yes, someone else's stupid opinion on the stupid 'war on xxxmas'

[rone]

What the "right" is doing is coöpting the "left"'s use of victim culture to promote their goals.  Yes, it's disingenuous, but, hey, it works.

Comments

[opadit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seriously. "Oh, us poor Christians, the dominant culture and population of this country, where we're so in control that you don't get mail service on Sundays any more, politicians all have to end their speeches with 'and God bless America,' and the whole freakin' economy is based on the December 25th holiday!"

[bungo.livejournal.com]

you don't get mail service on Sundays any more

Hang on a second. Was there ever mail service on Sunday in the USA?

(God, try Germany, where the only services of any kind on Sunday are religious, or gas-pumping. Okay, I exaggerate too, but only a bit.)

[opadit.livejournal.com]

Yes, the USPS delivered mail seven days per week until sometime in the 19th century, when the Christian Temperance movement and its related crusades brought about a change in policy. "Originally, letter carriers worked 52 weeks a year, typically 9 to 11 hours a day from Monday through Saturday, and if necessary, part of Sunday" (USPS.com) (http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub100/pub100.htm#moving). My understanding is that, back in the olden days, people just didn't get much mail at all; but if you got anything, it would be delivered to you on a Sunday.

[bungo.livejournal.com]

You learn something every day. Very interesting. I like this quite from the same URL(USPS Pub. 100):

"The Postmaster had to keep the Post Office open during normal business hours and, if mail was delivered on a Sunday, for one hour after the delivery of mail. If a church service was going on, the Postmaster had to wait until it concluded and then open the office for an hour. This decision dated back to the 19th-century controversies over the drivers of mail wagons blowing on a horn or a trumpet as the wagon came into town. Some ministers complained that the men would rise up, leave the church, and head for the Post Office, where they would visit with each other and even play cards.

The decision to keep the Post Office closed during services was a compromise. However, the Postmaster General refused to stop mail wagons from running on Sundays, since this would delay the mail too much."

Thanks!

[dr-strych9.livejournal.com]

I know it's not P.C. to say this, but the "right" wouldn't have victim status if it weren't for their own failure to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and work for a living. If their culture weren't so self-indulgent, destructive and amoral, maybe they'd be worth treating like equals.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

Appropriating from the left's victim culture? I'd say they're the same rhetorical strategies they used during the 50s and 60s, albeit with success John Birch's hagiographers only dreamed of.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

It's not simply disingenuous, it's based on a false premise, to wit, that Christmas is under some sort of attack.

...not to mention the false premise that this nation is a Xian nation.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I've said it before in someone's LJ, but the one science fiction future I really don't want to see is Heinlein's one in which a religious dictatorship takes control of the US (seen from the other end in Revolt in 2100, IIRC). Apart from anything else, surely the world could do better than a cheesy Heinlein future...

[dr-strych9.livejournal.com]

You might want to avoid the future depicted in The Handmaid's Tale (http://www.powells.com/biblio/66-0099740915-1) while you're at it.

[(Anonymous)]

...not to mention "Escape from L.A."...

[tom-bayes.livejournal.com]

I prefer to wish everyone a happy Boxing Day.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I find it bizarre that Canadians, of all people, celebrate a day dedicated to violence.

[mezdeathhead.livejournal.com]

Have you read "What's the matter with Kansas?"?***

I think you'd get a kick out of it.





***I have no idea where to put the question mark, since there's a question mark in the title of the book, but I'm asking you a question, so just SHUT UP

[glitter-ninja.livejournal.com]

Have you read "What's the matter with Kansas?"

It's really convenient that all the evil in the country has been naturally sifted to just one state.

[mezdeathhead.livejournal.com]

Actually, have you read it? It's really interesting.

The guy who wrote it is from Kansas, and loves Kansas. It's not really not what it sounds like.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Heh, i approve of your punctuationality.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

They've been into victim culture from the beginning, no matter what they say. Whether it's whining about conservatives being persecuted on college campuses, or complaining that some white kid didn't get in because some black kid took their place, or grousing about this or that being "the last acceptable prejudice" or the government banning God from the schools, or the Internet-libertarian bloviating about how we'd all be flying to Neptune with solid gold atomic rockets fueled by candy if the government didn't tax and regulate us into the ground... that's victim culture.

[iayork.livejournal.com]

Victim Culture has been the core of the Republican party's platform for the past 10-20 years. The talk show radio bloviators probably brought it to the fore, I suspect. The main message propping up the xenophobia, bigotry, and repressiveness is that you deserve better, but someone -- some Ay-rab, atheist, gay, lib-rul -- has stolen your birthright from you. Yes, if it wasn't because of them ill-legul imm-grunts, you would be on the executive board of Boeing instead of sweeping floors; if the lib-ruls weren't forcing universities to take minorities, your passing grade in 11th-grade English would have got you into Harvard. It's someone else's fault that you haven't made anything of yourself. Destroy Them, and all will be well.

But in fact, this Christmas silliness is even more than that. This is a spin-off of the "anti-PC" brigade -- take something that is not controversial; declare that it is controversial; stoutly proclaim that when you side with everyone else in the world you are in fact part of a persecuted minority. You get the best of both worlds -- all the smug glow of a persecuted martyr, and all the backpatting that comes with being part of the majority.

[dpk.livejournal.com]

I asked a Christian American friend of mine if he felt persecuted by society for his beliefs. He said he did.

I don't get it. Polls are saying that a majority of people believe an eye for an eye (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/poll000619.html), a Christian belief, is appropriate justice. Various majorities of people believe some God created humans (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/22/opinion/polls/main657083.shtml) in their present form (of course, education changes things (http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_publi.htm), but not everyone is educated). Most members of Congress (http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RS21379.pdf) are Christians (members of the various sub-cults). The President is a born-again Christian.

How could anyone say with a straight face that the Christians are being oppressed?