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Archive for November 28th, 2008

eric on Nov 28th 2008 Friends, Politics

Thanksgiving vs. Anti-Thanksgiving: A Political Analysis

Yesterday, we had a great Thanksgiving dinner at our place. Ryan and Jaime and the kids showed up. There was much food and fun and general hanging out. We had a great time spending time with each other, sharing each others company and conversation. I truly am thankful to have them.

Also yesterday, I received the obligatory anti-Thanksgiving MySpace bulletins. Being a vegan anarchist and having friends who are mostly vegan anarchists, I find myself running into some pretty angry folks.

My favorite was:

who calls Thanksgiving a holiday:

FUCK YOU.

Read a fucking book.

Seriously? Someone seeing Thanksgiving as a holiday deserves a “fuck you”? And what would reading a fucking book do to help this situation? I guess it depends on the book. I just finished one on the Oregon Trial. Really good book, but I don’t think it would have changed my opinion of Thanksgiving one way or the other. Please, angry people, be specific!

The person who sent it claims to be an anarchist and a vegetarian (I don’t think she’s vegan, but maybe she is now – goes back and forth a lot). And really, even at the most uber-annoying height of my in-yo-face style of pissing people off to the very thought and idea of anything I believed in I don’t think I was this angry/ridiculous.

Sure, Thanksgiving is a silly holiday. It’s one based upon killing birds for no real reason and a historical inaccuracy. Thanksgiving wasn’t even first celebrated at Plymouth Rock in some wacky festival thanking the natives for all the help. It was celebrated in Florida by Spaniards. What good can come from Florida (except the first couple Against Me 7″s)?

You know, being all pissed off and yelling “FUCK YOU” to people isn’t going to make them be all like “gee, you’re right, let me re-examine my entire lifestyle.” It’s going to make them say “pass me a turkey leg and fuck you too.”

But even above all of this, why not just celebrate it? You know traditional Thanksgiving is a crock. And I bet all of your friends know it too. So why not just get together, cook up some amazing vegan dishes and have fun? You can even dumpster dive the food if that makes you somehow feel better!

What’s the harm in co-opting Thanksgiving for our own means? What’s wrong with making Thanksgiving our own holiday? Sounds fairly revolutionary to me. Certainly more revolutionary than a MySpace bulletin. Just sayin’.

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