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The Majority of Americans Prefer To Be Greeted With 'Merry Christmas' Over 'Happy Holidays', a Poll Finds
"Merry Christmas" is the preferred greeting of a strong majority of Americans. A survey carried in conjunction by news outlet Axios and SurveyMonkey found that 65 percent of the participants wish to be greeted with "Merry Christmas," while 28% prefer "Happy Holidays."
But the minority is willing to use violence , so we are all stuck with the neutered version.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I'd prefer to be greeted by being given a hundred dollar bill. I'm not going to expect or demand that it happen.
Conservative snowflakes need to be reminded of Jesus Christ, the Liberal activist? Too bad they don't seem to know anything about his teachings.
Avoiding the title Christ is just one expression of the Newspeak campaign we are experiencing since years. Good to know not everyone has successfully been brainwashed yet!
"Happy Holidays" was invented because 100% of Americans aren't Christian. But 65%? Congratulations! You just found a percentage of your sample audience that is Christian! Now you just have to ask yourself: Do you support tolerance of others?
Sorry, I meant "fun camp".
Tell me please... "news for nerds stuff that matters"
Happy holidays is inclusive for everyone, and includes people who don't celebrate Christmas. Merry Christmas is fundamentally exclusionary. I'm Jewish, and I don't care much, but after living in Alabama for a while, I can see why people care. Let me tell a story that's relevant that occurred with a work colleague (who already knew I was Jewish based on earlier conversations) when I was in Alabama (this occurred about December 20th or so last year):
Colleague: So are you going anywhere for Christmas break? Me: Well, for break, I'll be spending time with my family who is going to be in Puerto Rico, and my wife is going back to visit her family back North. Colleague: So you won't be together for Christmas? That's sad! Me: Well, the relevant winter holiday for Jews is Channukah, which isn't a big family holiday for us. The big family holidays are Passover and the Jewish New Year. Colleague: Oh ok, have a Merry Christmas, Me: You too, NAME.
It was like he could not get in his head that someone didn't celebrate Christmas. Given that, it isn't at all surprising that some people find the repeated "Merry Christmas" really uncomfortable.
...it's Fash the Nation!
I have to work tonight, You Insensitive Clod!
and I worked last night (Christmas Eve) as well
except americans?
Happy Holidays
100% of vegetarians prefer vegetarian food.
https://www.axios.com/the-votes-are-in-merry-christmas-wins-2519396832.html
Which phrase are you most likely to use? “Merry Christmas” All respondents 65%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States#Christianity
The most popular religion in the U.S. is Christianity, comprising the majority of the population (70.6% of adults in 2014).
Move on
The majority of Americans aren't hate-filled malcontents that actively seek opportunities to be offended by nothing little holiday traditions. The majority of Americans know there is nothing in "Merry Christmas" that needs to be fixed and have low regard the shitheels that think there is.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
The only reason 'happy holidays' exists is because of people who are triggered by hearing 'merry christmas'. Unless the poll records how many people HATE 'merry christmas', then it won't reveal why 'happy holidays' exists.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Merry Christmas, you snowflake!
Welcome, newcomers. The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people! And now you're gonna hear about it!
#DeleteFacebook
While Christmas day/boxing day are statutory holidays where I'm from, I'm not necessarily on holidays on the 24th or the 27th, etc, so to me it's nonsensical that anyone would wish me "happy holidays" for the entire fucking month. So I always respond with a deliberately quizzical look and mention "I'm not on holidays".
First, the poll was of "likely" greetings, not "preferred" ones. Huge difference there.
Second, the poll was of what greetings the respondents used, not received. Even bigger difference.
Humbug!
If you care either way, you're just an asshole.
It can't bother me because I don't believe in any of this in the first place.
That would be my preference. But I'm not American, so I don't count. Also, I agree it doesn't exactly run off the tongue.
Frankly, I don’t see anything in that conversation showing that your colleague “could not get in his head that someome didn’t celebrate Christmas”. He heard you, and on his way out, merely wished you an enjoyable day on the day that he calls Christmas Day.
Seasonal greetings are not a reference to you, your culture and your lifestyle. They are a reference to those of the person greeting you (and, typically, of the larger community around you).
For example, on Thanksgiving day, people who were not born in America likely won’t care a bit. Does that mean that it’s not Thanksgiving Day for them? Don’t they have the day off like everyone else? Should we care that they aren’t going to celebrate it? We wish them a happy day, and that day is named Thanksgiving Day. So Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Same thing for Christmas and any other holiday that’s massively followed by the larger part of the population. There’s nothing oppressive about it, unless one chooses to feel oppressed by it. Conversely, there is something oppressive about telling people that they may not name traditions that their community has long been widely following.
