Christmas is no longer a holiday that honors the Christian god, it's a holiday that honors the god of capitalism, money.
Cool, so it's still worth eschewing /s
I would like to note though that xmas is a very sore time of year for a lot of people (mostly queer, but others too) who do not have a good relationship with their family
That's why I think it's important that we bring Christmas back to its true religious roots: Fertility, hunting, and maybe a cult of the dead.
Well, that and I just kind of want to piss off all of my pearl clutching relatives.
But seriously, thank you for the reminder that this can be a particularly hard season.
I hope your solstice is marked by good times with real friends and chosen family.
I just use it to have a merry time with my family. Corporations try to co-opt everything; Christmas is no different. Is Pride about honoring greed and capitalism just because companies make everything rainbow? No, and neither is Christmas even though they try their best with that too. The only difference is buying gifts, but Christmas is about more than that, and homemade gifts are always an option.
We've stopped with presents in my family, except for the kids. And they don't get showered in them, a few things they really want, preferably cheap. Everyone else just wants nice food and family coziness.
And spawned an even longer shit fit.
Some people just want to be offended and we should simply let them.
Wait, did I read that correctly and they replaced the hat with a snowflake?? Hahahaha
And yes, people often forget that generally offense is taken. When it's intentionally given, it's pretty clear.
Nice. Honestly, pretty well corralled, I would say.
Incidentally, I'm amused that one of the more popular responses includes the classic phrase
"Why can't we all just get along"
Which I tend to notice after having had it explained well to me once by someone with more empathy than my own.
I won't belabor it, but they pointed out to me that being tempted to say "Why can't we all just get along" is usually a sign that we haven't actually listened effectively.
So now when I hear or read "Why can't we all just get along", I see that [X] and hear the buzz from "Family Feud", and hear one of the Family Feud host kindly say "No points. Let's try again."
Yeah, that's basically saying "Can't we just ignore the issue?", which is easy if you're the one who the issue isn't affecting.
I think they get high on stuff they get cancelled by getting offended
#santagate2019
Santagate 2019 Pro for Workgroups
not supporting the complainer but it is kinda scary how much control western culture has over tech...
there are so many holidays over the world. why christmas but not, say, Songkran or Chinese New Year?
Because the authors celebrate Christmas, but not Songkran or the Chinese New Year.
What religious symbol? Saint Nicholas had nothing to do with the fat guy dressed in red that coca cola made up. The hat is fine goddammit
Isn't capitalism a religion?
Haha you're not wrong
touché
Cult of the line must go up
Well, they took inspiration from Clement Clarke Moore's (1922) "Twas the night before Christmas" and illustrations from Thomas Nast (1881) showing him in red with the sack over his shoulder. Certainly, Coca Cola has solidified the modern image with their ad campaign though starting in 1931. Src
TIL coca cola didn't create it, ty
He was a bishop, holy after.
I think you don't get it, modern Santa is so far away from his origins, at the point is not a christian figure anymore. I mean, christmas elves? A flying pack of reindeer? To me, is just a very happy and oversized leprechaun. Not very christian if you mind me lol. Not bad per se, but it's good to keep in mind christian symbols are different than this red hat.
Christmas is religion yes, but Santa doesn't really have anything to do with religion other than being on Christmas right?
Yea, Santa is the more secular icon. There are even Christians that take issue with the Santa character (which is a combination of "Pagan" and Christian mythos). I put Pagan in quotes, as that's a Christian term for certain non-Christian beliefs.
Santa is a stand-in for Jesus... for children. They're both magical beings that can perform miracles and have similar methods: Both Santa and Jesus have naughty lists and forms of punishment that come later; much later (both are equivalent lengths of time to a child though 🤣). Both bring "gifts". Both have traditional appearances. Both have followers that wear silly hats and strange clothes. But most importantly...
Both are imaginary.
If you believe in Santa as an adult you're ridiculed. If you believe in Jesus as an adult you're just labeled, "Christian". Yet the fact that nearly every child eventually finds out Santa isn't real is quite disturbing to a lot of Christians. After all, if they could stop believing in Santa--who is so similar to Jesus in every way--then they could stop believing in Jesus.
After all, if they could stop believing in Santa–who is so similar to Jesus in every way–then they could stop believing in Jesus.
This is a laughably bad faith interpretation of the issue. Please, please leave this r/atheism exaggerated strawman rhetoric out of this website. I'm pretty sure most people on Lemmy are already atheist anyways.
Santa is based on Saint Nicholas of Myra, so he definitely has something to do with Christianity.
If anything modern day santa is more of an invention of Coca-Cola than Christianity or Paganism.
Santa isn't red and white for no reason
Santa is the bringer of the New World Order
What's more infuriating is that they immediately gave in and removed it without any discussion
I'm no fan of Microsoft but I get it.. In the current political climate nobody wants to take the risks of being the subject of a backlash involving Judaism. The cost of keeping it was way greater than to remove it.
