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Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, which means we have officially entered the swirling vortex of vacation days, feast-engorged couch naps, and family gatherings that is The Holiday Zone. For many of us, this means a potentially uncomfortable amount of time around relatives who might not share our views on a laundry list of important topics: politics, religion, and of course, the elephant in the room in this battleground of a year, Dexit. Here are some tips for navigating those treacherous, Gyarados-infested waters.Don’t argue to winIt can be tempting to walk into an argument with your enraged parent—who, thanks to online conspiracy theories and Fox News, actually believes it’s possible to model and add a Pokémon to Sword and Shield in five minutes—armed with counterpoints intended to shut them down. But there’s no common ground lying on the other side of that discussion. Even if you walk them through the meticulous series of steps it takes to add a character to a large, complicated video game and point out that there’s a dang bird that eats Pikachu in this one, you’ll both just come away fuming.Instead, seek to understand. Yes, you should make your points firmly and back them up with evidence, but you should also listen. Learn where your parent or parents are coming from. Engage with their concerns. Note, for example, that one solution to their fears of Pokémon automation and resulting Pokémon joblessness might be a Pokémon universal basic income. That kind of thing.Don’t interruptLook, your relatives are probably going to say some pretty inane stuff about how, for example, their inability to bring their Pidgeot forward to this generation of Pokémon games is tantamount to a war crime and worthy of death threats, but resist the urge to shout them down. If you feel yourself getting a little too heated, just take a deep breath. Interrupting will only make them dig their heels in more and probably re-tell that endless, tangent-ridden story about how they worked to earn that Pidgeot and didn’t accept any handouts like those darn spoon-fed Poké-millennials. You don’t want that. Nobody wants that.Eventually, you’ll get your turn to speak, and then you can calmly explain that Pidgeot is fine or whatever, but as far as bird Pokémon go, is vastly less cool than Sirfetch’d, so they’re just gonna have to take an L on this one.Avoid judgmental phrasesWhen you look at these people who raised you and instilled you with many of the values you hold dear, it can be hard to believe that they’ve somehow turned into uncompromising rage monsters who call game developers lazy and probably have some bad opinions on immigration, too. Still, it’s generally a bad idea to actually say, “I can’t believe you really think that!” or things along those lines.Instead, ask questions like “Why do you think that?” They’ll be forced to put their feelings into words and, hopefully, as a result, they’ll realize some of the more problematic elements of their reasoning on their own. And
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