Hello and happy literal Sunday Funday. [Blogged while putting off addressing Christmas cards.]

Did everyone have a nice Thanksgiving? Was everything vegan? Love to hear it. I was going to put out a blog before Tofurky Day with unsolicited advice on how to have a happy, tension-free holiday with friends and family in a world where the TV tells us the sky is always falling and that we should hate everyone who doesn’t think *ExAcTlY* like us. But I didn’t make time for it, so now I’m writing this when I should be doing 100 other things.

Oh, you know what made me jump on here? I was checking my email and read a subject line that said, “Security guard murdered while protecting…” And I was just like, it’s the holidays. It’s the one time of year when we can all take a step back, put aside our differences, and be grateful, kind and understanding — and some idiot just murdered a security guard for doing his job? I mean…come on. Can’t we just get the fuck along?

Haven’t you noticed the never-ending headlines of hysteria that flood our feed every single day? The exhausting narrative that the world is an awful, hateful place where everyone is an enemy and that violence equals justice? Am I the only person on the planet who sees through this agenda to get ratings, manipulate perspectives and keep hostility high for profit and power? I can’t be.

It’s why I haven’t watched or read the news in a very long time. It’s not that I don’t care what’s going on in the world. I’ve simply recognized the decline in journalistic integrity and refuse to be triggered by some dummy’s take on a story that’s clearly riddled with biased rhetoric and strategic semantics meant to make me feel a certain way rather than literally just telling me the objective facts of reality. I’ve got better things to spend my energy on.

Aren’t you tired of being angry all the time? That’s you being manipulated by the media. Knock it off. Don’t let them suck the holiday joy out of your life. Instead, remember that your relationships with the people you love were never based on political views, medical decisions, ballot choices or any of the other bullshit criteria in which this world is telling us to choose our tribe.

You love the people you love because they’re good people. Left, right, up, down — whatever their views. Good people come in all perspectives. You surround yourself with those who have your back, make you feel supported, make you laugh at inappropriate times, and are there when life shits all over you. Don’t you dare let anyone make you question that. And if they do, tell them to shove their narrow-minded, lonely and joy-deprived approach to life right up their chimney.

So, happy holidays I guess. Stay off the internet.