Posted on 11/25/2021 9:25:48 AM PST by Kaslin
While most of us are celebrating a day intended to remind us to be thankful for the various blessings in our lives, there will always be some people so consumed with politics that they will play a role equivalent to the Grinch at Christmas. That seems to be the point being made this week by Matt Lewis in his latest column at the Daily Beast. The holiday is a target for some on the left who equate it to the genocide of indigenous Americans, colonialism and slavery. Matt further argues that there are some on the conservative side of the fence who have given up on the idea of American exceptionalism and might prefer some sort of monarchy where obedience to God and country are mandatory, stomping out some of the disruptive proclamations of the modern left. But how much of the Thanksgiving tradition is actually rooted in the early history of the United States and how much is founded in the words of Abraham Lincoln who first proclaimed it as an official holiday during the Civil War?
The culture war doesn’t take Thanksgiving week off, and its two main participants aren’t big on giving thanks, anyway.
The illiberal left wants to radically transform an inherently evil America that was founded on slavery and colonialism. The post-liberal right wants to forfeit the idea of liberal democracy, contending that modern America is weak, secular, and decadent.
Let’s start with the left. On Tuesday, the Women’s March issued an apology for sending out an email noting that their average donation this week had been $14.92. “It was an oversight on our part to not make the connection to a year of colonization, conquest, and genocide for Indigenous people, especially before Thanksgiving,” they said. This is stupidity that defies satire.
Meanwhile, MSNBC recently invited writer Gyasi Ross to talk about the “mythology” of Thanksgiving. “Instead of bringing stuffing and biscuits, those settlers brought genocide and violence,” he said. “That genocide and violence is still on the menu as state-sponsored violence against Native and Black Americans is commonplace. And violent private white supremacy is celebrated and subsidized.”
As Matt points out, the early history of European settlers in North America is complicated to say the least. The Pilgrims on the Mayflower did originally settle in what is now the United States and they signed a treaty with the Wampanoag Confederacy of Native Americans. They lived (mostly) peacefully together for roughly fifty years and they did indeed share a feast day in 1621 after their first successful harvest.
After that, the story changes quite a bit. During the westward expansion of the primarily European Americans, there were some atrocities committed by both sides at various times, but the indigenous people definitely got the worst of it. The situation wound up being just about as close to a true genocide as you’d care to imagine between warfare and the ravages of smallpox. Many inconvenient promises were broken and some of the bitterness over that portion of our history lingers to this day.
At the same time, treating America as some sort of special case in this sense is a completely false narrative. You would be hard-pressed to find a single country in the 21st century that isn’t inhabited by a mixture of people who originally arrived from somewhere else and displaced the humans who had settled there before them. This even applies to most of the countries in Africa (thought by many, though not all, to be the original birthplace of modern humans), where various tribes have tangled and ousted each other for centuries. The people we think of as Filipinos today are a mixture of Asian and Hispanic imports to the islands. The original inhabitants of the Philipines (the Negritos) live in small, isolated tribes in the mountains and look very different.
For better or worse, human history is written by the winners. But that’s still not what Thanksgiving is really supposed to be about. It’s a time to give thanks for whatever blessings you have received, no matter how meager those blessings may be at times. While you still have breath in your lungs there is always hope. And if you find yourself on this day simply having a roof over your head, food of any sort on your table, and some family or friends to share it with, you have much to give thanks for. There will always be those with more or less than yourself. So rather than spending your day shouting at the ocean about what a horrible place America is, perhaps you might help your blood pressure levels and your community by simply engaging in some quiet reflection and taking a moment to give thanks. If you have the ability to read this article today, you already have much to be thankful for compared to many others.
This Thanksgiving is the 400th Anniversary of different people , from different cultures, thanking God for all His Blessings, together. Think of all the concepts the Left hates in just that one sentence!
Watched some wallbuilders true hisory plymouth vs jamestown. Hoghly reccomend.
The Daily Beast is being propped up by people who read their pages. Don’t do it. They are just a website among billions of websites. Just because they have a slickk design (I guess because I have never browsed to their page) doesn’t mean they amount to anything. They have to troll people to create controversy so they can get clicks. It is the constant quest for clicks tgat is driving down the discourse in the world today, much the same way that talking about poop drives down comedy. You can always get a laugh by talking about poop.
Have not heard about that, have we...400 years.
You would be hard-pressed to find a single country in the 21st century that isn’t inhabited by a mixture of people who originally arrived from somewhere else and displaced the humans who had settled there before them.
Indeed ask the losers to name one.
It’s like their love for Marxism and socialism but they don’t live in those places.
Fake always has 2 faces.
That seems to be the point being made this week by Matt Lewis in his latest column at the Daily Beast.
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Matt Lewis is never worth reading and certainly not worth repeating.
He’s writing for the Daily Beast now because even Townhall won’t have him anymore.
Lewis has always been a Bush League Republican apologist.
And the people they displaced, also displaced the humans who had settled there before.
Maybe the haters are mad that turkey is traditionally served on Thanksgiving instead of a donkey. Otherwise we’d all be getting a piece of “ass”.
False.
A "true genocide" is intentional.
The ravages of disease was not intentional.
“Let’s start with the left. On Tuesday, the Women’s March issued an apology for sending out an email noting that their average donation this week had been $14.92. “It was an oversight on our part to not make the connection to a year of colonization, conquest, and genocide for Indigenous people, especially before Thanksgiving,” they said. This is stupidity that defies satire.”
It’s not stupidity its communist revolution, cultural revolution, they are deadly serious and they have taken over via election fraud.
It’s thanksgiving morning and mom is here so she is listening to her liberal news radio. For half an hour we listened to them talking about “the homeless” and one in eight Americans going hungry and why we don’t have enough mental institutions.
I know the answers to these stupid assertions. Not gonna argue with the radio or make her turn it off. But that was the message all morning. Bums (drug addicts and crazy), hunger (actually we have an obesity epidemic) and mental health (refusal to coerce or derange the obviously insane).
Happy Thanksgiving right?
We can be thankful this Thanksgiving , that Nanzi’s and Xi’s Communist Revolution , is failing. We were literally sitting on the edge of the abyss ready to fall in but two flaky RAT Senators gave our Nation another chance. If they had marched in lockstep like their tyrant brothers they would be rounding up the resistance by now.
Neither is Jazz Shaw, generally.
My MIL (not with us today :-) ) has been in mourning since she found out that her hero governor (Cuomo) resigned.
You can’t make up this stuff!
Dearest SAG-AFTRA Family,
This holiday’s origins are sadly fraught with injustices towards our Indigenous peoples and that is something we must never forget as we retell the history of our nation without whitewashing or embellishment.
But, the idea of giving thanks is not without its merit.
So let us be grateful that we are here on this magnificent planet and give generously to those in need.
Let us right the wrongs that led to this Thanksgiving by being better, more evolved, sensitive and compassionate Americans.
No one leaves this planet unscathed, but if we can each ask ourselves how we can turn the pain into purpose on our journeys of self-refinement, then our experiences are not in vain but are also our opportunities.
Consider making a donation to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. There is no contribution too small and everything is appreciated.
I hope each and every one of you has good health, long life and much happiness.
May you experience that which makes your heart sing and share your joy with those less fortunate, for the happiest of humans are those who give.
Love and thankfulness,
❤️ fran
Yep the Indians had slaves from other tribes and raped their women and killed many other tribes wasn’t a good place after all before the Europeans arrived.
Fox News radio just gave enough coverage to a “day of mourning” event that it was obvious they meant to give it credibility. And then a breathless rundown of NFL games today.
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