It’s Thanksgiving!

As far as the American holidays go, Thanksgiving gets a bad rep. For most people it’s the final hurdle that allows them to finally put out their Christmas tree. To many others (and myself) it’s just the last Thursday in November that we get off of work. In school we’re taught that Thanksgiving was a day that the pilgrims and Native Americans came together and shared food. When in reality it was one specific tribe that gave corn to the pilgrims so they could survive the long winter and potentially aid the said tribe against other aggressive tribes in the area. Unfortunately for them they came to find out that the enemy of their enemy was not their friend. That’s right the pilgrims were shitty people that wanted all the land and quickly set upon any Native American once they had a foothold in the New World. If I had a time machine I would use it to go back in time and stop the first exchange of food and allow the pilgrims to starve. Yes many colonials were prisoners unfairly set here but that still doesn’t give them a right to be in a land already occupied. Ultimately this could be a moot effort that would only delay the inevitable setup of a permanent colony but a person can dream, and if you’re thinking “but Gerdy that would most likely end up in the erasure of your existence.” Good! I love existing but some horrors are bad enough to try at all costs to undo. America is not the horror but the genocide of Native Americans is.

Happy Thanksgiving! I didn’t intend to sour anyone's day with that dour more feeling that fact base retelling of the first Thanksgiving but do you know how hard it is to delete things? Just because you're a sadist doesn’t give you a right to ruin other people's fun. True, true I think that the intentions of Thanksgiving outweighs its bloody history. Sharing a meal with the people you love and are thankful for is very beautiful. The holiday itself has also escaped the mangy clutches of capitalists for the most part. Many places stay closed for the actual day and several years ago companies made it a point to not open their doors until past midnight on Thanksgiving night. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and is more notorious than Thanksgiving at this point. We all need to get our shopping in for Christmas, the ultimate consumerist holiday and the best time to do it apparently is right after a heartwarming meal with our families. Let’s all load our arteries with salt and then stampede each other in order to get the best “deal” of the year. This has been the tradition of my country for my entire life and I love it. It’s no news to anyone but I am of the lower class and a filthy poor. So along with continually disappointing my government, family and peers because of my lack of money. I also don’t have money to shop with for Black Friday. I’m not a fan of crowds so I tend to stay home and Black Friday is the best day to be a people watcher because people will be unhinged.

Black Friday is also a notorious bad deals day, yes the discounts are much higher on the day but the industry secret is they just pump up all the retail prices of everything to make it seem like a better deal. It still works for a lot of people and you can save some bucks on the right things if you’re very selective with where you’re shopping. Since the “glorious” age of the internet and the world dominating Amazon, online shopping has increased a thousandfold. If you don’t have a storefront how are you to sell to all the people trampling over each other to get good deals? The capitalist had to think long and hard until an intern finally came up with the idea of Cyber Monday. This is the Monday after Black Friday where many online marketplaces will discount their items heavily and feed all the socially anxious piggy’s that don’t like crowds or leaving their houses. In my youth I was a much less aware piggy and would happily partake in sales of Cyber Monday and think of how great it was. The future was Cyber Monday and I bet Black Friday would be a quaint story of old. Who needs interaction when I can just do it all online. Ah the folly of youth and how much I have changed. If I had more money this day and age I’d chose to be roughing it with my fellow consumer piggy’s because I like interacting with others in person so much more than through a screen. 

I know bold words for a slime with a blog who routinely updates it on the internet. Don’t get me wrong I’ve made friends online and discord is my social watering hole but since covid I’ve been starving for social interaction and talking to people in person. The world has changed though and it feels like misanthropy has won. Our constant interactions online and social media has gotten us used to only the most extreme and outlandish opinions. We forgot that we can’t just say anything straight to peoples faces because we can see the pain our words cause them. So spend the rest of your Thanksgiving with the people you love and tell them how much you love them because you never know if you’ll get another chance. Let people spill their dumbass political theories and just laugh at them afterward because that’s how it should be done. I’m thankful for Thanksgiving because it gives us an opportunity to have these moments, and if you’re like me and alone on this day because your family is just too toxic or mostly gone then know that I’m thankful for you. You’re great and I’m glad you’re reading this, and maybe next year reach out to some friends and see if you can have a Friendsgiving with them!