Background: she’s reacting badly to this story about an atheist schmuck named Damon Vix who gamed a Santa Monica town lottery for spaces for holiday decoration. Said schmuck ended up with more than half the spaces, which he then proceeded to leave blank except for a sign insulting religions.
Heather asks:
Does every public dissent from faith, my own included, inevitably come off as equally unpleasant?
My answer is: No, but it’s only because believers make a good-faith effort to try to remember that not every atheist is like Damon Vix. Which is a courtesy that people like Vix notoriously do not extend to believers. Which is not really fair to Heather Mac Donald, but then so is Vix’s charming little exercise in applied schmuckery.
Exit question: anyone reading this willing to bet that going up to Damon Vix and casually saying the phrase “War on Christmas” would not guarantee you a twenty minute, utterly dead to irony, tirade on the topic?
(Link via… I’m not sure, actually.)
Moe Lane
PS: Note that I’m personalizing this most cruelly; that’s because I know that I have atheist/agnostic readers who would themselves like to smack people like Vix in the face with a halibut.
I’m one of said readers…except I’d make it a lionfish…
Well, there’s a$$holes in every group. The atheist subset of America is small enough that the jerkwads don’t just stand out, they shine like the bright beacons of douchebaggery that they are. They are the statuesque monuments of the “How NOT To Make Your Very Important Point and Keep Your Neighbors Friendly” school of silliness. See also: a prime example of the Irony-Impaired.
I don’t mind people saying “Bah, humbug. It’s the pagan holiday being co-opted by the Christian to get them into the fold.” Fine, whatever. That still doesn’t make the holiday any less enjoyable for me. Just quit getting pissy when I don’t think your VERY IMPORTANT POINT really is all that important, or timely, or when I mention that Kwanza was invented by a member of the the Black Panthers for similar reasons.
The pagan holiday was “co-opted by the Christians” because at the time, they were killing Christians. It allowed them to celebrate Christ’s birth while appearing to outsiders that they were only celebrating Winter Solstice.
@countrydoc you are stating a false myth about the creation of Christmas. There is evidence that even in the first century Christians celebrated our Savior’s birth in mid-winter. Since at that time it was a death sentence to be a Christian they were not trying to celebrate winter solstice. They were seen as a cult of Judaism which itself wasn’t much liked. So instead of trying to blend in they like our brothers in China now went underground.
There is evidence that Dec. 25th was chosen about the same time the change in calendars happened but it isn’t conclusive. Just wanted to dispel the myth about co-opting a pagan holiday.