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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 4, 2023

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I'm saying that most places shut down for Christmas holidays on a fixed date, so trying to work out a different date each year for when a sub-set of your workers want time off is inconvenient.

I was referring to your initial post. As I specifically said: "I am not advocating that the US or anyone else adopt Israeli law."

You don't get to demand "I want my particular event to be publicly marked even if there are only 0.1% of the population of this faith!",

No one has "demanded" that. It has happened because it is good PR for businesses to make all their customers feel welcome (and in a mood to spend, in general and at at their establishment). Moreover, why not acknowledge the holidays of minority religions? Who does it hurt?

The main problem is not "let everyone have a turn celebrating their own festivals that are all roughly around this time of year". The more, the merrier; Diwali seems to be celebrated around November which very handily links up with the American Thanksgiving.

So a string of bright events through the winter months is not a bad thing.

The problem comes in when it's "let's celebrate all these diverse events - except the main one. Your one. In this country where the majority culture was based around such main holidays." If you can have every holiday except Christmas, then it's not really "Happy Holidays", it's "Happy Not Talking About That One".

And I never said anything specifically about Israel, I'm delighted to find out that Christians there can have Easter off (though since it often coincides with Passover, is that the same thing?) I'm in agreement with the person who said the equivalent here would be somebody demanding that Israel institute "Happy Holidays" because St. Mark's Day is around the same time. I want Israel to have its own national holidays, even religious ones! I just want Over Here to have the same ability too, without people taking lawsuits over "they had a NATIVITY SCENE out in public where everyone could see it, I demand that be taken down because this country is not 100% Christian!" Yeah well the country isn't 100% Jewish either, but that's no reason for a human face-ache to go around demanding that any menorahs be taken down if they're out there on public land. Ditto with Kwanzaa symbolism, whatever that might be, and if the Taoists and Buddhists and Zoroastrians have any festivals for this period, let them have a shot at putting them out on display too!

Even the stupid Satanist crap, though I wish they'd be a little bit more original than just slapping Eliphas Lévi's Baphomet on everything. Though if they wanted to do the "radical socialist" version, I'd be intrigued 😁

If you can have every holiday except Christmas,

If you think that Christmas is not celebrated in the US, you are mistaken. My local Starbucks is playing nothing but Xmas music.

they had a NATIVITY SCENE out in public where everyone could see it, I demand that be taken down because this country is not 100% Christian!"

You are missing the point re that issue. If the nativity scene is meant to be govt celebration of the birth of Christ*, then it would be a First Amendment violation even if the country indeed was 100% Christian.

*As opposed to a holiday celebration.