What is a social norm in America that you feel is ridiculous?

It's quite the opposite nowadays.

 

Yes, it's an atheist/political correct thing.

You can travel around the world and buddhists and muslims and shintoists and catholics and witch doctors will all say "merry christmas" or "happy christmas" when they get their birthday and christmas greetings understandably mixed up.

Nobody except bizarre western people who want to advertise their contempt for christianity use the 'happy holidays' thing as a back-handed way of telling christians to (*)(*)(*)(*) off.

 

I used to say "Merry Christmas"... now, I don't say anything to anyone I don't know. In a similar way, I'll wish a "Happy Hanukkah" to Jewish people I know personally. This "Happy Holidays" nonsense makes me gag. Hanukkah is Hanukkah. Christmas is Christmas. Even Kwanzaa, which I never take any notice of, is Kwanzaa. There is no "Happy Holidays"... that's just more hyperlib-inspired, politically-correct bull(*)(*)(*)(*)....
"More 'Happy Holidays' -- comin' right up!"

 

I do not have the faintest idea what you are talking about. I thought it was about Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas.

- - - Updated - - -

That is exactly what I have seen also.

- - - Updated - - -

agreed. It is what it is.

 

It about about that.

I am talking about how many Christians consider it an attack on their religion if you do not say merry Christmas.

 

The groupthink mentality where people will condone violent actions that they wouldn't dare do themselves. I don't understand how people that know that it would be morally repugnant to personally commit a violent act against their neighbor for peaceful actions like smoking a joint in their own home or selling cigarettes from across state lines but then have no problem when agents of the state commit violent acts in their name, in response to those peaceful actions. It strikes me as cowardly to the extreme and borderline insane, not to mention shortsighted.

Initiating violence against peaceful people doesn't suddenly become okay when enough people want to hire a third party to do the dirty work out of sight.

However, I think this phenomenon is not an exclusively American norm and has more to do with the human condition. I guess my main gripe is that too many people in this world are simpletons content to enslave themselves.

 

Since it is Christmas, if you're going to say something it seems to me Merry Christmas is appropriate. After all, that is the holiday. Me, it is either Merry Christmas or nothing. Christmas means little to nothing to me, but when someone says Merry Christmas to me I respond in kind.

Is it an attack on Christians or Christianity if you say Happy Holidays. I don't think so. I think it is more of a political correct way of trying to please everyone while not pleasing many.

 

I will say merry Christmas when Christians start saying happy Hanukkah, on Hanukkah, happy Kwannza, on Kwannza.

If it's "appropriate" for non Christians to give recognition to a holiday only celebrated by Christians, then it's appropriate for Christians to do the same.

 

I guess it is up to you. For me it is no big thing. It is Christmas, so when someone says Merry Christmas to me I respond in kind. Far as I know there ain't no Jews that live around me. Plenty of blacks, but none of them celebrate Kwanzi that I know of. If anyone said Happy Kwanzi to me I would say it back. If anyone said Happy Hanukkah to me I would say it back. Heck I say Happy Halloween, Happy 4th of July, Happy Valentines day, Happy Columbus day, Happy Veterans Day, Happy Memorial day, or whatever. Overseas I always told the locals happy whatever their holiday was.

So saying Merry Christmas on Christmas or days near by just seems appropriate.

 

You're wound too tight. I'm a Christian and I wish my Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah and they wish me a Merry Christmas...and nobody's head explodes in the process.

Why people think such trivial things are of any significance is beyond me.

 

I have no issues with people taking part in other religions if they choose to.


I choose not to. In my store, do not put up Christmas decorations, because we are not Christians. We do not put up any decorations really, aside from Thanksgiving (which we see as a secular, universal
holiday), New Years, and the fourth of July.

For the last few years that I ran the store, there had been far right Christians protesting stores that did not put up Christmas decorations, and take part in Christmas traditions, such as saying merry Christmas. They claim that we attack their religion. That is what I have issues with, and many Christians expect everyone else to pander to them.

 

Like I said, you're wound too tight. If I owned a store which had customers who mostly celebrated Kwanzaa, for instance, I would welcome people at the door wearing a friggin' dashiki. What I wouldn't do at my business is exhibit an enormous chip on my shoulder held against popular customs that matter not one whit in the grand scheme of things. I'm not surprised that you went out of business, honestly. On that note, though, I doubt anyone even took notice that you didn't put up Christmas decorations and if they did it was probably one or two busy-bodies who you then used to generalize all Christians and solidify your own preconceived bigotry.

 

Sometimes it is necessary and enforcement by a third party makes everything smoother. Imagine a gas station in town. The stations in ground fuel tanks leak, enough to damage the towns drinking water but not enough for the station owner to justify buying new tanks. It is better to have the cops shut this guy down than individuals, because the cops are just doing their job; and as such are less likely to have problems. I can agree with you on your examples but what would you do with the gas station which has leaky fuel tanks?

 

I should have included, "in the absence of government," in my statement.

If a person feels that, in the absence of government, initiating violence against peaceful people is morally repugnant then it doesn't suddenly become morally acceptable when agents of the state initiate that violence on their behalf.

 

political correctness, which is just liberal censorship imposed on a free country to prevent any excess from being discussed in honest terms...

 

You are assuming that Christians make up the majority of people who shop at my store. I never said that.

 

Political correctness. It's hard to imagine a more ridiculous social norm than punishing people for using common sense and speaking honestly. We live in a world today that looks an awful lot like the story of the Emperor's New Clothes.

 

Just an example of nanny statism.