"One Pissed-Off Dude"

[unixronin]

Gary Graham has some things to say about what it means to be an American and be proud, not ashamed, of it.  (And a few related issues, like not thinking the world owes you free handouts for anything you want.)

I don't agree with everything he says here.  But I think most of it is pretty much on the mark.

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I think you're asking the wrong question. I think the real question there is, "When did it become impossible to wish someone something as innocent as a Merry Christmas and have them take the sentiment in the spirit in whiich it was meant, rather than whining and complaining that you're trying to force your religion down their throat?"

He's not saying anyone has to be forced to follow anyone else's religious beliefs. If an Arab greets me with 'Salaam alaikum', or an Israeli with "Shalom aleichem", they're not trying to bloody convert me at the point of a gun, they're greeting me and wishing me well. The people who scream and wail that they're being oppressed because you used the word Christmas instead of, say, Kwanzaa (which was only bloody invented forty years ago, fer crissakes) are trying to compel everyone to please all the people all of the time, and that's impossible at the best of times, doubly so when the complainers are the kind of people who measure the success of their lives in how many things they feel offended by, regardless of how offensive their behavior is to anyone else. I'm with Graham on that one: Anyone who can't take a cheery "Merry Christmas!" in the spirit in which it's intended needs to grow up and start acting like an adult.

(eta)
Yeah, lately we've had a lot of asshattery going on in Washington DC, between Bush, Ashcroft and the rest of the religious right. I think most of it is being blown out of proportion. Even most of the Justice Department pointed and sniggered whenever Ashcroft got on his high horse. But the kind of political-correctness-run-amok that Graham's talking about there started WAAAAAAY before the Bush administration.

[rbos.livejournal.com]

I've never been criticised for saying "merry christmas", personally.

But yeah, one shouldn't take a greeting the wrong way. If they do, it's their problem, not yours.

"Do as thou wilt, shall be the whole of the law."

[novel-tharkun.livejournal.com]

While I don't disagree that you should be allowed to use whatever send-off you'd like, there is an impact when it comes to policy of what you're to use as representative of workplace. I don't like being told by work (not that I've obeyed) that I must wish someone best wishes on a holiday not my own.

And for what it's worth, if I'm to smile and say thanks when wished a merry christmas, you (in the general audience sense) should be able to maintain your smile when I reply merrily, "a very happy unbirthday."

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

And for what it's worth, if I'm to smile and say thanks when wished a merry christmas, you (in the general audience sense) should be able to maintain your smile when I reply merrily, "a very happy unbirthday."

Absolutely. Move down, move down! New cups, new cups!

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

I'd stop, blink rapidly, then giggle. Sounds like a marvelous way to handle it.