Black Friday. It’s kind of ironic. Actually, it’s really, really, painstakingly ironic. We’re a country that, literally the moment after having a day to give thanks for what we have, has a day solely based on buying more stuff. People die during Black Friday. We are a country that kills people over said stuff. It doesn’t help that we’re America – and that’s kind of our reputation in a nutshell.

Not only this, but Black Friday has given leeway to another lovely American tradition. Filming the fights. Fights on Black Friday are the stuff of legend – people duking it out over TV’s barely ten percent off, stun guns coming out at the mall, police interventions. All over a couple sale items. That’s the other thing. The sales aren’t even that good! Maybe a store will have a couple items fifty percent off, or the first ten people in line get cheap game systems. But other than that, it’s just your average everyday sale. Maybe it’s the fact that they’re all on the same day. It’s become a mob-mentality thing- since some people go shopping and spend a ton of money, now everyone has to.

All of that aside. There’s something sickly enjoyable about the “holiday”. Attempting to curb my disgust about the whole thing, I decided to try it out this year. I wasn’t intense enough to go out at 2:00 in the morning, but I did manage to see some pretty good crowds later on. Frankly, I expected it to be a little more exciting. I saw no fights, no yelling, not even one measly taser. Everyone I ran into was actually pretty nice, including the poor employees that had to work that day. So I kind of (maybe a little) enjoyed myself. It was interesting to see people completely bent over from the weight of their own purchases, throw jeans at the cashier, and sprint on to the next store. And there WERE some pretty good sales.

According to fashionista.com, 226 million people went shopping this black friday. That’s 72% of the American population. Seventy two percent. More than half. A lot. The same source reports that 90% of these shoppers were shopping for themselves or their immediate family. We don’t even have the christmas gifts for others as an excuse any more.

I really kind of wanted to fall into tradition and enjoy myself. But… I just can’t. I can’t fully support a holiday that blatantly persuades people to spend tons of money and wake up at midnight. As much as I want to slip into a sale-fabric coma and spend, spend, spend…. I can’t. Well, maybe I could. But I won’t.