And they’ll know we are Christians by our love
Because there's no hate quite like Christian love...especially during the War on Christmas
Stupidity is the regurgitated meal that feeds itself and on which it grows fat.
Stewart Stafford
It just wouldn’t be December if I couldn’t do a post on the War on Christmas. You know what I’m talking about, of course- that nasty time of year when us godless Liberals put the kibosh on the Reason for the Season ©, don’tchaknow?
Then again, most of the gullible and easily propagandized Fos News addicts are blissfully unaware that the War on Christmas © charade is a cheap, poorly camouflaged marketing campaign straight out of the keep-’em-scared-and-stupid department. There is, of course, no “war” on Christmas. There’s not even a skirmish or light rearguard action.
No, the goons on the Far-Right have their jocks in a wad because of people saying “Happy Holidays,” which is simply a recognition that not everyone celebrates the season in the same way. Not everyone is a Christian, for instance, so they may not celebrate Christmas as the time of Jesus's birth.
Those of us who don’t believe in Jesus Christ, f’rinstance, celebrate Christmas as a time of peace on Earth and goodwill toward men (and women, of course). And the exchange of gifts can also be fun.
America isn’t a Christian nation. It wasn’t built by Christians for Christians. It IS a nation in which one is free to be Christian if one chooses…or something else if that’s their choice. Christianity may be the majority religion, but that doesn’t mean the majority gets to dictate how everyone celebrates the season.
Some folks, including some proud “Christians,” are pretty vocal that Christmas is for Christians, so fuck your feelings…AND DON’T YOU FORGET IT!!
And it’s December, which means it’s time for the annual highly fictionalized and emotional War on Christmas ©, which you might think was started by Bill O’Reilly but, in truth, has a much longer history.
(I’ll bet you didn’t think you’d get a history lesson, did you?)
It’s that time of year again, folks. It’s time for the War on Christmas.
What is that, you may ask? The short answer: a sometimes histrionic yuletide debate over whether the United States is a country that respects Christianity….
The idea of a “War on Christmas” has turned things like holiday greetings and decorations into potentially divisive political statements. People who believe Christmas is under attack point to inclusive phrases like “Happy Holidays” as (liberal) insults to Christianity.
For over a decade, these debates have taken place mainly on conservative talk radio and cable programs.
In 2016, though, the “War on Christmas” became a central part of the Presidential campaign as Donald Trump decided to focus on hot-button culture war issues. “Happy Holidays” was just too delicious a target to pass up, so one of his campaign promises was to say “Merry Christmas” a lot.
Never mind that this was an utterly meaningless issue that improved the lives of precisely ZERO Americans. Or that “Happy Holidays” was simply a recognition of the reality that, in America, not everyone is a Christian who observes Christmas. That’s it. That’s all. It’s nothing sinister, nothing discriminatory, nor was “Happy Holidays” intended to belittle America’s majority religion or those who accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
If you’re a Christian and you take “Happy Holidays” as a personal insult, might I suggest that you remove your anterior from your posterior posthaste and lighten up?
All Donald Trump managed to do was demagogue the issue. It made Christians feel good, but it accomplished nothing of value beyond that. Why? Because there is no War on Christmas © and never has been. Neither the government nor anyone has decreed what seasonally appropriate salutatory phrase shall be used. It’s a matter of personal choice.
So are Conservatives wasting performative outrage on a bullshit problem that isn’t even real? Does a bear s**t in the woods?
Christmas is a federal holiday celebrated widely by the country’s Christian majority. So where did the idea that it is threatened come from?
The most organized attack on Christmas came from the Puritans, who banned celebrations of the holiday in the 17th century because it did not accord with their interpretation of the Bible.
Fast forward 400 years, and the idea of a plot against Christmas gained wide publicity when Fox News promoted a 2005 book by a radio host, John Gibson, that alleged liberal antagonism toward the holiday, according to Dan Cassino, a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Mr. Gibson said in an interview that he was “amazed” by the uproar his book caused.
He said it primarily focused on an issue that rarely happens anymore: educators and local officials banning nonreligious symbols like Santa Claus or Christmas trees out of a mistaken belief that displaying them violated the Constitution.
There was a mistaken belief that such displays violated the separation of Church and State, which various courts have determined isn’t the case.
What it turned out to be was an artificially-generated “controversy” intended to make Liberals appear to be anti-Christianity and anti-religion at a time when they had little else to throw at the Left.
Mr. Gibson said the book had taken on a life of its own over the years — and that it had never dwelled on the political implications of “Happy Holidays.”
He attributed the firestorm to two things: The book’s take-no-prisoner’s title (“The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought”) and the Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.
“It wasn’t really me. I think it was more Bill, to tell you the truth,” he said. “When Bill made it an issue, it went mega.”
Indeed, Mr. O’Reilly has returned to the theme of a war on Christmas again and again over the years. In 2012 he told viewers that liberals were “tying the Christmas situation into secular progressive politics” because they wanted “a new America, and traditional Christmas isn’t a part of it.”
The title of his book was an overblown and overhyped lie intended to sell books…and then Bill O’Reilly took the issue and ran with it. His approach was every bit as dishonest as the title of Gibson’s book, but O’Reilly had the advantage of having a platform- a daily primetime show on Fox News Channel- from which he could spew lies to the four winds.
The intellectual dishonesty hardly mattered. Everyone but Fox News’ viewers understand that the War on Christmas © was nonexistent and a fundamentally dishonest and fake “controversy” that existed only to drive up ratings.
But the Sheeple who watched O’Reilly wallowed the lies whole because it fed their hatred of Liberals.
That argument became a sweeping shorthand for conservative anxieties, Mr. Cassino said.
“They say the next step after saying ‘Happy Holidays’ is abortion on demand and euthanasia,” he said. “That’s a hell of a slippery slope, but that’s the argument being made.”
A study by Fairleigh Dickinson University found that watching Fox News increased the likelihood that someone would believe in the War on Christmas by 5 to 10 percent….
“That culture war issue ignited and we won,” he said…later adding, “Donald Trump is on the case.”
Sure, Donald Trump won in 2016. But did that mean Conservatives won the culture war issue? Especially the War on Christmas ©? The thing about the culture was is that no one ever really wins. The issues and the battlefield morph and shift over time, but victory remains as ephemeral as it is elusive.
The culture wars will continue to be fought regardless of who’s in the White House or which party controls Congress or the statehouses. As for the War on Christmas ©, it’s difficult to win (or lose) a fictional war. Liberals have never waged war on anyone’s ability to celebrate Christmas as they deem appropriate or the right to wish anyone a “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.”
So say “Merry Christmas.” Or “Happy Holidays.” Or “F**k the Packers.” Or whatever makes you feel good this holiday season. Try to remember that this is all supposed to be about peace, love, and goodwill toward men. Unless you’re a Packers fan.
‘KTHNXBYE!!
(All of my posts are now public. Any reader financial support will be considered pledges- support that’s greatly appreciated but not required to get to all of my work. I’ll trust my readers to determine if my work is worthy of their financial support and at what level. To those who do offer their support, thank you. It means more than you know.)
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