'Tis the season to be stupid

From the ever-awesome marriedtothesea.com

It seems that every year around this time, some mouth-breathing dullard will crank out the same old horsecrap of Christmas being under attack or under siege. Many think this is purely a US phenomenon, but as a cramped tram trip yesterday afternoon informed me, there are Australians who buy into this bullshit quite eagerly.

'The Government are doing it NOW!' he plaintively grumbled 'They're gonna stop you referring to Christmas or having Christmas decorations in schools!'

There are times when I want to stab my eyes out in despair at Australians re-hashing US email hoaxes.

We do get them here, and they're often copy/pasted with Australian details, so Obama is replaced with Gillard, the White House with Parliament House and so on.

There's just one important difference. Australia doesn't have anywhere near the same history of goggle-eyed messianic Christianity, competing with a determined opposition representing separation of church and state and/or atheism.

So when you hear that the government is going to remove Christmas from schools, please bear in mind that it's a copy/paste from a country where the (false) boogeyman of Christmas being taken out of schools is being used as (real) leverage to get creationism and prayer into schools.

If you hear that Julia Gillard is calling a Christmas tree a 'Holiday Tree' because she's an atheist, please bear the following in mind;

1) Yes, she is an atheist.
2) The Holiday Tree/Christmas Tree thing was targeted at Obama originally.
3) It wasn't true then either.

In fact, if you get anything in an email chain letter this festive season, just delete the fucking thing as it's bound to be a pack of American bullshit, copy/pasted by some redneck racist moron.

No-one is attacking Christmas. Christmas is NOT under siege. If there is any 'War on Christmas' happening it is most likely a low-key, low-aggression skirmish between people who;

1) think Christmas is an important celebration of the Christian faith.
2) think Christmas is a good time to have a holiday, get pissed and get presents.
3) think Christmas is an annoying time when you can't get a taxi and the shops are all filled with arseholes.
4) think Christmas is overblown and just want to celebrate their own festival/holy day/whatever.
5) think Christmas is a good weapon to use against atheists.
6) think Christmas will help them shift a whole lot of units of Coca-Cola.
7) wish Christmas would just fuck right off.

You get it? We all think of Christmas in different ways. Person A will chirrup on about Jesus, person B will say 'Bah, humbug!', person C will say 'weeey! Get the beers in!' You cannot attack what is not a concensus.

Fuck it's frustrating. Christmas, 'tis the season to be fucking stupid. And get drunk. And eat too much.