'Sounds like a cult:' Sociologist rips leftist calls to cut off Trump family members during the holidays

https://www.foxnews.com/media/sounds-like-cult-sociologist-rips-leftist-calls-cut-off-trump-family-members-during-holidays

A sociologist criticized calls on the left for Americans to cut off family members and other loved ones who voted for President-elect Donald Trump, saying such measures were extreme and unhealthy for society.

"I don't think that's a great piece of advice. I mean, it sounds like a cult," Brad Wilcox, a sociology professor and director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, told Fox News Digital.

"Cults often encourage people to cut off their family and friends just to kind of keep people within the cult. So I don't take that advice as worth following," he added."

Wilcox was responding to advice given to Harris voters on MSNBC, just days after the election, where one guest suggested that it would be better for these voters' mental health to distance themselves from their Trump-supporting loved ones over the holidays."

"There is a push, I think just a societal norm that if somebody is your family, that they are entitled to your time, and I think the answer is absolutely not," Yale University chief psychiatry resident, Dr. Amanda Calhoun, told MSNBC host Joy Reid last week.

"So if you are going to a situation where you have family members, where you have close friends who you know have voted in ways that are against you, like what you said, against your livelihood, it’s completely fine to not be around those people and to tell them why, you know, to say, ‘I have a problem with the way that you voted, because it went against my very livelihood and I’m not going to be around you this holiday,’" she said.

"I think it may be essential for your mental health," Calhoun added.

This advice also drew support from "The View" co-host Sunny Hostin on Tuesday.

"I really do feel that this candidate, you know, President-elect Trump, is just a different type of candidate, from the things he said and the things he’s done and the things he will do, it’s more of a moral issue for me and I think it’s more of a moral issue for other people," she said. "We’re just — you know, I would say it was different when, let’s say, [George W.] Bush got elected. You may not have agreed with his policies, but you didn’t feel like he was a deeply flawed person, deeply flawed by character, deeply flawed in morality."

Essays have also cropped up online from liberals boasting they are canceling their holiday get-togethers with Trump voters in their family because they are completely devastated by the election results.

Wilcox recommended families in these situations focus on points of agreement and try to keep the peace over the holidays by avoiding charged political topics when possible. But if politics do come up, empathy and respect can go a long way.

"I think many of us – my family's split between Republicans and Democrats – When people are getting together for Thanksgiving or the holidays, you've got to be more diplomatic," he told Fox News Digital.

The sociologist suggested employing a communication skill called a "soft startup" where you set a positive tone by acknowledging the merits of your relative's concerns before politely explaining your own views, without attacking the other person or their preferred political candidate."



Now, my sister is 65 and she's as liberal as they come and I refer to her as the OG Liberal who believes in liberal ideas from yesterday, but she does not embrace all of this Transgender, men participating in women's sports and using their locker rooms and restrooms bullshit and she voted for Harris just because she's Democrat and female and I warned her for weeks leading up to the Election that Trump was going to steamroll her and he did and I felt obligated to soften the blow by purchasing takeout for her from her favorite Italian restaurant and while we'll never fully agree on the decision, we're able to discuss it and move on and not cut one another off