If a Jewish faithful said something like “Happy Hanukkah” to me, I would absolutely find it oppressive on my part to tell him that I feel harassed by it. Personally, I would find his greeting inclusive on his part. I’d feel that he was mostly expressing friendship, while sharing a bit of his faith and culture, in a welcoming way, without trying to force it on me: a greeting is not the same thing as proselytising!
Most people prefer their own religion to the one of other people, especially if they're in the majority.
It's called 'bigotry'.
Merry Christmas to all!
"offending" right wing evangelicals is just a bonus gift you can give yourself.
Merry Christmas to all
Sir Isaac Newton was definitely verifiably born on Dec 25, 1642. To be fair, that was under the Julian Calendar, which corresponds to Jan 4 on our calendar, but it's as good a reason for the season as any. (Well, after axial tilt, of course, and orbital eccentricity on certain planets.) Sometimes I get really mixed up and say "Happy Halloween" because, y'know, DEC 25 == OCT 31.
Aside: even ca. 200 AD, people were mostly guessing when Jesus Christ was actually born. The Church picked the date December 25 to align with the Roman celebration of the winter solstice, even though the date was "probably" wrong (and in fact some Eastern churches celebrate Christmas on Dec 25 in non-Gregorian calendars, and they definitely can't all be right), because the point of Christmas is celebrating Jesus's birth (and life, teachings, and death/resurrection^H^H^H^H bad weekend), not getting the exact dates right.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
USAmericans are predominantly assholes!?!
Anyone who has ever visited that thirdworld shithole could tell you that.
The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008
Obama didn't become President until 2009.
Funny how that article completely glosses over that fact. It's almost like the author might be biased.
I would love to be greeted by a oral sex from every single 20 year old woman that weighs less than 150 lbs. But that is not the issue. What is the issue is how the people that do NOT want to do that feel.
On Dec 24 and Dec 25th, I enjoy being wished a Merry Christmas. It's a great sentiment and I reply the same. So on Dec 24 and on Dec 25th, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
But I do not do that on Thanksgiving. Nor do I do it on New Year's Eve. Doing that would be obnoxious. I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving or a Happy New Year on those days.
Similarly, on Hanuka I wish everyone a Happy Hanuka. It's kind of a dick move to wish someone a Merry Christmas on Dec 13th, the first day of Hannuka.
The rule should be:
If you know someone is christian, or today actually IS Christmas or Christmas Eve, again, wish them a Merry Christmas.
But for all other situations, wish them Happy Holidays, so you don't do force your religion on them.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
The majority of Americans are not from some other country or religion that hates everything nice.
founded by Christians and Christian principles. The majority of Americans are Christian. Saying "happy holidays" is revising your history. I'm glad we finally have a president with a spine in the White house that's not afraid to call things as they are, and who doesn't pander to fringe minority viewpoints.
So the USA was founded on Christian principles? Show me in the constitution the number of times where the name "God", "Moses" or "Jesus" is mentioned.
I will give you a hint. Zero!
its true if u go 2 a chinese restaurant on xmas its filled with jews.
A href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xTq20prt0K8">Enjoy.
it mostly came out of government functions. Schools, court buildings, etc. People were 'triggered' because a lot of non Christians get kinda nervous about the cult-like atmosphere of the evangelicals, the fact that many of our closest allies are still theocracies and the thousands of years of recorded history of religion being used in conjuncture with government to oppress.
Through a lot of hard fought battles America became a secular nation, there are those of us who want to keep it that way. And then there are those among us who do not.
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prefer to be greeted with:
Boas festas, caralho!
As to "Probably wrong"...
Luke chapter 2 says shepherds were sleeping outside overnight with their flocks when he was born so... yeah, it wasn't likely anywhere near Dec 25 by a large margin.
The fact that nobody even remembered the date makes sense when you consider that Jews and Christians of the first century considered birthdays a pagan custom and would have been somewhat repulsed by the idea. At the time both groups were hated by the Romans for refusing to join into the state religion and culture. Possibly they ignored plenty of Saturnalia and solstice greetings in their day.
But I digress, yeah... probably not Dec 25th.
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It takes time for an investigation to turn up any results fuckface. Especially one investigating high level money trails.
Exactly. Who cares what most people think. Most people think the new Star Wars was a great movie. Most people are morons.
Who cares what most people think?
It's the electoral votes that count.
