Subscribers can listen to an audio version of this post here. Me: “Happy Holidays!” Fox News: *shrieking noises* I understand being upset with Bruce Springsteen’s version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” because that song is an auditory atrocity, but Jesus fucking Christ I doubt actual Jesus Christ gave a flying reindeer fuck about how we do or do not celebrate his
If there was a War On Christmas, Christians fired the first shot. The trouble is, they shot themself in the foot, but blamed all non-white non Christians. They complained about Xmas, but did so without realizing the the X is not the English alphabet X.
The 'X' comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Christós (Greek: Χριστός, translit. Khristós, lit. "anointed, covered in oil"), which became Christ in English. The suffix -mas is from the Latin-derived Old English word for Mass.
Ignorance, inflated egos, fear mongering and greed for power fed the misunderstanding about the X in Xmas.
Christmas has already won the fucking war! It has eclipsed Thanksgiving, Halloween and barreling down on Labor Day. Pretty soon, Christmas will be showing up at 4th of July celebrations. That said, "Please sir. Can I have some more Christmas shoved down my cake hole by Fox News?"
"Then some fuckin’ Neil Peart wannabe unaccompanied minor showed up and said pa rum pum pum pum motherfuckers and Mary was all quit that fucking racket I just got the little shit to sleep!" - LOL. I absolutely love this!
I, too, have received emails from "concerned customers" who were upset about my use of "Happy Holidays" in my sales emails and on my website in past years. To which I kindly told them to print out their complaint, fold it into many sharp corners, and insert it firmly into their anus.
The weirdest thing: my kid's marching band drumline somehow got invited to play at a Christmas Eve Eve "service" at one of those weird nondenominational churches that has like a black circle with a "greater than" math symbol in it as a logo because the church is called "greater life" or something. Anyway, the whole "service" was weird rock band stuff randomly accompanied by a high school band drumline, and other than the giant plain cross hanging over the stage (there was no altar), the only other visuals were giant TV screens with lyrics to some of the songs and pictures of snow-covered houses with Christmas trees, pictures of giant Christmas trees, pictures of presents under Christmas trees. Not one single image of the holy fam, the star in the East, the 3 wise men, the manger, and almost no reference made to Mary or Joseph or their journey to go have their baby. I have never seen a more secular production in my life, other than the random arm-waving and "yes Jesus" some people occasionally said while swaying and singing. Utterly bizarre. (I am not religious at all but I'm married to an Episcopalian.)
It is most unfortunate that you consider yourself a victim. It leads to to believe stuff that is demonstrably untrue.
1.) Since Christianity is by far the most dominant religion in the U.S., and the most commercialized of the holidays, the calculus of what holiday to spoof when making a movie is not hard. Most adults understand that movies aren't reality, and when David Harbour does a turn as a vengeful Santa in "Violent Night," no thinking person thinks that represents the arrival of a Savior child as told to us in the of Gospels. The movie studios want to make money. A funny movie about Kwanzaa starring The Rock *might* do OK. A funny Christmas movie starring Arnold Schwartzenegger might live on in television re-runs until he's long dead. If I'm a producer, I know which movie I'm going to spend money making.
2.) Christmas being commercialized is not the result of leftist or Marxist thinking. Full on capitalism at work right there, and the "Christmas War" has already been won. By Christmas. This year, I saw Christmas merch out at the same time as Halloween. I know of a local hardware store where Christmas stuff is on sale 365 days a year. Stores do not allocate precious aisle space to products that don't move. Capitalism 101. If you want Christmas to be more spiritual and less of a giant money grab by every shareholder-run company everywhere, you have a pretty steep hill to climb. You say that somehow Christmas isn't the "dominant culture"? Are your eyes firmly shut in every store form Halloween until the middle of January? Does Christmas have to take over 4th of July before you see how dominant it is in the marketplace AND the culture?
3.) You're not complaining about the importance of culture and traditions. You're complaining about the importance of Western European and white culture and tradition. There are plenty of folks out there in the U.S. who are not white, and not Christian, who celebrate their own family traditions during this extended blizzard of cheap Christmas junk made in China. They pass along their cultural traditions to their kids, and grandkids, all the while listening to rightist blowhards whining about the fact that Christmas isn't on the front page every day of the year. You'd probably have a heart attack if you knew how Hispanic Catholics celebrated the holiday. (Hint: it's different than how Western Europeans do it.) This is America, where folks are free to celebrate (or not) as they choose. All those folks doing it different than you aren't wrong, and them doing it their way doesn't make you a victim.
