I figure stereotypes and what you see on TV exists because someone does it at some point. The question is how serious do you take it and apply it across the board for a given subset of the human population. I've never known anyone to do that during Thanksgiving but I've only experienced the holiday from two different families perspectives.
<Shrugs> It's essentially the same kind of stereotyping that happens with Canadians, and how apparently we live in perpetual ice castles. lol.
Holidays are commercial and no one remembers what they were for. The reality is often harsh, because even after saving the colonists from starvation we still killed them and took their land. It's like a cheerful holiday celebrating the start of the holocaust. But we won, so I guess we get to make holidays.
To address the original question, yes and no. You see... To understand Thanksgiving, you must understand the history behind it. Most argue that it's roots trace back to 432 BC, shortly after the Vikings founded Atlantic City, NJ. In those days, giant turkeys roamed the mountains and wreaked havoc on our crops. Being a superstitious bunch, we sacrificed the last of our hamburgers... "stuffing" everything we could onto one altar, hoping that the gods would grant us refuge. By stroke of luck, salvation was delivered to us by the Celestial Seven (known to the rest of the world as "the Pleiades".. whatever that is)... a powerful force comprised of Ronald McDonald, Grimace, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, that duck thing with braided hair, the Burger King, and Colonel Sanders. In just the nick of time, the rivers that the turkeys would have needed to cross to win the war were turned into boiling deep fryers. Seconds later, an eagle raised the 49 star flag, and America was born. In spite, we celebrate the extinction of the 500 lb turkeys killed off long ago by eating the smaller breeds still in existence.
Ahh, the "Eh?" I deal with a lot of Canadian customers, and I'd say only roughly half use it and that half doesn't use it as often as you'd think. Only one person used it at the end of practically every sentence.
We did horrible things but let's also not kid ourselves. The Indians tribes were not a bunch of earth loving peaceful people that some folks are trying to rewrite them as.
Were they all comedies? Or kids shows? Definitely something in that. No doubt we're not talking about serious documentaries.
There's another point to make. Does everyone really celebrate the whole reason for Christmas? I think not. Retail stuck their floppy bit in it, and became a way to market stuff that wouldn't move all year.
I can't remember which shows, but they were almost definitely comedy shows. Didn't the native people used to drive whole herds of buffalo over cliff edges just to get a few for food?
Not exactly the same but on a similar note. In my local ASDA supermarket (in the UK) a few days ago there was an advertisement encouraging me to celebrate Independence Day by purchasing certain products.
By americans? Canadian stereotypes aren't actually taken literally here, unlike the ones we entertain about other countries, and about some of our own states even. So relax. Everyone knows that only alaskans live in igloos.