The problem is when 1 of the many greetings are forced on ppl. Seriously, back in the 60s, we used both, but probably more merry Christmas. However, the far left started pushing out merry Christmas, then the far right tried to force it on everyone, and finally, the extreme far right runs around screaming that it is all about baby Jesus birth, hates santa, trees, etc and ignores the evidence in the Bible that proves, he was either spring/fall.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
You should check the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution is the framework for operations, the Declaration of Independence is the reason for the nation to exist. And the Declaration does start off with God and the Creator right in the first two paragraphs. Deism was central to the creation of the US - our rights come from our Creator, not from man or anything else. At least according to the founders.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Several of the men known as Founding Fathers were either full on Deists (Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin) or had Deist leanings. The term "Nature's God" from the Declaration of Independence comes from Paine's book on Deism which was widely read at the time. Pastors who knew George Washington described him a significantly influenced by Deism. Thomas Jefferson spent a good amount of time in office cutting out the bible passages he agreed with and pasting them together into what is now known as the Jefferson Bible. John Jay, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry were very much hard-line evangelicals but the rest were either full Deists or Christians with Deist beliefs. If the US was really founded as a Christian nation then we wouldn't have constitutional limits on government involvement in religion.
Incorporating principles, or practices based on principles, into a document does not require listing the persons that stated the principle.
And look at that! Even though I am anonymous you can still apply the principle I stated!
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -- John Adams
Did America Have a Christian Founding?
and a Happy New Year!
I'm content that someone greeted me in a polite and friendly manor with warm wishes....
Where is Hong Kong's declaration of independence... :)
This is a dumb example. There is no equivalence between the n-word and Christmas. One of those is a nasty term intended to be demeaning and racist. The other is a holiday that has a focus on peace, good will toward others, welcoming strangers, and generosity toward others. The origins of those aspects of the holiday are certainly religious: the message of the angel to the shephers in the field, being welcoming to Jesus when there was no room in the inn for his parents, and the gifts from the Magi. However, those have also been adopted as secular aspects of the holiday. There is absolutely nothing that needs to change about those aspects of Christmas. And they're also the complete opposite of everything the n-word represents.
Finally, in his homily at the midnight mass from the Vatican, Pope Francis had a lot a lot to say about being welcoming to refugees. Again, it's the complete opposite of everything the n-word represents.
Your post is ridiculous. There is nothing in common between the n-word and Christmas.
the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.
and a Joyous Festivus for the rest of us
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Let's ditch/dial way back the commercialization and do Festivus Frank proud.
P.S. Merry Christmas!
May you be able to pay off your credit cards next month.
Seems to piss off everyone.
No sorry, I didn't hear : I was too busy celebrating saturnalia~~
In all seriousness, people have been celebrating the period of the year with the shortest days for as long as they've been able to look up in the sky, and notice what a solstice is (provided they've moved far away enough out of the tropical region to actually have an easily observable solstice).
The fact the one specific small group decided to link this time of the year with some mythology about the birth of some dude who eventually ends up getting nailed on some wooden cross is at best a small foot note on the scale of the whole history of Homo sapiens.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Nice post. Wanted to mod you up but you are maxxed already. It appears that 56% of /. agree with you.
Merry New Year to all, and to all, a good pint!
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
The whole "war o Christmas" this is a fabricated wedge issue created by the religious right to further their so-called persecution by supporters of the establishment clause (the only original part of the bill of rights)
Luke chapter 2 says shepherds were sleeping outside overnight with their flocks when he was born so... yeah, it wasn't likely anywhere near Dec 25 by a large margin.
I dunno, the interwebs tells me that weather in Bethlehem in December averages around 59 degrees Fahrenheit, with record temperatures of up to 83 degrees -- so it doesn't sound crazy. You live the shepherd life back then, you're probably sleeping outdoors a lot.
Breakfast served all day!
I don't give a shit
Can't all you assholes just get along?
You should check out the Constitution where the only references to religion is:
Article VI, subsection 3
....but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Amendment 1
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof....
Both of those are explicit prohibitions on government from promoting any given religion over any other.
Or check out the Treaty of Tripoli....
Article 11
As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.....
The Treaty of Tripoli was signed 10 years after the Constitution, and was passed unanimously by congress. Over half of the members of congress at that time had also signed the Constitutional.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Don't forget to paint your yuletree with the blood of a freshly slaughtered pig or Odin may get pissed.
....is a holiday that has a focus on peace, good will toward others, welcoming strangers, and generosity toward others.
....Pope Francis had a lot a lot to say about being welcoming to refugees.