The subversion of which you speak already happened, long ago. When Coca Cola made Santa into a guy wearing a red and white coat (Oh, you didn't know it was Coke that did that? Hmmm.) When Hollywood told stories of a small bank going against a big bank with angels getting wings and bells and Jimmy Stewart. Christmas itself is a subversion of pagan Solstice celebrations, with evergreen trees and mistletoe as symbols from WELL before 0 BCE.
No, sir, there is no "War on Christmas." There never has been. It is yet another part of the right's culture war against things that are not in the Western European (white) tradition. It sells advertising on AM radio and cable entertainment shows. The only thing under siege this season is the people of the U.S. who do not wish for Christmas to be the only thing we see, ever, all year long - a war being waged by the right to stamp out anything that isn't Western European and white.
Excaliper, Waiting to read your serious intellectual content. Until then I have to say you appear to be a mook swimming in his own mixed berry jelly of preposterous notions that you seem to believe add up to an actual thought.
First of all, your profanity-laden style might be entertaining to some, but I find it wearisome to read. But more to the point, this is an unhinged rant, full of strawmanning and ad hominems, much like your other articles I've skimmed. It may be cathartic to you and other Leftist believers, but it doesn't make for serious intellectual content.
The War on Christmas may be politicized or exaggerated, but it is a real phenomenon. I don't have any problem with "Happy Holidays" myself, and don't insist on Christianization. However, Christmas is often reduced to crass commercialism, or constantly subverted and parodied (eg Bad Santa, although to be fair that was a funny movie). But it's a noticeable, consistent trend, also affecting other holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, albeit to a lesser extent. What do all these have in common? That they're Western European traditions, of course. Likewise, Chanakuh seems completely immune to this treatment -- no cheapening or subversion there. Now, the Left would say that anti-semitism is a major concern, and Christmas is the "dominant culture", but my sense of fairness is not limited to such Marxist framing.
As I said, the Right gets carried away sometimes, but they understand the importance of tradition & festivals in unifying a society, a unity which has been breaking apart since the 70s, and especially since 2016.
Hopefully you don't mind my constructive criticism, I just wanted to offer a different perspective, even at the risk of being banned for wrongthink. I think it's important for both sides to at least try to understand where the other is coming from.
You watch a lot of Jordan Peterson videos, don’t you?
Happy Diwahli!
If there was a War On Christmas, Christians fired the first shot. The trouble is, they shot themself in the foot, but blamed all non-white non Christians. They complained about Xmas, but did so without realizing the the X is not the English alphabet X.
The 'X' comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Christós (Greek: Χριστός, translit. Khristós, lit. "anointed, covered in oil"), which became Christ in English. The suffix -mas is from the Latin-derived Old English word for Mass.
Ignorance, inflated egos, fear mongering and greed for power fed the misunderstanding about the X in Xmas.
Christmas has already won the fucking war! It has eclipsed Thanksgiving, Halloween and barreling down on Labor Day. Pretty soon, Christmas will be showing up at 4th of July celebrations. That said, "Please sir. Can I have some more Christmas shoved down my cake hole by Fox News?"
Io Saturnalia!
"Then some fuckin’ Neil Peart wannabe unaccompanied minor showed up and said pa rum pum pum pum motherfuckers and Mary was all quit that fucking racket I just got the little shit to sleep!" - LOL. I absolutely love this!
I, too, have received emails from "concerned customers" who were upset about my use of "Happy Holidays" in my sales emails and on my website in past years. To which I kindly told them to print out their complaint, fold it into many sharp corners, and insert it firmly into their anus.
“Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal.” 😉
The weirdest thing: my kid's marching band drumline somehow got invited to play at a Christmas Eve Eve "service" at one of those weird nondenominational churches that has like a black circle with a "greater than" math symbol in it as a logo because the church is called "greater life" or something. Anyway, the whole "service" was weird rock band stuff randomly accompanied by a high school band drumline, and other than the giant plain cross hanging over the stage (there was no altar), the only other visuals were giant TV screens with lyrics to some of the songs and pictures of snow-covered houses with Christmas trees, pictures of giant Christmas trees, pictures of presents under Christmas trees. Not one single image of the holy fam, the star in the East, the 3 wise men, the manger, and almost no reference made to Mary or Joseph or their journey to go have their baby. I have never seen a more secular production in my life, other than the random arm-waving and "yes Jesus" some people occasionally said while swaying and singing. Utterly bizarre. (I am not religious at all but I'm married to an Episcopalian.)
