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Friday, November 25, 2011
Maybe we NEED a War on Christmas
Every year, the usual suspects come out and claim that the Godless heathen homosexual jewish Muslim Kenyan socialist fascist great unwashed have declared war on Christmas, what with their "Happy Holidays" and their menorahs on the town hall lawn right there alongside of the Baby Jesus.
Well, you know what? Maybe there SHOULD be a War on Christmas.
Yesterday I received my copy of the local newspaper. It was the size of the Sunday New York Times, and almost all of it was ads for "doorbuster specials." It was one thing when the doorbuster specials started at 8 AM, or even at 7 AM. But when people are camped out at Best Buy for days on end, something has gone very, very awry with this holiday. It seems that Black Friday has become National I Got Mine And Fuck You Day for that portion of the 99% which doesn't realize it's camping out at Target to get $200 off a flat screen TV BECAUSE the oligarchs have taken away all but the last few bucks in their pockets.
Nothing exemplifies this horrific trend more than this confluence of the thuggish tactics employed by the University of California at Davis police and Christmas greed:
You can almost write the post-apocalyptic Philip K. Dick story for yourself; about a consumer-driven society driven mad by having everything it believed to be true proven wrong, scrambling for the marked-down accoutrements of their former life while those who run the companies that provide these opportunities watch on TV screens and laugh.
Oh. Right. That's already happened:
If this is Christmas, then I want no part of it. So I am hereby declaring a War on Christmas. Oh, I'll still make chili for the company potluck, because it's what you have to do. But other than that, I want no part of it. And if everyone just simply stayed away from the stores, or shopped exclusively locally (not just on Small Business Saturday), we just might get the message across that WE are the "job creators".
Update: Also, this. And this. And this.
Well, you know what? Maybe there SHOULD be a War on Christmas.
Yesterday I received my copy of the local newspaper. It was the size of the Sunday New York Times, and almost all of it was ads for "doorbuster specials." It was one thing when the doorbuster specials started at 8 AM, or even at 7 AM. But when people are camped out at Best Buy for days on end, something has gone very, very awry with this holiday. It seems that Black Friday has become National I Got Mine And Fuck You Day for that portion of the 99% which doesn't realize it's camping out at Target to get $200 off a flat screen TV BECAUSE the oligarchs have taken away all but the last few bucks in their pockets.
Nothing exemplifies this horrific trend more than this confluence of the thuggish tactics employed by the University of California at Davis police and Christmas greed:
A woman shot pepper spray to keep shoppers from merchandise she wanted during a Black Friday sale, and 20 people suffered minor injuries, authorities said.
The incident occurred shortly after 10:20 p.m. Thursday in a crowded Los Angeles-area Walmart as shoppers hungry for deals were let inside the store.
Police said the suspect shot the pepper spray when the coverings over the items she wanted were removed.
“Somehow she was trying to use it to gain an upper hand,” police Lt. Abel Parga told The Associated Press early Friday.
He said she was apparently after some electronics and used the pepper spray to keep other shoppers at bay.
You can almost write the post-apocalyptic Philip K. Dick story for yourself; about a consumer-driven society driven mad by having everything it believed to be true proven wrong, scrambling for the marked-down accoutrements of their former life while those who run the companies that provide these opportunities watch on TV screens and laugh.
Oh. Right. That's already happened:
If this is Christmas, then I want no part of it. So I am hereby declaring a War on Christmas. Oh, I'll still make chili for the company potluck, because it's what you have to do. But other than that, I want no part of it. And if everyone just simply stayed away from the stores, or shopped exclusively locally (not just on Small Business Saturday), we just might get the message across that WE are the "job creators".
Update: Also, this. And this. And this.
Labels: rant, War on Christmas
5 Comments:
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Christmas hasn't been a religious observance for almost a century. It has mutated into something grotesque and macabre just like almost every other American holiday, tarred with a commercialism brush so thickly that we reek from the asphalt even if we don't get up at dawn to shop.
It's just gross, and it reflects the nation we have become: greedy, cheap-minded, and devoid of all social justice.
Yuk.
When people demonstrate not only that they're incapable of moderation & self-control, but don't even want it, I feel they've abdicated any right to say there's some kind of "War on Christmas." I'd just as soon that retail stores called this craziness a generic "Happy Holiday." Anyway, people don't stand in line for three days to buy a 65" plasma HD 3D TV to wrap up & give to someone else.