The people most likely to complain about "Merry Christmas" not being used are people who do not practice those things you mentioned. They call themselves "christians," but they live pretty much the exact opposite of Jesus' teachings. Their only focus is gay marriage and abortion, and not the things that Jesus teaches are important. IF (conservative) christians in the US actually lived as Jesus taught them to, instead of following their false prophets, this country wouldn't be in the downward spiral we are now... and i'd be more than happy to say Merry Christmas all they want.
Seriously, do you think Jesus would give a shit about the choice of greetings when there are people living in the streets, people starving, people sick who can't get treatment, and people being killed simply for being different? Anyone who thinks his concern would be which greeting to use over all of those other things is NOT a Christian.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
A Glorious Saturnalia to all.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Actually, the first phrase on the declaration of Independence is "When in the Course of Human Events" rather than divine command or other assertion.
As such, they were making the express statement of their sovereign right as humans, not making themselves subject to any higher power.
In any case, as you have argued yourself, the Declaration of Independence is not an official document of governance for the United States, thus it has no value as precedent or authority. Sorry, but that's what you said, and you have to stand by it. Thus all we have is the Constitution and it prohibits religious dogma as a guiding basis.
That means no forced birth, virgin or otherwise, and no compulsory Christmas participation. You will have to keep your tyranny restrained to your own theocracy instead.
...makes me think of this...
Two guys are sitting in a bar and overhear someone wish someone else Merry Christmas.
Person A: That's great to hear, you never hear Merry Christmas anymore. Why anyone would be offended by it is beyond me. I mean, I wouldn't be offended if someone said happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, or happy Ramadan. Would you?
Person B: No, of course not.
(Person A finishes his drink)
Person A: Ok, I'm going to take off. See you later.
Person B: Ok, take care, happy holidays!
Person A: INSENSITIVE JERK! I JUST TOLD YOU I SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS, NOT HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -- John Adams
No wonder he spent his presidency trying to destroy the country by his acts of usurpation and coercion.
Valid population sample? Useless opt-in survey?
is fine with me. I'm not religious anyway. I'm a baby eater.
I think thou does protest too much.
It's all fake news anyway.
Why do you live in the US then? NEWSFLASH: it has always been a Christian country. Don't you have your so-called "promised land" now? Haven't you jews stolen an entire country from the Palestinians for that purpose? Then why don't you all move there? Why are you still bothering the people in the western part of the world that have never really liked you since the time of the Roman Empire? If I belonged to a group of people who have always been disliked for over 2000 years, probably I would start asking myself some questions instead of whining on Slashdot.
Years ago now, Wal-mart went on record as preferring Merry Christmas. And of course many agnostics still set up a Christmas tree and exchange gifts, even if they don't care about the birth of Jesus (which by the way, Biblical scholars agree was in the spring since sheep would be in the barn during winter). Christmas and Hannukah (their spelling) are listed on the calendar, the latter being the 13th of December this year. And unfortunately most people do get a Christmas break and not Hannukah so ... it is what it is.
Having said that, I saw a TV commercial a week ago last Saturday (on the 16th) for a football game to be broadcast on the 23rd, the commercial described it as "Holiday weekend, Saturday, December 23" As Hannukah was before that - so was Thanksgiving - and New Year's is later, that particular usage makes no sense at all. Either say "Next Saturday" or actually say "Christmas weekend, Saturday". Christmas is December 25th, regardless of what you do that day, and referring to that date by that name should not in itself be considered offensive.
I prefer you don't speak to me at all...
I couldnt disagree more. If you know some one doesnt celebrate a holiday then what are you doing wishing them have a happy version of the holiday? They arent participating so from the recipients point of view all you're doing is pointing that out and making them feel like they arent part of the heard.
In doing something like this you're either being an idiot (which is what the above scenario sounds like) or trying to put your own holiday onto people who dont want it.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
And the reasons for all of these were because:
1) The Deists and others who came to America were fleeing persecution back home in England. They wanted to ensure that the government they were forming wouldn't start persecuting them again for being the "wrong" religion.
2) The government WAS the church in England. The King was the head of the church and could make religious declarations. If the King decided that every Tuesday, people should walk around with a chicken on their head, that would be a religious edict and anyone not following it could be punished. The founders not only didn't want religion to dictate government policy, but they wanted to keep government from dictating religious practice. I challenge anyone who is religious to look at Congress now (I won't even include the President) and honestly say they would want those people deciding how they practice their religion.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Whoa, I don't think the GP meant it was oppressive!
It's just the assumption and the inability to understand that you don't participate that is the issue. It's annoying when people keep asking you stuff that you already told them doesn't apply, right?
