What If The Turkey Had Been Selected As The United States Symbol?

Instead of the OTL Eagle.

I know very little about what went into this...only that Benjamin Franklin supported the notion of choosing the Turkey due to it being a North American bird.

Is this even possible, and if so, would it have really influenced anything?
 
We probably wouldn't eat turkeys on Thanksgiving...or we might, who knows?

Anyway, we probably wouldn't have the horrifically deformed crime against nature that is the domesticated turkey. Butterfly: Israel, who IOTL heavily subsidizes turkey production, would have to go with chickens (or maybe geese).

Not a whole lot changes: if the US had sided with Germany and AH during WWI on the strength of a being a collection of eagles, maybe...but that doesn't happen anyway.

Also, bald eagles are hunted to extinction. The little buggers are widely considered pests in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest where they reside; only national symbol status saves them.
 
If the Turkey represents America, Thanksgiving suddenly becomes every terrorists second favorite holiday. Right after kill America day.
 
Just because the turkey is the national bird, that does not mean it is a protected species and not eaten. The eagle is a predatory bird that occupies a very different part of the food chain. Some religious faiths prohibit the consumption of birds of prey.
 
Just because the turkey is the national bird, that does not mean it is a protected species and not eaten.

Agreed. Here's a great page from GreatSeal.com explaining the whole argument for the turkey. Basically, Franklin liked turkeys because they had a reputation for chasing strangers off of their farm yards.

I think that the nation changes the symbol, rather than the symbol changing the nation. If America's symbol were a turkey, in other words, Americans would not be more turkey-like and less eagle-like. Rather, we would ascribe vague patriotic characteristics to turkeys, and think less of eagles.
 
As Jeff MacNelly put it in "Shoe", on Thanksgiving, we'd be "Sitting around, watching football on TV...eating eagle sandwiches."
 
turkeytear.png


I apologise for this image.
 
Wasn't there a thread on this exact topic like a month ago?

I think I responded with, "Thanksgiving gains many unintentional and disturbing connotations."
 
The 101st Airborne would be called the "Gobblin' Turkeys" and we would have war movies such as "Where Turkeys Dare." ;)
 
The U.S. Marines emblem would be called the turkey, the globe and anchor; and the Presidential Seal would look stupid. Turkeys make good sandwiches and nothing else.
 
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