It’s that time of year again; one can smell the pumpkin pies, the turkeys, and the celebrities signaling their virtue at the expense of American traditions.
Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik posted a video to Youtube on November 16 explaining the 4 reasons why she doesn’t like Thanksgiving. Buried underneath the milder complaints of “eating copious amounts of food” and the proximity of Thanksgiving to the Jewish traditional version of Thanksgiving, Bialik brought up a ridiculous reason to loathe an American holiday:
“History is written by the winners. I grew up coloring pictures of pilgrims and indigenous people -- we called them Indians when I was a child -- having this beautiful Thanksgiving together. The truth is, European invaders came to this land, took it from the indigenous people, raped, pillaged, gave them all sorts of diseases, called it their own, and desecrated a culture. It is one of the grossest examples of genocide in recent history and much as I don’t want to think about that, it’s really hard for me not to think about that when I think about Thanksgiving.”
Ouch. So ignoring the beautiful tradition that has been practiced by families in America for hundreds of years, people shouldn’t celebrate Thanksgiving because the pilgrims, among other things, were “invaders” who brought “all sorts of diseases” to the Native Americans? If that’s the case, then whoever brought the Black Death to Europe in the 14th century was a war criminal. And if she wants to rant and rave about how dreadful the colonials were, every country, every nation, and every region has had the lion’s share of enormous human flaws and brutality.
As a vegan (and nobody virtue signals like a vegan!) Bialik also doesn’t like having a turkey on Thanksgiving. She said, “I don’t like the tradition of killing a bird that in most cases has been genetically modified so that it’s so big that it can’t even stand up and then you lay it’s carcass on a tray and you carve it up and then you eat it. I don’t like that tradition. I don’t want that one. And I know. You think, “you vegans ruin everything.” Well, you know what? I think your tradition of killing an animal and laying its carcass and eating the skin and the flesh of it -- I think its gross. That ruins it too.”
Well there are some issues with being vegan too. For starters, many of the ingredients used by vegans, including quinoa, are harvested from third world countries. This causes the prices of food in places like Peru to go up, and poor people end up having to pay more. Being vegan is not necessarily the greatest lifestyle to have, if someone wants to talk about injustice and genocide.
The perks of Thanksgiving for Bialik? The “attitude of gratitude” and the Macy’s Day Parade. Hating on mainstream positivity and modern cultural customs is a bridge too far for Bialik. Think of the bad publicity!
