Thesis: Thanksgiving used to be a traditional gathering of people but has been devolved
by corporations and false facts into another device to force lies and brand deals.
by corporations and false facts into another device to force lies and brand deals.
Thanksgiving, traditionally, is a holiday about food and being thankful for what you have. However that's not really what it turned out to be over the years. As I learned from the New York Times article, Thanksgiving has been distorted into oblivion by shortening facts and children’s books simplifying the details even further. The whole idea that “The First Thanksgiving” was this congregation of pilgrims and the natives they invited wasn’t entirely wrong but it's missing massive amounts of context. From the same article I learned that there was no proof that turkey was even served at that “first” celebration, and the natives weren’t even formally invited to said celebration. They more or less just showed up, and there was most likely duck being served. (NYT) Although Thanksgiving has kept the idea of “being thankful” and the notion of food being thrown in, it has been corrupted by corporate schemes and obscured facts.
While the facts of Thanksgiving have been turned into lies, the meals of the holiday have also been turned into paydays for corporations. Turkey, being the main dish of almost any thanksgiving dinner, was never really part of the thanksgiving tradition. From the Smithsonian article I learned that turkey was used as a way to brand Thanksgiving. Most food from the holiday were never originally there during “The First Thanksgiving,” not to mention the idea of the Thanksgiving at Plymouth was the first one ever is also wrong. As I’ve learned from the NYT article, there was plenty of history documenting celebrations after successful harvests, but I guess the New Englanders thought that only this one was worthy of making it a holiday about “thanks, food” and “prayer.” Food conceived as “traditional” during thanksgiving is just another way for corporations to get in your wallet.
Back in the old days of plymouth where the natives died by diseases and pilgrims took the land where they died as a colony, the pilgrims came there for religious freedom. Although not really, they mostly came to the New World as a way to gain more income and feed their greed. (NYT article) It seems like all the real reasons the pilgrims even showed up have been turned into lies to get more money out of the people and into corporations. It's ironic because said corporations are making money off the people that came here to make money. These givens that we expect at Thanksgiving, like the nice branded turkey or the store bought bread and sauces, are just another way to subtly ruin the whole traditions and the purpose of the holiday. That first Thanksgiving although it wasn’t the first didn’t have our modern “delights” as advertised or the Turkey “As Tender as It's Name” or even the Eatmor cranberries, which it's own name is telling you to “eat more,” was even then a celebration of a good harvest which in time would only earn the pilgrims more money. (NYT & Smithsonian)
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| Advertisement for Butterball Swift's Premium turkey. Fortune article of history of thanksgiving brands. |
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