I get this too at work. It would be fine if people were more considerate. Saying happy holidays shows that they at least understand you might not be a Christian or whatever non-religious Christmas fans are called.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Actually no. The very first amendment flies right in the face of any "Christian principle". The first amendment and the first commandment are fundamentally incompatible.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
But it's at least a honest, happy wish.
Merry Spendmess to you too.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Especially down south. The religious right here are constantly trying to gain ground. They're also working hard to get evolution out of schools and theology back in (they call it "intelligent design" to make it sound like science). They're very well funded and I don't think they're intentions are pure. I see it more as a push for the more authoritarian side of religion. The folks I see doing it don't spend much time talking about helping the poor or ending wars. Just expanisionism.
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You know how I can tell you're not in any minority groups?
There are two mentions of god ("Nature's God" in the first paragraph and "their Creator" in the second"), and absolutely none of Jesus. In both cases, god is invoked solely to point out that human rights are innate, not granted by a king. This in no way supports the assertion that the nation was founded on Christian principles.
Also, Deism is not a form of Christianity.
I feel the same way. Someone is wishing you well, how the hell can you possibly get all bent out of shape over that?
Whether someone wishes me merry Christmas, happy Ramadan, a great Kwanza, or whatever, I'm glad and I wish them the same in return. People get bent up about this because they're being told they shouldn't wish someone a merry Christmas, and instead being told they have to use some alternate term, when you've personally been using the phrase for near 50 years. This attitude of "we want you to throw out all of your traditions and bend over backward for some inane PC reason" is what pisses of the rest of us. I never see any articles that mention schools having to avoid a happy Hanukkah phrasing, but I sure see a lot that say schools have to avoid a merry Christmas phrasing. It's all very one sided, and very obvious as to why.
is because I don't care either way isn't an option. I think that would be the majority.
Happy Holidays until it's actually Christmas, then if you voluntarily decide to disclose to anyone that Dec 25 is a holiday, then stop being a dumb ass and say Christmas because it objectively is. Think about it, after the 25th, who still says "Happy Holidays?"
The difference is if they live here, it is a national holiday. So it is theirs as well (thanksgiving). Choosing not to celebrate it doesn't make it any less their nations holiday.
That is not at all true of Christmas.
Sincerely fuck you and the intolerant fuck-facery you represent.
House is thus surprising when the US is overwhelmingly Christian...72%.
So the surprise is that it's not 72%
... There is only culture war.
This is never going to end. You could surrender and it wouldn't end because someone else would fight about something else. Its been this way for the last 10,000 years and its showing no signs of stopping.
It will never stop.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Well, thanks, prick, for reminding me AGAIN that I got harassed at work by my boss and the corrupt HR department to the point of making me physically ill, then I got fired while I was on sick leave.
So now I don't have a job, and "Happy Holidays" just reminds me all over again. Painfully.
So, no, on behalf of all the involuntarily unemployed, it's NOT inclusive to say "Happy Holidays".
I don't want a holiday, I want a job again.
I'm even happy to work on YOUR "happy holiday" days.
I'm not Christian either, but I'd prefer "Merry Christmas" to your pretend "consideration".
Some people just don't even want to think that others' circumstances might be different from theirs...
His teaching that he did not come to undo or change the older laws, and he not only re-affirmed but doubed-down on the traditional definition of marriage?
Perhaps thata part where, after resuing a prostitute from being stoned, he tells her to go forth, "AND SIN NO MORE"?
Or perhaps his teaching that those who do not work should not eat?
Possibly the bit where he tells his follwers NOT to expend a particular resource on the poor, who he says will be with us always?
Jesus is a serious person with many difficult lessons for people across the political spectrum, NOT a cartoon character like "buddy Christ". If you are not going to learn about any other historical character by only reading individual sentences about him/her out of context, then do not do it about Jesus; be intellectually consistent.
It's always amusing to see smug liberals cherry picking the seeimingly liberal stuff Jesus said or did and then snarkily attacking non-libbies as people who ignorantly miss the idea that Jesus was some sort of chairman Mao/Che'/Karl Marx leftie. Those who would seek to wrap themselves in Jesus, and those who despise Jesus would both benefit from actually studing the complete Biblical accounts before just running away with their own ignorant fractured, partial view. Jesus was neither a Republican nor a Democrat. And, no, the current left-wing trend of claiming Jesus was a Palestinian illegal immigrant is not true either as anybody who actually READ the texts would know.
Actually, not true. I am Jewish, but guess what... All the other people in the Chinese restaurant tonight were actually Asian!
...you say "Merry Christmas" and go shopping. Who the hell is this Jesus kid thingie?
