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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Tim Anderson

Yes, there are reasons to be cynical about Thanksgiving. But there’s also turkey …

A turkey on a table with vegetables, plates, cutlery and a bottle of wine
If you can withstand the cold and drizzle, barbecuing a turkey à la Neil Rankin is an excellent option. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

It’s easy to be cynical about Thanksgiving. The origin story that we’re all told – of a friendly exchange of food between the pilgrims and the Native Americans – is, at best, a whitewashed oversimplification. And then there’s Black Friday, an event that has hijacked one of our few non-commercialised holidays and used it as the impetus for a stressful, shameless, consumerist frenzy.

Besides that, Thanksgiving is meant to be a celebration of American abundance and, boy, does that feel inappropriate at the moment. It sucks to be an American right now. It’s hard to feel gratitude for a country that’s an out-of-control dumpster fire stoked by an ogre of a man who treats the global economy like a game of Monopoly and orders his steaks well done (and with ketchup).

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