The unsurprising “War on Thanksgiving” lie

This bothered me more than his usual rubbish. He tells this tale to his supporters in Sunrise, Florida. “As we gather together for Thanksgiving, you know, some people want to change the name Thanksgiving. They don’t want to use the term Thanksgiving.”

If this were correct, it would be distressing. But this “war on Thanksgiving” is untrue. “Even the Fox & Friends crew struggled to substantiate the president’s claim… They… entertained the possibility that Trump was referencing a long-debunked rumor that Barack Obama tried to change the holiday’s name to Celebrate Immigrants Day by executive order.

I was pleased to find that Hot Air, a very conservative site, confirms the BS quality of the story. They speculated that perhaps “a guest or a host made an offhand comment on some Fox News show (e.g., “Next thing you know with these liberals, there’ll be a war on Thanksgiving!”).

TV age

The TV was on and Trump “either misheard it or misunderstood it…” Or intentionally misstated it. “Suddenly the imperative to support [him] in all things requires righties to back him up by at least pretending there’s a ‘war on Thanksgiving.'”

Or maybe, “two Fox News executives bet each other a dollar, a la the Dukes in ‘Trading Places,’ over whether one of them could turn an inane idea like the ‘war on Thanksgiving’ into a bona fide moral panic among Fox’s elderly Republican viewership. Starting with the most important elderly Republican of all.”

It’s likely “they were inspired by a random greenie piece at HuffPost about how to limit one’s carbon footprint on the holiday. Eat veggie instead of eating turkey, for instance… Buy locally to minimize emissions generated by transporting food — you know how this song goes.

“The piece doesn’t call for boycotting Thanksgiving, though, or otherwise object to the concept behind the holiday. And it certainly doesn’t call for changing the name. It’s about climate change, not some bizarre conscientious objection to the practice of giving thanks.”

Of course, the new resident of Florida is also claiming that there was an attack on the big December holiday as well. “But now everybody’s using Christmas again. Remember this?” He claims credit for beating back the fictitious “war on Christmas.” He needed another “win” using “some cheap applause material about political correctness gone mad.”