No, I'm not saying you are dumb, just that youdisplay a lack of information.
[1] There is no "separation of church and state" in the Constitution. There IS a prohibition on the federal government creating its own religion as countries like England had done (google: Church of England). The phrase "separation of church and state" comes from a letter Thomas Jefferson (NOT an author of the Constitution) sent to a church explaining to them that they should sign-on to the newly written Constitution because it would protect them from ANY interference by the federal government while not in any way affecting their ability to influence government (i.e. a one-way barrier, the Americans who wrote and who accepted the Constitution would have not accepted a two-way wall)
[2] Huge numbers of US Government buildings have religious decorations. Ever heard of the US Capitol where congress meets? Ever heard of the Supreme Court building? How about the Christian chapels on military bases and the military academies?
Are you aware that our founders held Chrisitan church services every week in the original Capital and that each of the original 13 colonies had its own "established" and official religion? The Constitution was written by our founders to apply to the FEDERAL government. Each state had its own constitution to limit the poweres of STATE governments; as such each state was perfectly within its Constitutional rights to have an official religion. 12 of the 13 original colonies were protestant Christian and one was Catholic. None were officially atheist, deist, Hindu, Budhist, Jewish Muslim, etc.
Most Americans di NOT use "the N word" (I hate this childish construct but in modern millenial newspeak America you cannot even safely quote a nasty Democrat term without getting labelled as a bigot or worse).
Also note:
1. Slavery was NEVER in most of what is currently the United States - it only existed under Democrats and only in about 1/4 of the country.
2. Segregation and Jim Crow laws NEVER existed in most of what is currently the United States - they were implemented in Democrat-controlled places by Democtats.
3. The US Constitution NEVER says that blacks are 3/5ths of a person, and anybody who actually takes the time to READ it knows that. The Constitution tried to LIMIT the spread of slavery by saying that slave states could only count each non-free person (of ANY COLOR) as 3/5ths of a person FOR THE PURPOSE OF ALLOCATING SEATS IN CONGRESS (thus limiting the ability of slave owners to get more seats in congress by counting their slaves even though those slaves would have no power to vote for those congressmen).
Dishonest rhetoric may work on the ignorant, but most of us prefer FACTS.
You attack Christians for not living up to the standards you believe they should live up to.
Interesting.
First, because in failing to live up to their standards they are actually [a] being consistent with their beliefs which hold as a core element that all are sinners who fail to live up to those standards, and [b] at least HAVING standrards.
I'll tell you why so many Christians focus on the things you want them to avoid: They Focus on the areas of extreme immorality where anti-Chrisitans are pushing hardest. Currently theese are the planned targeted and deliberate slaughter of the most-innocent (the unborn, over 60 million of whom have been killed since Roe v Wade), and homosexuality which is one of the few sins the Bible calls out as an abomination and which is contrary to the Biblical definition of Marriage which the Old Testament established into Jewish law and which Jesus reaffirmed and even tightened-up.
Second, there are plenty of very serious Christians who spend a lot of time and energy calling out both false teachers and false prophets (there's a big difference), which you would know if you were serious.
Third, many Christians would point out that the country was almost entirely protestant Christian when founded, with a notable Catholic minority and a tiny Jewish population and that mix remained quite stable until a large inrush of Catholics shanged the Catholic-Protestant balance in the era of Ellis Island but it remained overwhelingly Christian all the way up until the 1970s and that the current plunge into the cultural and political toilet has coincided with the reduction of Chrsitianity in the country. No matter how much influence the "religious right" seems to gain, it is a tiny fraction of the political power Chrsitians used to have in the country.
Fourth, you have a minor point that Jesus would not worry about the exact words people use to greet each other (after all, he did NOT speak English and did not found a Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, or Catholic Church. He did not say "verily, I thusly create a religion which shall be called Chrsitianity and its members shall greet each other one a year with the words Merry Christmas". The attacks on the use of the phrase "Merry Christmas" are however an in-your-face indicator to Christians that all the associated beliefs and values are being attacked.
Finally, I am as shocked by atheists being inconsistent with THEIR beliefs, and Muslims with their beliefs, etc as you are toward Christians. I watch as the majority of Muslims fail to murder non-Muslims, participate in court proceedings where non-Muslims are allowed to give testimony of equal weight to the testimony of non-Muslims, etc. I watch as people who believe in evolution express revulsion at racism and eugenics when they SHOULD boldly embrace both. I see atheists who claim to believe in recycling and conservation yet refuse to eat their relatives when they die... I am surrounded by people of ALL beliefs who do things contrary to the things they claim to believe...
