I'm takin' you down, Rudolph!

[chipotle]

Scenes from the War on Christmas

Today this nice saleslady handed me the blue Tiffany box she had tied with a ribbon just so and, with a twinkle in her smile, wished me a Merry Christmas. So I socked her.

— James Wolcott

I’m losing patience with this particular fire-roasted chestnut: the idea that the Liberal Illuminati is on an all-out war to remove Christmas from modern life. The punditocracy isn’t just going after the uptight atheists demanding the Christmas tree be taken down from City Hall, but after corporations and networks and media outlets and hot dog carts that have the godless, unpatriotic audacity to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.

While walking the web today, I came to the earnestly humorless halls of Media Matters, which has been tracking conservative attacks on perceived liberal attacks on this subject, and in turn came across a comment from someone saying, “Somehow I don’t see how putting up Christmas trees or allowing people to express their religion is bigoted.” I responded with, in part,

The cases where people get their noses bent out of joint and complain about these things are very rare. While “City Hall takes down Christmas decorations” is often news, “City Hall leaves Christmas decorations up” usually isn’t. What makes something newsworthy, particularly by TV news standards, is something that will cause viewers to be upset or outraged.

And boy, the outrage is on full blast. Never mind that it’s a very elaborate straw-Grinch.

Okay, it’s time to say it. Can the people complaining about all the political correctness in the world please shut up? You’ve been louder than the people you’ve been complaining about for years now. We wouldn’t even know about most of them if you weren’t hellbent on turning every example of ostensible PC overreaction, no matter how trivial, into national crusades.

And that’s putting it nicely. Less nicely: by turning the phrase into an exclusively conservative slapdown to anyone who takes offense at something they like, the anti-PC crowd makes the claim that offense itself is a conservative value that, like family and patriotism, liberals have no moral right to share. The hypocrisy in decrying any attempt to “introduce liberal values” into public life while mounting efforts to mandate conservative values, from school prayer to “intelligent design,” should be transparently obvious. But the idea that it’s only the liberals who want to impose their world views on society has been pounded so hard and so often that it’s become common wisdom—and fabulous cover.

So enough with the “War on Christmas” from the conservative thought police. Nobody is telling private citizens not to put up a Christmas tree, and even the most liberal of metro areas (like, say, the one I live in) has plenty of Christmas, not just “holiday,” activities around. Yet the drums beat relentlessly, pounding home the message that not just all those liberal big city guvmints but corporate America itself is part of “oppressive, totalitarian, anti-Christian forces in this country.” (Bill O’Reilly’s actual words.)

And apparently, the plan is that the oppressed minority of Christian Americans, only 77% of us, will get up and say, “Yes, Bill, now we know why Target’s color scheme is red! Thank you for opening our eyes! The phrase ‘Happy Holidays’ is the opening salvo in an insidious campaign to keep all of us from celebrating Christmas! Bing Crosby, you godless communist bastard!”

For those of us not joining the Hallelujah Chorus, though, remember: since we’re PC around these parts, anyone spouting off about the “War on Christmas” isn’t clueless. He’s differently clued.

Comments

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Look for O'Reilly to make one of his numerous non-retractions about the corporate America part, since they're the ones who keep him fed and clothed. And Bing Crosby is the Antichrist.

[coldfyre.livejournal.com]

When did the country lose all capability for rational thought? It seems like more and more people are under the impression that this is a Christian country, rather than one that advocates freedom of religion... and somehow they think this idea, which goes against what America stands for, is patriotic. And even as they try to cram their religion down the country's throat and gain near complete control of all branches of the government, they somehow think they're being persecuted against when people don't want Intelligent Design taught as science or the morning after pill banned from pharmacies. Why did this happen?

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/09/AR2005120901357.html

[mordrul.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention this now. The Lew Rockwell blog has been full recently of a quarter ton of posts about the War on Christmas (or the lack thereof). It seems to be more or less evenly split between complete and abject bafflement over the concept, and those who recognize it but don't make a big deal of it. Maybe a bit more tilted towards the former. It's one of the (many) reasons I like these guys.

Me? I've celebrated it I think twice. No, three times. I think. I consider it highly overrated, but that's about it. I still give gifts to my friends and family, same as for their birthdays. And I always enjoy spending the holiday with my family as well. Not for Christmas, but for my family. The fact that I get a four day weekend merely makes it convenient. If Fort Wayne wants to put up a bigass Christmas tree in the middle of town square, well, cool. They're usually interesting to look at, at least for a few moments. If they instead put up a Holiday Tree, well, so what? As long as they're not hanging the genitalia of diseased goats from the branches, I don't think I'll notice the difference. Nor care.

Bottom line? I think the entire phenomenon of a War On Christmas is a bit overblown -- as is the phenomenon of people fighting on the defending side. I've many times observed someone wishing someone else a "Happy Holiday" and not once ever seen a single person look even vaguely unsettled by it, ever. Whenever someone wishes me a Happy Holiday, or a Merry Christmas, I respond identically: "You too." Granted it's the same response I would give to "Fuck you!" but they don't need to know that.

[mordrul.livejournal.com]

And for a good laugh, you can always count on Wierd Al Yankovich to put the entire debate into its proper perspective.
http://www.com-www.com/weirdal/nightsantawentcrazy-gory.html

[kereminde.livejournal.com]

I am not surprised at this, and am in the apathetic camp on this. Why should I care what you call it, when the end root of it is "Have a nice day!" in other words? Why should I care whether the name of the week is "african americans" or "black americans" or whatever else political correctness dictates for that moment?

It's not against the law to be "politically incorrect", and the first time someone decides to take enough offense to swing at me, there's an assault charge waiting for them.

Beyond that, celebrating Christmas for me has been about spending December 25th (why not the 26th? Or the 24th? Why THAT day, specifically? Why not January 3rd?) staying awake for the next 20 or so hours investigating whatever my parents had gotten me, watching Lord of the Rings' special editions (for three years now) or whatever movie we got . . . and cooking. Can't forget cooking.

Midnight Mass only because my parents had made their solemn vows that they would AT LEAST go to church on two days each year. Guess which two . . . I was told that after I was eighteen I would be allowed to decide whether or not to go with them. I usually went, if only because it was relatively painless and gave me time for thinking.

But reading this entry, I smile, I chuckle, and after realizing these people you're referencing are actually serious . . . I sigh and mutter "morons" under my breath. Yet they're entitled to their opinions and their expressing them . . . and trying to rope others into their beliefs (they ARE overly sensitive on religions after all). Just as I'm entitled to sigh, say "morons", and continue on with whatever I was doing.

That's America. If I have to deal with it, so do they.

[chastmastr.livejournal.com]

:applause: