Last Thursday, an "Ask Amy" advice column published by the Chicago Tribune about "very politically progressive" overly sensitive and entitled liberals so absurd that people were asking if it were even real. There's no indication it's parody, though, and it just goes to show you how crazy the left can be. In this specific instance, it happens to be about a bride and her mother who disinvited the bride's uncle, and yet the mother wrote in because they still wanted the wedding gift from said uncle.
Amy Dickinson, who does the advice column, put the mother in her place, though she was nicer about it than she could have been.
The mother, who goes by "Angry in Philadelphia," explains that her daughter, the "very politically progressive" one, asked her to not invite her uncle to her wedding, the brother of "Angry in Philadelphia."
Now when it comes to a pretty strong word like "unsafe," you'd think that the uncle was accused of behaving in some kind of inappropriate behavior. Nope, he just happens to subscribe to a different set of politics.
"My daughter is very politically progressive, as are many of her friends, and although she and Dave have always had a good relationship (I thought), he is a conservative voter and has supported candidates we all abhor," the mother explains.
The mother wrote what she claims is "a very nice note," she even sent him a card with pictures of the wedding, "all in an effort to make him feel like he was not being totally left out." If anything, that's just rubbing it in, though. It makes it worse.
"Angry in Philadelphia" gets more insufferable from there, though:
That is just one problem.
Another problem is that Dave has not sent my daughter and son-in-law a wedding gift.
In the past, Dave has given family members wedding checks in excess of $1,000.
She says she was counting on receiving the same type of gift.
My husband says I should drop it – but I can’t. Dave’s behavior is upsetting and embarrassing to me.
The bride made her mother disinvite the mother's brother, but was still counting on him for his gift. That's some kind of gall. It's amazing that this "Angry in Philadelphia" considers her brother to be the "embarrassing" one. Even though she's writing into an advice column, she still closes with a demand of sorts. "Please don’t tell me that I’m the one who started this by not inviting my brother to the wedding. After all, he’s a grown man, while my daughter is young and just starting out."
Fortunately, Amy puts her in her place, in part by referring to the bride as "delicate" when recapping the situation. "You then rub the excluded guest’s nose in this wedding," she also points out. Again, that's not any kind of effort at all.
Perhaps where Amy may most get through to the mother is that she explains what "will enter the Bridezilla Hall of Infamy," as she gives the mother a directive. This includes how the mother does likely seem afraid of her own adult daughter. Amy had also pointed out in her response that this mother was doing her "dirty work" for her adult daughter, going on to later explain:
In short: Brides who are too afraid of family members to invite them to a family wedding don’t then get the pleasure of receiving their money.
You seem almost as afraid of your daughter as she is of your brother, but I hope you’ll find a way to courageously tell her that the Bank of Uncle Dave is closed, at least to your branch of the family.
Amy closes by reminding this "Angry in Philadelphia" that it's not "Dave" whose behavior is embarrassing. "So far, your silent brother is the only family member who is behaving appropriately. He’s steering clear, which is exactly what you have asked him to do," she closes.
It would have been great if Amy put this woman further in her place over burning bridges over political differences, but in some ways she pleasantly surprised. Still, as one person opined, Amy was too nice in many ways.
@AskingAmy you’re a much nicer person than I am because this bride/mother duo are truly selfish and greedy. I’d be shocked if the rest of the family didn’t stop speaking to her. They both need a big dose of growing up.
— Traci Pecot (@tgpecot) June 29, 2023
Family drama like this is very real, especially when it comes in our politically polarized society, and these "very politically progressive" sensitive souls who want to have their cake and eat it too. This was family gathering for a wedding though, not a political rally. These are not inherently political events. Politics doesn't belong in every facet of our lives, or at least it shouldn't. In a way, though, it is reflective of how terrible polarization is, and how selfish "very politically progressive" people can be, where politics does revolve around everything, and daring to disagree means you make people feel "unsafe."
If "Dave" can't reconcile with his family, here's wishing him the best. He may be better off. Plus, as our friends at Twitchy covered in one of their multiple articles about this "Uncle Dave," there are people out there on social media wishing him best at least.