You're right!
The Bush Administration started a worldwide hunt of terrorist drug smugglers in 2008. This program was called Project Cassandra. Over the next EIGHT YEARS it amassed a treasure trove of evidence against the Hizballah terrorist organization and their Iranian enablers.
Then, when Obama took over and decided he wanted to help Iran, he squashed the investigations, fired the investigators, released captured terrorists and their supporters, and prevented and prosecutions. This climaxed in the 2016 final shutdown of the program, the release or reassignment of the last employees, and destruction of evidence.
Obama didn't start Project Cassandra - the investigation into Hizballah drug smuggling - but he did kill it. And that's what the article says.
I use Happy Holidays because I'm lazy. I don't have to say (or write) "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year". It is the same reason I write x-mas occasionally, I'm inherently Lazy.
Delete the cookies and vote again. SurveyMonkey makes it far too easy to stuff the ballot box. - That aside, didn't Trump just claim he invented the term "Merry Christmas"? So how could the survey participants know about it? In that sense: Seasons Greetings!
Living outside the US, I have met several Americans that where confused when I said "working" when they asked what I was going to do on July, 4th,
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I prefer to play it really safe, so I use "Trick or Treat!"
I suppose he could have changed his mind and told him to have a shitty Christmas instead!
Oh, were you ignoring the sentiment behind the message? My bad, I sometimes forget what tools people can be.
Seems they missed an option that probably would have beaten both
Stop... Just stop.
You have the choice to be offended. If you choose to be offended you gave that power over you to someone else. Don't do that. Refuse to be offended and thank them for them wishing you a happy whatever.
1. Duh, we all knew that. Big Whoop.
2. Hi. My name is Tony and I'm an Atheist. Santa isn't real. God isn't real. Jesus isn't real. And I still don't care about "Merry Christmas" in the slightest. Hell, I say it to people!
3. Christmas is awesome. I just spent several days eating good food, hanging out with friends and family, giving out gifts, taking it easy, and watching my Grandfather play with my daughter for hours. Christmas is a good thing.
4. The "War on Christmas" is fought only in the heads of Christians, and they're fighting the wrong people. Go talk to the stores putting up Santa displays instead of Jesus displays and leave the rest of us alone. Besides, who cares if your neighbor believes in Buddha or Krishna or whomever? Get over it, and stop being such pansy sensitive crybabies! Other people live here too.
Should never had been anything but MERRY CHRISTmas.
You're looking at average highs. The temperatures drop precipitously overnight. The lows (when people would be sleeping) are closer to 40F; quite a bit chillier. Not unlivable with enough blankets, but without a tent, in the wind (and possibly rain; December through March is the height of the rainy season there), not something you'd volunteer for if you had any other options.
He was shown to be wrong on gravity by Newton.
Earlier than that actually. Newton established the theory but experiments had proven Aristotle wrong about gravity before Newton was born.
I'll respond with either "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" depending on what the other person has said. It's not hard to be good-willed and accommodating.
People worried about either diversity or "the war on Christmas" need to relax. Easily 9/10 Christmas traditions were stolen from Pagan faiths in the first place, so it's more of a generic European tradition than a Christian one anyway.
---
According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
That people are being nice, regardless of how they greet me.
I tend to rant.
read the article. They never caught the guy. There's no indication that the 'Merry Christmas' had anything to do with the assault. It's more likely the perpetrator was coked up and would have slugged the guy no matter what he said. You should be ashamed of yourself for posting that clap-trap.
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Seriously, to anyone that cares deeply about this:
If this is a topic that riles you up, then you have far too few real problems to deal with.
Get some sorely needed perspective.
Snowflakes, all of you.
Sickening.
CREIMER' SUBMISSIONS UPDATE: /. so make sure to go to:
Note also that creimer is trying to regain karma by getting his submissions published as articles on
https://slashdot.org/~cdreimer
https://slashdot.org/~Anonymou...
https://slashdot.org/~FatCashe...
https://slashdot.org/~ILoveFat...
https://slashdot.org/~IHateFat...
https://slashdot.org/~IAteFatC...
https://slashdot.org/~ITapeFat...
https://slashdot.org/~IApeFatC...
https://slashdot.org/~IPrayFat...
https://slashdot.org/~FatCashe...
and mod down his submissions as well. The great thing is that you don't even need mod points to mod down a submission, just click on the "minus" icon!