I act the same every time I meet a lunatic claiming whatever I'm doing is "offending" them: I politely apologise and go on with my day without a fuss in order to be left alone.
It's always baffling how people can define something as unacceptable. Says who? You? Who are you to just make that decision so unilaterally?
You can have your opinion, but it's just that.
This is nothing new, people expect religion not to be part of the "professional" environment. Dunno if VS code applies.
At the office (big corp) they don't call it the "Christmas Party", it's "the holiday party". They put lights and stuff up but no more Christmas trees/stars etc.. not everyone celebrates christmas so that's fine by me. If Microsoft wants to put a little santa hat on their product that's fine by me too. If I was using some service based in Mexico and they put a little hat on a product for cinco de mayo i wouldn't care. Christmas has other implications so it might be different, dunno
Personally, I'd rather we started celebrating everyone's religious holidays instead of tiptoeing around Christmas. More parties and we get to learn about different cultures.
Hell yeah
Back in the mid-80s, when I got an email from HR about the Christmas Party at the local office, I sent a reply to the district HR manager complaining that not everyone in the company celebrated Christmas. Later that day, another email came out announcing the Holiday Party. So glad I had a hand in educating HR.
Company's used email to that extent in the 80s? I get that tech jobs, unis, and research groups used it, but there was a company using it widely enough that HR used it?
Glad they didn't cancel it after that lol
Santa is pagan, they put that dude on cereal boxes.
omg this is the person who deleted all their files on accident lol
edit: nevermind
Guess loosing his project didn't deter him from using vscode.
I hope they never walk past a church…
Sing along kids! Mr. Ghosty the Christmas troll...
As an atheist I really think getting upset over Xmas is about as stupid as thinking Santa Claus is communist for wearing red. It's a social holiday! Enjoy it! Go to parties, put up lights, exchange presents. Think of Santa as a red Winnie the Pooh and chill TF out.
The 'ghost' of Christmas past.
The article they share in the issue to explain why Christmas is so offensive is absolutely wild. To quote:
Imagine that between 1933-45, the Nazi regime celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday – April 20 – as a holiday. Imagine that they named the day, “Hitlerday,” and observed the day with feasting, drunkenness, gift-giving, and various pagan practices.
That analogy seems a better fit for a lot of Jewish holidays then Christmas. Passover is about the mass death of innocent Egyptian children. Chanukah is about a revolt against Greek rule where:
Christmas is just about some baby being born ( on probably a different day)
They should have replaced it with a yule goat mask:
https://www.blocket.se/annons/stockholm/julbocksmask_i_halm/1208094235
Hahahahahahaha
Did they make it their top priority though!?
Meanwhile my bosses are all Jewish and the paid Jewish holidays are nice but nobody who goes to a church on Sundays can get overtime because that's on Sunday instead of Saturday. Pushing religion? That shit only matters if you're specifically one religion who doesn't like the other. For me who doesn't give half a shit, it's just a nice spread out holiday schedule!
Fortunately I work first shift which is kind of at an advantage this way.
From my perspective, Wicca is the best of the crazy people because their holidays are much more consistently placed!
I don’t think an actual Jew would equate a religious symbol with a swastika
But I do agree that religious imagery should never be in public
Or equate a santa hat to a religious symbol.
I don't think Santa = swastika but it is super tiresome when Halloween ends and suddenly there's Christmas shit everywhere. I know it's more a factor of capitalism than Christianity, but it even infects the meager Hanukkah end caps we get. There's frequently products being sold that are clearly just Christmas goods painted blue and white (argh) paraded around as Hanukkah goods. Fuckin blue and white pine tree tchotchkes? C'mon what the fuck is that? Hell, one year I saw "chocolate Maccabes" which were literally just chocolate Santa candies in a different foil.
It's all expected, it happens every year (though the holiday seems to take up more of the calendar each year), but damn is it tiresome. And don't get me started on the music!
I just hope the very level headed decision by Microsoft to remove the imagery is going to be mistaken for their tacit approval of the link that dude shared.
It makes sense Microsoft did the thing and removed it, the linked article is … political af
It's true that Christians have killed more people and commited more genocides, and are obsessed with putting their religion in everything... I think I'm on the side of this guy tbh
As an organisation they have historically been and continue to be, truly shitty.
But what are you using for sources here ?
About Christians in general? History books. About Christians inserting religion into everything? Gestures vaguely at the USA
Of course you are...
Wow I didn't expect so many religious people on Lemmy. Fuck christmas and every religious holiday. No special treatment for pale skins or anybody else. People are so indoctrinated into these rituals that they think it's "normal". Keep that bullshit out of my code please.
You don't have to be religious to think a fat dude in some red clothes that magically travels around the world giving out presents to good children isn't a fun yearly tradition. Frankly it's kind of an overdramatic reaction to a small red hat overlaid onto an icon. Should configuration be provided to disable the functionally? Sure I don't care, hell have it disabled by default I don't mind but it's stupid to make a huge stink about something so minor.
"pale skins"? Go outside
he's arguing against it on the basis of his religion though
