Annoyances

[Badger]

The entire Starbucks red cup controversy. All sides involved.

Starbucks: making a change that realistically is just going to save them a little money by making simpler cups and cloaking it vaguely in the name of inclusion. Not to mention the free publicity. Let's not forget #RaceTogether.

Persecuted Christians: The previous cups had snowflakes, snowmen, and reindeer or some excrement. Mostly secular winter imagery. Stop trying to claim victimhood, Christmas isn't going anywhere, and your whiny derriere is still going to Starbucks. People are going there just to make the barista write Merry Christmas on the cup. Good job continuing to patronize the business, idiots.

People defending the change solely to antagonize the group above: Keep patting yourselves on the back for defending a giant corporation's marketing move. HuffPo might even quote your sassy tweet in their next listicle.

[Johnny English]

[Ignatius J Reilly]

It really would have been easiest if Starbucks just kept using the old cups.  You know Christian martyrdom is going to make people freak out over the tiniest thing these days.  Just use the same cups so I don't have to hear about it.

[Tommy]

Starbucks Japan certainly doesn't have a problem embrace the whole Christmas thing:

http://www.starbucks.co.jp/coffee/?nid=wh_02_sp

[Ignatius J Reilly]

Starbucks Japan certainly doesn't have a problem embrace the whole Christmas thing:

http://www.starbucks.co.jp/coffee/?nid=wh_02_sp

No.  The red cup in the bottom right corner is plain red, so the whole thing is clearly an attack on Christmas.

[Johnny English]

I don't understand why Christians would be attached to snowflakes and tree ornaments anyway, they're hardly staples of Christian iconography. Although in fairness, the Christians I know are every bit as "WTF?" about this story as everyone else. It's completely manufactured.

[Ignatius J Reilly]

Well, Trump has come out to say that if he becomes President, everyone will be saying Merry Christmas again.  He's got my vote.  That's just about the most important issue there is.

[Tommy]

No.  The red cup in the bottom right corner is plain red, so the whole thing is clearly an attack on Christmas.

Let's not pretend we don't live in a time in this country where it makes more sense to pee off the Christian Right rather than face the wrath of the vocal minority. Starbucks could've planned this out better, but the fact remains that the country has gotten so overly sensitive that companies are all going holiday-neutral, and have been for some time. I just find it funny how countries in Asia have gone he opposite direction and plaster "merry Christmas" on everything.

[Johnny English]

Well, Trump has come out to say that if he becomes President, everyone will be saying Merry Christmas again.  He's got my vote.  That's just about the most important issue there is.

And ThinkProgress has called him out for calling for a boycott of Starbucks, when his exact words were "Maybe we should boycott Starbucks? I don't know. Seriously, I don't care."

Has everyone been at the eggnog early?

[Johnny English]

the fact remains that the country has gotten so overly sensitive that companies are all going holiday-neutral, and have been for some time.

And yet at the same time we have a public backlash going on, and have for some time, about companies trying to kick off Christmas at the beginning of November. Are we saying that they're giving us too much Christmas while simultaneously being insufficiently Christmassy?

[Tommy]

Well, Trump has come out to say that if he becomes President, everyone will be saying Merry Christmas again.  He's got my vote.  That's just about the most important issue there is.

I took his comments to mean that we'll reverse the whole super-PC bullshit that's been like a fuckn plague. Look what's happening at Yale, etc. The generation of kids growing up in this super-PC society have become more entitled and refuse to acknowledge that no one has the right to NOT be offended.

[Ignatius J Reilly]

I took his comments to mean that we'll reverse the whole super-PC bullshit that's been like a fuckn plague. Look what's happening at Yale, etc. The generation of kids growing up in this super-PC society have become more entitled and refuse to acknowledge that no one has the right to NOT be offended.

While I agree with the last statement, I took his comments to mean that he knows his supporters are freaking idiots who seize upon excrement that doesn't matter as a sign that they're persecuted.  As much as I hate people getting offended over every little thing that signals their oppression, it's a million times worse when the actually entitled majority acts like it's somehow being oppressed.

[Ignatius J Reilly]

Let's not pretend we don't live in a time in this country where it makes more sense to pee off the Christian Right rather than face the wrath of the vocal minority. Starbucks could've planned this out better, but the fact remains that the country has gotten so overly sensitive that companies are all going holiday-neutral, and have been for some time. I just find it funny how countries in Asia have gone he opposite direction and plaster "merry Christmas" on everything.

Of course it makes more sense.  Christianity is still dominant in this country and pretends it has a license to govern the rest of the country by its precepts.  The vocal minority needs to learn how to not diminish legitimate concerns by flying off the handle about stupid excrement that doesn't matter, and that's a problem that gets worse all the time.  The majority needs to realize that despite what anyone says or does, their interests still predominate and that's not changing.  Whenever someone bitches about Under God in the pledge of allegiance, I say "Who the freak cares?  If you don't want to say it, don't say it."  Whenever someone bitches about how it's going to get removed, I say "No.  It's not.  Sit the freak down."  And the thing is, the former group is the one with more of a legitimate complaint.  That's how it usually goes.  The minority group generally has a more legitimate complaint from a purely conceptual standpoint.  From a practical standpoint, though, most of the complaints are irrelevant and freaking stupid and they need to shut up.

[Tommy]

While I agree with the last statement, I took his comments to mean that he knows his supporters are freaking idiots who seize upon excrement that doesn't matter as a sign that they're persecuted.  As much as I hate people getting offended over every little thing that signals their oppression, it's a million times worse when the actually entitled majority acts like it's somehow being oppressed.

The funny thing is that all of these corporations that are running "holiday neutral" campaigns are run and owned by the entitled majority. They have a responsibility to their shareholders, who are mostly also part of the entitled majority, to maintain a good public image and avoid frivolous lawsuits from special interest groups.

[Ignatius J Reilly]

The funny thing is that all of these corporations that are running "holiday neutral" campaigns are run and owned by the entitled majority. They have a responsibility to their shareholders, who are mostly also part of the entitled majority, to maintain a good public image and avoid frivolous lawsuits from special interest groups.

Right, but the point is that those campaigns do absolutely nothing to impact anyone's celebration of Christmas.  I freaking love Christmas, but not getting a coffee cup that says Christmas doesn't impact that.  Having a cashier say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas does nothing to stop that.  They still sell Christmas stuff everywhere (and earlier and earlier every year).  They play Christmas music everywhere.  The world revolves around Christmas for almost 2 months, but these people are so pissed off and hateful because it's not stated explicitly any more.  The more legitimate complaint is that you have segments of the population who are completely excluded from massive cultural touchstones for a solid 6 weeks.  It honestly does suck for Jewish kids etc.  Personally, I don't think that's a good reason to take away the emphasis on Christmas, but that's not actually happening anyway.