Yes, believe it or not, creimer owns all the above sock puppet accounts. It is a mystery why Slashdot management tolerates it!
creimer wrote:
I don't bother with mod points. I'm doing something much more sinister. It took ten story submissions ? I'll have to double check the number ? to move cdreimer's karma from neutral to excellent without ever being exposed to the capricious mods. Mmmmmwwwwahahahahahahaha!
https://slashdot.org/comments....
Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! Creimy is posting more than 2 posts a day. Hurry! mod down otherwise /. will go to hell again!
Note: you can mod down even if already at -1 to lower karma and to prevent lost /. users to accidentally mod up.
creimer wrote:
All you need to do is find a website with a permissive TOS, say, Slashdot, create a Python script to scrape your own comments, sprinkle Amazon affiliate links in various posts, and then re-post past links whenever possible. Won't be long before you start making "coffee money" each month.
https://slashdot.org/comments....
C.D. Reimer is a renowned Slashdot collaborator, as he puts it himself; "Because of the quality of my posts and my article submissions, I'm a highly rated commentator and moderator."
But does anybody ever wondered what "C.D." stands for? Well, it stands for Creimy Dumpty of course!
Creimy Dumpty sat on the wall,
Creimy Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses
And all the king's men
Couldn't put Creimy Dumpty
Together again.
Creimy's siblings video and theme song, very realistic, especially the pants, just like Creimy's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
With "Vice President Pence Vowing US Astronauts Will Return To the Moon", we are sure they will need miracle workers up there, here is what it would look like. Note that Creimy takes care of bringing a lot of food to the moon as depicted below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Creimy's real pictures:
Before the sex change:
https://ibb.co/cc7Ddw
After the sex change:
https://ibb.co/gVad65
Creimy's "enterprise-level" chair, he talks about it all the time on slashdot:
http://www.keynamics.com/image...
Creimy's head, while his supervisor was talking to him, not with him, since it is impossible to do with Creimy:
If I remember the First Commandment aright, it's about having no deity but God or something like that. That doesn't imply that religion has to be incorporated into government. A person who worships God and has a secular government isn't violating the commandment.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
The first commandment basically says that a faithful Jew (and Christian for that matter) should have one god, and only one god. It gets expanded into "and don't you dare not to" in some other parts. Deuteronomy 17 expands this to basically the requirement to kill anyone who dares to turn his back to this god. Deuteronomy 13 requires the same concerning the worship of other gods. And in Numbers 31 a town gets sacked because someone from that town came and tried to convert people.
How exactly would you make this go along with "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You must be a real sad arse no life cunt to be so obsessed with another poster.
How about heaving your fat smelly arse out of moms basement and getting a real life?
You got mail on Christmas? Received some othe non-essential government service? Had your garbage collected? No, no you did not. Because in the US Christmas is a national holiday.
So blowing up Muslims and wishing people happy holidays is ok if you love god enough first. He just looks the other way does he, no need to bother with all the rest then.
FTFY.
Your point of view is profoundly selfish and lacking a grasp on reality.
We invented language to facilitate communication and your argument amounts to "he calls day X day Y, so just call it Y".
So what's your excuse for tracking *that* poster, Chris?
I'm willing to bet that the majority of Americans don't really care much one way or the other. The "Merry Christmas" vs "Happy Holidays" debate is a BS issue manufactured by a group of people who really enjoy pretending that they're being victimized.
If you're a Christian, go ahead and obey the Commandments. You can do that as an individual. The Commandments look to me like they want individual obedience. I'm not a Christian or Jew, and have no obligation to obey them, or pay attention to the Bible for that matter.
It would be unconstitutional to establish the Commandments as law
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
And that's exactly why the US are not a Christian nation.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
No. The people watching creimer are doing the site a huge service.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Well, yes. The US is not a Christian nation, although most of its citizens have normally been Christians. Have we been in violent agreement?
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
The OP in this subthread was about the US being a Christian nation, which it is not. Yes, you can be a Christian in a secular country, there is no Christian law (that I'd know about at least) that requires you to only acknowledge governments that govern by the Bible (Mark 12:13-17 kinda implies that temporal governments and the secular, otherworldly kingdom Jesus promised are not linked and do not or even should not interfere with each other).
So yes, we do actually agree. Being Christian in the US works, the US being Christian does not.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
He is a barely functional autist and nothing said on slashdot is going to change that. You are just picking on the fat weird kid.
Or maybe there was deadlock between the different sects, and they were all afraid of the others getting the power - so they dropped it, no doubt with a plan B of sneaking something in if they got the opportunity
It doesn't alter the fact that there's more overt religious symbolism around all the paraphernalia of government than you'd see in most other countries. Leaving aside the Vatican, maybe.
Can you see an atheist president happening any time soon?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."