It is most unfortunate that you consider yourself a victim. It leads to to believe stuff that is demonstrably untrue.
1.) Since Christianity is by far the most dominant religion in the U.S., and the most commercialized of the holidays, the calculus of what holiday to spoof when making a movie is not hard. Most adults understand that movies aren't reality, and when David Harbour does a turn as a vengeful Santa in "Violent Night," no thinking person thinks that represents the arrival of a Savior child as told to us in the of Gospels. The movie studios want to make money. A funny movie about Kwanzaa starring The Rock *might* do OK. A funny Christmas movie starring Arnold Schwartzenegger might live on in television re-runs until he's long dead. If I'm a producer, I know which movie I'm going to spend money making.
2.) Christmas being commercialized is not the result of leftist or Marxist thinking. Full on capitalism at work right there, and the "Christmas War" has already been won. By Christmas. This year, I saw Christmas merch out at the same time as Halloween. I know of a local hardware store where Christmas stuff is on sale 365 days a year. Stores do not allocate precious aisle space to products that don't move. Capitalism 101. If you want Christmas to be more spiritual and less of a giant money grab by every shareholder-run company everywhere, you have a pretty steep hill to climb. You say that somehow Christmas isn't the "dominant culture"? Are your eyes firmly shut in every store form Halloween until the middle of January? Does Christmas have to take over 4th of July before you see how dominant it is in the marketplace AND the culture?
3.) You're not complaining about the importance of culture and traditions. You're complaining about the importance of Western European and white culture and tradition. There are plenty of folks out there in the U.S. who are not white, and not Christian, who celebrate their own family traditions during this extended blizzard of cheap Christmas junk made in China. They pass along their cultural traditions to their kids, and grandkids, all the while listening to rightist blowhards whining about the fact that Christmas isn't on the front page every day of the year. You'd probably have a heart attack if you knew how Hispanic Catholics celebrated the holiday. (Hint: it's different than how Western Europeans do it.) This is America, where folks are free to celebrate (or not) as they choose. All those folks doing it different than you aren't wrong, and them doing it their way doesn't make you a victim.
The subversion of which you speak already happened, long ago. When Coca Cola made Santa into a guy wearing a red and white coat (Oh, you didn't know it was Coke that did that? Hmmm.) When Hollywood told stories of a small bank going against a big bank with angels getting wings and bells and Jimmy Stewart. Christmas itself is a subversion of pagan Solstice celebrations, with evergreen trees and mistletoe as symbols from WELL before 0 BCE.
No, sir, there is no "War on Christmas." There never has been. It is yet another part of the right's culture war against things that are not in the Western European (white) tradition. It sells advertising on AM radio and cable entertainment shows. The only thing under siege this season is the people of the U.S. who do not wish for Christmas to be the only thing we see, ever, all year long - a war being waged by the right to stamp out anything that isn't Western European and white.
Excaliper, Waiting to read your serious intellectual content. Until then I have to say you appear to be a mook swimming in his own mixed berry jelly of preposterous notions that you seem to believe add up to an actual thought.
First of all, your profanity-laden style might be entertaining to some, but I find it wearisome to read. But more to the point, this is an unhinged rant, full of strawmanning and ad hominems, much like your other articles I've skimmed. It may be cathartic to you and other Leftist believers, but it doesn't make for serious intellectual content.
The War on Christmas may be politicized or exaggerated, but it is a real phenomenon. I don't have any problem with "Happy Holidays" myself, and don't insist on Christianization. However, Christmas is often reduced to crass commercialism, or constantly subverted and parodied (eg Bad Santa, although to be fair that was a funny movie). But it's a noticeable, consistent trend, also affecting other holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, albeit to a lesser extent. What do all these have in common? That they're Western European traditions, of course. Likewise, Chanakuh seems completely immune to this treatment -- no cheapening or subversion there. Now, the Left would say that anti-semitism is a major concern, and Christmas is the "dominant culture", but my sense of fairness is not limited to such Marxist framing.
As I said, the Right gets carried away sometimes, but they understand the importance of tradition & festivals in unifying a society, a unity which has been breaking apart since the 70s, and especially since 2016.
Hopefully you don't mind my constructive criticism, I just wanted to offer a different perspective, even at the risk of being banned for wrongthink. I think it's important for both sides to at least try to understand where the other is coming from.
Merry xmas!
I'm sad to say we get this bullshit in Australia as well. I used to think we were too smart to fall for the Kulturkampf, but it seems we aren't.