
don’t
enjoy
spending
time
with.
You’re
not
helping
anyone
by
just
letting
MAGA
relatives
think
they’re
getting
away
with
it.
Finally,
as
for
deer
hunting
(the
Thanksgiving
of
rural
America),
I
can
attest
that
a
whiny
liberal
ATL
columnist
can
put
a
round
right
through
a
cervid
heart
at
100
yards
with
an
old
bolt
action
rifle
even
as
a
certified
gun
nut
range
instructor
with
a
multiple-thousand
dollar
AR-15
setup
registers
a
clean
miss.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].