My stepdad, before he died. He simultaneously told me I was fighting a War On Christmas, while also telling I should volunteer to work instead of decorating and making a nice dinner, because “it’s not your holiday.”
I used to tell my sociology classes, we Americans are very confused people. None more so than Conservatives.
I know at least 5 and all of them believe Christians are a strongly persecuted minority group.
100% yes, I know so many I can’t count
Bruh
The war is real, but the lines are just dramatically stupider than some think. It’s the same culture war we’re fighting elsewhere, the point of the war is establishing that one singular point of view is the default and the others are invalid.
The war isn’t about being able to say “Merry Christmas”, the war is about whether it’s okay to say anything else.
The war will continue until Christmas ends its illegal occupation of November
The War on Christmas will continue until Christmas ends its illegal occupation of October.
The annexation of the seasonal aisles must be reversed for there to be true peace.
This is my favorite comment. Nice work
My mother once said she didn’t appreciate how “the gays have to be so in your face about it.” I guess some gay guys trapped her and made her watch them make out. Cause, you know, they’re so in our faces about it.
I’ve never heard anyone actually say they believed in the war on xmas, but if anyone would, my mom proves they could be real. I cut her out of my life this year.
When I worked at Borders, back when it existed, I was allowed to say whatever exit phrase when finishing registers. I always said Happy Holidays starting end of November.
I had two people tell me no, it’s Merry Christmas. To which both times I responded "I’m Jewish. Happy Holidays. "
One of them just gathered her stuff and left without a word. The second got that puckered face like you ate a lemon and she fucking stormed out.
No complaints though so. I kept saying it. I didn’t care if people said Merry Christmas back to me.
Er, in short, I’d think those two people would have thought I was warring against Christmas.
There is no war on Christmas as far as I know. So I’m going to guess it’s another dumb American thing?
I live in Denmark, and while the celebration is absolutely christianised, it’s sill called “Juletide” here. “Yule” or “Yule-tide” in English. Which refers to the original winter celebration before it got subjugated.
You have to remember, a lot of American Christians are descended from European Christians who were so extreme and weird that no one wanted them around, so they fled to the Americas to escape “persecution.” So, these Christian persecution complexes go way back. They’re a part of our history. Well, not all of ours, but some.
Yeah, it’s funny hearing the history of certain supermarket products that go like “these were original food items for cultists that fled to America”. Kellogs stands out as a big one.
it’s another dumb American thing?
Yes, it’s an annual tradition at this point.
I saw a message under a German post about how you can’t call it a “Weihnachtsmarkt” anymore. But I think that might have been a bot, because it’s pretty damn obvious that that’s bullshit.
yes, I believe there is a war on Christmas, because I hate Christmas and want it to die.
I’ll join you. There’s now two of us actively in a war against Christmas.
I don’t mind Yule though.
death to Christmas 😎
If there’s such a war, Christmas is winning. It’s conquered Thanksgiving and is marching on Halloween.
Kind of like the war on drugs?
I helped win that.
Now I’m picturing Drugs and Christmas duking it out over the charred remains of Labor Day.
We really need to improve Thanksgiving, for this exact reason. More songs. Better story. Free stuff for kids. Just something to keep Christmas in check.
Things have never been the same since the Klaus regime crossed the armistice line established in the Black Friday accords
Me. The SAM sites are armed. That magical son of a removed won’t get away this time.
Your mistletoe doesn’t stand a chance against my tow missile
We are fully stocked with missile toads this year.
you DARE bribe santa, im going to shove stocking so far up your ass you will cough it up.
Give it to me Daddy, uh I mean, Santa
Most of the people I know who endorse this view would assent to it because it is consistent with how they feel about the world around them, not because it is a proposition they have seriously considered.
It just feels like everyone hates Christians, so if someone told them they were being persecuted, they would agree. In the same way, it just feels like nefarious forces are trying to “ban Christmas”, so when idiots on TV claim that is whats happening, they nod their heads along. When challenged they just retreat into ignorance, saying things like “well that’s what I’ve heard” or “I have no idea about that”, because ideas like “the war on Christmas” are not factual claims about the world, they are expressions of sentiments about what the world is like.
Persecution is baked right into the Christian religion. It’s also deeply rooted in the Jewish culture, to the point if you’re randomly walking down the street and trip over a duck, the duck was being anti-semitic.
It’s such a core part of identity for these people it’s kind of sickening. Before you come at me, I was raised in a Christian household and I have Jewish roots from my maternal side.
There’s no hate, but I’m actually disappointed and continually revolted by the endless sense of persecution that doesn’t really exist.
Certain christian groups push that narrative to make more of an in group and and out group. I attend a few different denominations of churches. You get a way to really see how different people view the world and their religion that way.
Some groups as a core belief that they must struggle to bring the word of God to everyone. Struggle is the operative word. If they don’t feel like they are behind ‘enemy lines’ they aren’t completing the holy mission. The best way to get that feeling is puff up any small difference into an uncross-able gulf.
There is so much rhetoric made on their communication channels to reinforce that view. They truly believe it because ‘it’s all around them’ It’s way cushier to run a mission trip from the Louisiana to California than it is to a truly under-served part of the world.
One of my coworkers is a militant atheist metalhead. He’s also fully maga cult. He’s been ranting about people saying ‘happy holidays’ all week. It’s a bizarre contradiction.
I’m an atheist metalhead and we don’t claim that asshat.
No.
Like “woke”, their wars on whatever are just stand-ins for everything they don’t like or might force them to exert brainpower that potentially endangers their mental gymnastics.
Oh absolutely. Every Catholic I knew growing up definitely believed that, and very much thought that Christians were the most oppressed religious group in the country, if not the world. My family still have a “Keep Christ in Christmas” magnet on their fridge
Being catholic, I never heard bigger bullshit in my life. Is that an American thing?
I am American and grew up in a conservative state, yes
I generally think of “Christ in Christmas” as a reminder about consumerism, not hate for Hanukkah, etc.
I would agree. It’s ironic though, Christians saying that we need to keep the focus on Christ and not secular consumerism, when the history of Christmas is really much more about the Catholic Church co-opting pagan traditions
Yeah but I think it’s also a lot about rejecting those pagan and secularly palatable traditions. The “keep christ in Christmas crowd” often use rejecting consumerism as a motte to defend the bailey of rejecting all non Christian elements of a holiday that’s both fun and often socially expected.
That’s why you’ve gotta work hard on keeping Christ in Christmas: he keeps running away to play with the pagans. Next thing you know, he’s balls deep in Easter again.
I’m learning american catholics are a whole other beast. I don’t see this in other countries.
American Catholics are a very diverse group. Some (not many) are young Earth creationists but I was taught evolution in Catholic school. Most are amazingly ignorant of their own religion and just believe whatever they want then do mental gymnastics to make it fit.
To be fair, anti-Catholic protestants did launch a war on Christmas at one point
Yes, unfortunately. Or at least seems to.
This person was an eye-opener for me in terms of how deep political groupthink and unquestioning belief can go. He’s an intelligent person in a highly technical position that requires plenty of reasoning and thought, but if the right political commentator says something, it is absolute truth.
know many of them
