In the wake of a stunning defeat in politics, the religious right scored a tiny victory by convincing Wal-Mart to say “Merry Christmas” this season. Now all of us non-Christians will still not shop there.Seriously, maybe this year we can save the whole “War on Christmas” rhetoric. Please! WalMart (and Macy’s) have the right to say whatever they wish to say to their customers, and we can choose to shop there or not.Does it make a difference to you? I mean, all rights aside, it pisses me off when I get deluged by Christmas every year, and it just seems so exclusive to assume everyone celebrates that one holiday over the season as a whole (which has Pagan roots) as a DEFAULT. Am I over-reacting?
Unrelated but urgent:
EVERYBODY GO SEE THE BORAT MOVIE! IT IS ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THE FUNNIEST FILMS OF ALL TIME!
Be warned: This movie is extremely graphic at times, and those uncomfortable with homosexuality or religion-bashing should NEVER even consider watching it.
But we’re atheists, so we should support this film.
Intelligent response. You quoted me and then just throw out name calling? I welcome an intelligent debate on the subject.
Anyway, I should note that I am not “against” labor unions and I don’t think they should be abolished. I merely ment that most current labor unions have made piss-poor decisions in the last 20 years and it has affected our manufacturers competitiveness. I would love to see them use there influence and money to invest in training and education much more than they already do. And less focus on protecting any job at all costs. Everyone would benefit from a shift to a much larger skilled workforce, as opposed to workers doing jobs that machines should of been doing 10 or more years ago.
As for the owners being crooks. I agree many are, which is why I included poor decision making as another contributor. You seemed to have totally mis-understood what I was saying.
Great topic!
I say, let Wal-Mart say whatever they want – they say “Merry X-mas” because most of their customers are xians and they want to make a lot of xmas $$$$!!!
I personally like Wal-Mart. At the beginning of 2006, my DH and I went over our budget. (That’s a scary thing to do!!) We could NOT believe how much $ we spent in 2005!!)
We decided to cut back. I did a really thorough price comparison of groceries between Wal-Mart and Publix. (My favorite grocery store here in FL) I found that I would save about 15% by shopping at Wal-Mart. That’s good for me, good for my family, and if it’s good for Wal-Mart, so be it.
Now, about xmas. I’m over it! If someone says “Merry Xmas” to me, I’ll say, “Have a nice day.” I’m not going to enter into a discussion with a minimum wage-earner-who-lives-in-a-trailer-park about the pagan origins of the holiday!
After xmas last year, I told all my friends and family that we were no longer going to exchange gifts with them. Our son is 14 – so, what happens is that someone sends him a gift certificate, and then we send their child a gift certificate!! Ridiculous! I told everyone to just keep their money and spend it on their own children. Send me a photo of the kids if they want to give us something!
I’m going to give my son gifts for his Dec. birthday, and for Solstice – but I don’t even want to decorate this year! Bring it all down from the attic – I do ALL the decorating – then I put it all up again, and up to the attic it goes. What is the point????? I DO like looking at the stores with all the twinkling lights, and seeing the houses decorated. I’m not anti-xmas, but I’m just not interested in getting all “christmas-y” myself this year.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU!
Pagan roots sure, but they didn’t start advertising in OCTOBER!!
pixel,
They’re also freaking out about me going to london for thanksgiving, but whatever.
I agree with you on the decorating thing. I always hated doing it. And this year I finally don’t have to because I don’t have any decorations! Plus I live in Germany now, so I don’t have to go to my parents houses and decorate there either. I’m actually going to Cairo for christmas this year. All my friends are like “why are you going there? don’t you want to celebrate and stuff?” and I’m like “all christmas is to me is 4 days off, so I’ll pop over to Cairo for a long weekend.” The best part is I don’t think I’ll see any christmas stuff in a muslim country
I guess the big problem with this is that xtians outnumber us so much it’s ridiculous. Although….according to adherents.com, atheists/agnostics/humanists/non-religious people are the third largest group at 1.1 billion (rounded). America is weird though, since it’s a developed and advanced nation with a huge majority of people being religious. So globally for every 1 of us there’s 2 of them, and in the US, for every 1 of us there’s like 6 of them (again rounding). Anyways, back from my statistics tangent, the big retailers are going to cater to the majority of their shoppers. It’s not a good thing, but they will. I know plenty of xtians that would get all pissy if a store didn’t say merry xmas and would complain. On the flip side, I don’t really know that many atheists that would complain if the store DID say merry xmas (in my local area). thus the problem.
Wow! It’s Dangerman!
Good to hear from you!
Your holiday plans sound very interesting. Cairo for Christmas!
Excellent!
Drop by more often.
I think you may be over-reacting a bit. Every year the same debate happens, and it seems to be getting worse. But I think the whole argument is rather humorous. The companies go overboard with political correctness, and the Christians freak out about it. It?s as if they?re looking for religious inspiration from a store clerk or a sign on the wall. Most people probably wouldn?t even notice if it weren?t for the media and over-zealous religious fanatics like Bill O?Reilly, who has launched what I call a Christian Jihad
I support WalMart’s right to do what they please in this regard, but I don’t think you’re wrong to be alarmed. The campaign against WalMart over this issue was a deliberate attack on the idea of religious and cultural diversity–that should be scarier to people. That these paranoid Christian-supremacists have enough economic power to influence WalMart makes me afraid of what else they’ll be able to influence with this tactic. They already have WAY too much power because the government refuses to tell Christianity it’s not special anymore–I fear anything that suggests they’re getting stronger.
I realize that WalMart made this decision for economic reasons, and again, that is their right. But I hope, when/if this happens to other businesses, they can stand against it.
Wal-Mart has the legal right to say “Merry Christmas” until some group of persons passes a law to say they can’t. You’re right: I don’t see it as a big deal if they can, but nor is it a big deal if they can’t.
Don’t think you’re living in a fantasy pure-libertarian utopia where no individuals interact and have total choice and access to natural resources to consume or build into something useful for themselves.
I have done my best not to shop at Wal-Mart for years. I give my business to their competitors. But unless Wal-Mart never cut down a tree to build one of its stores full of crap, or never served hamburgers or murdered chickens in their cafeterias, I am in FULL support of passing laws against Wal-Mart — forcing them to do or not do whatever the hell I want.
Just to be clear: prisoners also have the right to say whatever THEY want, too. Their right to free speech doesn’t affect YOU in any way or where YOU shop.
REMINDER: The war on christmas starts the day after thanksgivings.
happy holidays!
wal-mart has the right to say it but since reading this article i dont think iam going to shop at wal-mart.
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