Once upon a time, families enjoyed getting together. From Donald Jeffries at donaldjeffries.substack.com:
Family dysfunction is so widespread in America 2.0 that they had to invent a new term to describe it More and more childless, often lonely ‘Murricans are celebrating “Friendsgiving.” Not Thanksgiving. When your family is hopelessly fractured, you turn to friends, if you have any. Hopefully, you still give thanks before eating.
In the photo above, the “friends” appear as if they’re attending a seance, not a special dinner for the purpose of expressing gratitude for the blessings of life. Now to be fair, it is probably safe to assume that most of those participating in a “Friendsgiving” are not devout believers in God. So they can’t be expected to give thanks to Him for anything. And I must say that at this particular “Friendsgiving,” there seems to be a startling lack of diversity. Only one possible nonwhite, although the dearth of White males is commendatory. Perhaps it’s a special lesbian “Friendsgiving,” although there’s not a single transgender in sight. However you look at it, “Friendsgiving” is not based on traditional themes. The very idea is anti-family, as is everything else emanating from our poisonous cultural overlords. All those TV shows and films depicting the dread of seeing your family once a year. Seinfeld already came up with Festivus in lieu of Christmas. Friendsgiving spares us that annoying family contact.
In my parents’ world, and during my childhood and young adulthood, many families invited a friend or two, or perhaps a distant cousin, to Thanksgiving dinner. Most of us still had enough empathy back then to realize that people shouldn’t have to be alone on a day devoted to family gratitude. There were always unmarried uncles, and what was indelicately referred to then as “spinster” aunts. They didn’t have to worry about going to Boston Market or some other restaurant, by themselves, to “celebrate.” They certainly wouldn’t have thought of bonding together with others without families, or outcast from them, in a “Friendsgiving.” Families went well beyond this in those days, as I heard many stories of a bachelor uncle or a lonely, childless widow being warmly welcomed into a family household. No retirement homes for them. When The Waltons depicted their huge family under one roof, that wasn’t an uncommon thing back then. Goodnight John Boy, indeed.
It looks like they just got back from a funeral.
Burn it all down better.
Friends is a construct of the sixth grade.