The whole "Happy Holidays" vs. "Merry Christmas" argument

[wolfie]

One bumper sticker (not as popular now as it used to be) that shows either blasphemy or an astonishing ignorance of aviation law is "God is my co-pilot". I'd like to get one of those, and add a hand-written followup "and this PIC doesn't believe in CRM".

Anyway, for those of us less aviation-minded, would you mind explaining the part about aviation law and your addition?

Legally, there is no such thing as a co-pilot - you have the Pilot In Command, and the First Officer (colloquially referred to as the co-pilot). The PIC has the ultimate responsibility for the safety of the flight, along with the ultimate authority regarding what happens.

Cockpit Resource Management is a fairly new setup where the PIC delegates various tasks to other flight crew members. The "old school" method had the PIC basically telling the FO to "sit down, shut up, and keep your hands off the controls". The cockpit voice recording from one flight that crashed had the PIC joking with the flight engineer (technically subordinate to the FO, but carrying out tasks which the two "front seaters" want handled in a transparent manner and which require controls out of their reach, such as balancing thrust on all the engines) about the difference between ducks and First Officers - "ducks can fly".

Saying that God is your co-pilot is blasphemous in that it implies you outrank Him. As for my additions, see "old school" above.

[jackfaire]

I saw a window display that said, "Jesus is the reason for ALL the seasons" I was tempted to walk in and be like, "Uhm his Dad God might argue with you on that point"

[Ipecac Drano]

[Ginger Tea]

Thread skip:

I could be more offended by happy holidays over merry christmas, as the word holiday implies a break from work, religious or not, I've worked most of the 7 christmas days since I started with my current job.

Happy Monday everyone (he says fogetting their is/was a band with a similar name)

[Dreamstalker]

I that T-shirt. That is all.

[Eddie the 'Ead]

I've always been of the mindset that, not only are there different holidays for different religions around this time of year, but there is also Thanksgiving and New Years. So "happy holidays" can have two meanings. I get irked by people who get offended about, as they say, "taking Christ out of Christmas". Um, no, it's just that Christmas isn't the only holiday occuring around this time. "Happy Holidays" is just used as an all-encompassing term, for all religions. Hell, the way I see it, I don't give a rat's ass if you tell me "happy holidays", "Merry Christmas", "happy Hannukah", "happy Kwanza", "happy Festivus", etc. It really doesn't fucking matter. The people who say these things are simply trying to impart a wish of good will unto each other. Do the specifics of how they say it really matter? Accept the kind wishes instead of making a big, unneeded stink about it.

[siead_lietrathua]

*shrug* i just respond in kind to what people say to me. if people don't say a "happy season-message-of-choice" to me, then i don't give them one. makes life in retail smoother.
if people do wish me a "happy season-message-of-choice", then i return it with a "happy season-message-of-choice" (in my case, Yule). have yet to have anyone hurf me out over it.

[Nekojin]

Anyone who gets their nose bent out of shape over a well-intentioned well-wishing is just looking for a reason to be offended. That goes both ways, of course - the Christians who get outraged over "Happy Holidays"* are just as irrational as the non-Christians who get upset over, "Merry Christmas."*

* Or any other seasonal well-wishing.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Someone gave me the "taking Christ out of Christmas" argument, and instead of pointing out all the other holidays that happen around this time, I replied with;

"Yeah well you dumbasses took the orgy out of my Saturnalia, so go jump off a bridge."

The look of alarm and confusion on that man's face made my Christmas. X3

[Fire_on_High]

Anyone who reacts to a heartfelt "merry Christmas" any differently than a heartfelt "have a nice day" needs to go see a proctologist and get the chunk of lumber dislodged from their uptight ass.

I honestly couldn't have said it any better.

I'm not Christian, not by faaaaaaaaar, but the amount of grievance whoring that goes on with the perpetually offended grinds my gears. It's a friendly, happy, cheery greeting, and if your religion is so uptight it offends you or shakes your faith beyond repair, you and your religion have bigger problems then someone's phrasing.

What ever happened to the idea of simply offering back a friendly greeting of your own from your beliefs?

[lordlundar]

My stance is the moment Catholic zealots can prove they didn't establish Christmas in an effort to push out Pagan celebrations (here's a tip, they can't) then generic greetings like "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings" will suffice.

[bex1218]

The company I work for is posting stuff on facebook about our sale books for the holiday season. A lot of people are offended when they say "holiday" instead of "Christmas". I laugh at those people.

[Nekojin]

But it is a holiday season. Starting with Thanksgiving, there's no respite from the barrage of holiday sales. You can't even buy a yarmulke without someone trying to offer 20% off!

[Panacea]

My stance is the moment Catholic zealots can prove they didn't establish Christmas in an effort to push out Pagan celebrations (here's a tip, they can't) then generic greetings like "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings" will suffice.

Excuse me. Holding to a tradition of the faith is not zealotry.

A mistaken belief, maybe. But not zealotry.

The exact date of Christ's birth really doesn't matter. What matters is the celebration of faith, not a date on a calendar.

[Seifer]

I unthinkingly said, "Merry Christmas" to a Jewish family. That was awkward, but at least they were nice about it.

On a lighter note, my sister helped enlighten some offended idiots in her High School days. Apparently, some self-righteous student wrote, "Don't X Christ out of Christmas!" on a classroom white board. Other students chimed in with such gems as, "Yeah!" and "That's right!" My sister, who is a bit more worldly (or can at least read a damn history book or perform a quick Google search) figured she'd set the record straight. Under all the other scribbles she wrote, "Actually, 'X' is the ancient Greek symbol for 'Christ.'"

Shockingly, no one had anything to say after that.