Thanksgiving epitomizes a make-believe nation’s fake history of cordial Native-colonizer relations as its founding. We are thus compelled every year to counter a Disneyland story erasing European invasion, land theft, and Indigenous genocide. #NationalDayOfMourning 
The cynicism of the so-called “culture wars” over national holidays and fake histories is that they gloss over how billions of acres of territory was annexed to make the USA. That’s imperialism. European invasion introduced a class system, sexism, racism, and bigotry.
Whether you feel good or bad is not the point. Feelings aren’t facts. To know the history of the USA is to realize that immense suffering and loss weren’t inevitable and that things need not always be this way. No culture founded on invasion is legitimate.
To put it bluntly: it’s not okay to celebrate genocide. There’s nothing innocent about make-believe histories.
Ending the Pilgrim mythology, however, has no material consequence on everyday people’s lives. You can still share and give thanks without celebrating genocide.
Ending the Pilgrim mythology, however, has no material consequence on everyday people’s lives. You can still share and give thanks without celebrating genocide.
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