"The War on Christmas" continues

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/12/12/fox-news-host-to-atheist-you-offended-me-with-your-billboard-so-im-going-to-laugh-about-the-murder-of-your-groups-founder/


FOX News Host to Atheist: You Offended Me With Your Billboard So I’m Going to Laugh About the Murder of Your Group’s Founder


December 12, 2012




David Silverman went on FOX Business Channel with host Stuart Varney earlier today to explain why saying “Merry Christmas” to an atheist can be offensive.

Obviously that’s a hard line to walk — most people say it out of goodness, so why would that ever be a bad thing? — but Silverman explained that when a stranger says it, it’s offensive only in the sense that it presumes Christianity. And he’s working to change that.

I’m not sure I buy that explanation: I don’t think most people are thinking about religion at all when they say the phrase. It’s just something they say reflexively this time of year. But Dave’s right that there are many holidays being celebrated in December and you don’t have to celebrate “Christmas” itself to enjoy the season.


Even though the focus of the clip is on whether saying “Merry Christmas” is controversial, there was one moment that had nothing to do with that topic that made my jaw drop. It begins at the 5:14 mark:

Varney: … Madalyn Murray O’Hair…
Silverman: Madalyn Murray O’Hair founded American Atheists in 1963.
Varney: She was murdered, wasn’t she?
Silverman: Yes.
Varney: For her money!
Silverman: Yes.
Varney: What do you care. She’s dead, right?

Cut to Dave’s reaction:




Back to the conversation:

Varney: What do you care. She’s dead, right?
Silverman: Of course I care. How in the world can you say that? How in the world can you say that?! What a bigoted thing to say! That I don’t care about people dying because I’m an atheist?
Varney (talking over Silverman): Well, is it true–? Is it true–? Hold on a second. Is it– God forbid, I should offend you. No, Heaven forbid I should offend you. [Laughing]
Silverman: You should not offend anybody! You should try to not offend people. But that doesn’t mean–
Varney: [Laughing] See, I’ve got to! I’ve got to!
Silverman: You’re not letting me speak, and it does get to me…
Varney: [Laughing] But you offended me with your billboard!

What the smurf sort of logic is that?!

You know how you put up a sign challenging my beliefs? Well, someone you deeply cared about was murdered! So I guess we’re even now!


How Dave managed to sit there for the last question and not jump out of his seat and not pull a metaphorical-Matt-Barber on Varney is a testament to his professionalism.

Varney doesn’t get it. Atheists aren’t fighting to rid the world of Christmas. We’re only opposed to government promotion of Christianity. We’d like to point out that there are non-Christians who celebrate this time of year for a variety of reasons and they shouldn’t be ignored just because they don’t buy into the Christ myth.

///

What a dick!

Omg, his face is priceless! Like 'did you seriously just say that'?

What a smurfing dick.

As far as Merry Christmas goes----it's along the lines of "bless you" and junk like that. Has zero meaning.

Fox News, classy as always.

Quoting Dr. Paradigm Shift:" What a smurfing dick. As far as Merry Christmas goes----it's along the lines of "bless you" and junk like that. Has zero meaning. "

Yup, this.

I'm not Christian and we celebrate Christmas. I'm not offended by it. But I do completely understand and support his thought behind why it can be offensive.

Quoting Dr. Paradigm Shift:" What a smurfing dick. As far as Merry Christmas goes----it's along the lines of "bless you" and junk like that. Has zero meaning. "

  THIS ^^ Some people are just desperate to complain these days! MERRY CHRISTMAS  

"Merry Christmas" are seriously just words to me, describing a holiday that is meant to be merry. I'd be angry if someone talked to me like that, but I think EVERYONE needs to pull the stick out of their smurf. It's Christmas. That's what the holiday is called. Are we proposing to change the name to something else for non-Christians? I'd be willing to bet that a lot of Atheists' grandmas call them and say Merry Christmas and they don't pitch a fit to them about the meaning of the word Christmas.

Happy Smurfing Holidays!  

It really started with retail stores saying Happy Holidays to encourage more people to shoop there during the winter season, some Christian employees and consumers got butthurt over losing a sliver of Christian privilege and then the media got involved. So now we are bickering over how insulting it can be t assume everyone is a Christian.

But everyone wants to blame the atheists for the Happy Holidays thing. Really, capitalism started the trend. Big corporations in Canada, the US, the UK started deciding it might be more profitable to cater to growing cultural and religious diversity.  

It's kind of like the bickering about placing crucifixes over 9/11 ground zero. Some groups protested but atheists are the ones that got all the negative attention in the media. Almost nobody knows that some Jews also had a problem with it.

Soon it'll be a crime to even have a tree up - at my work (in a college) the boss decided on a hidden tree so we don't upset the non-Christian lot (what she actually meant was that Muslims had complained, everyone else either was excited or didn't care). People need to calm the eff down and drink some egg nog, it's only Christmas and some people are acting like it's the damn apocalypse!  

Quoting MrsWilliams154:" Soon it'll be a crime to even have a tree up - at my work (in a college) the boss decided on a hidden ... [snip!] ... to calm the eff down and drink some egg nog, it's only Christmas and some people are acting like it's the damn apocalypse!  "

Actually it's extreme accusations like that that help escalate things.

<blockquote><b>Quoting MrsWilliams154:</b>" Soon it'll be a crime to even have a tree up - at my work (in a college) the boss decided on a hidden ... [snip!] ... to calm the eff down and drink some egg nog, it's only Christmas and some people are acting like it's the damn apocalypse!  "</blockquote>




Nice, real nice.

What a horses arse.

I think it is true that Christians forget that it is a religious holiday because it has become a national holiday & that it is inequality for all the other religions (or non religious) that it has such a huge place in our government.

Anyway - I also think it is silly to be offended when someone says something when they are attempting to be nice. When someone says they'll pay for me I say thanks. I want to say don't bother - but it's sweet. Same here. I once got relaly bitched out by a man who was a suppliers at a place I worked. I told him Merry Christams on Christmas Eve (I am normally am a Happy Holidays kind of person) and I got a huge lecture on how rude it is because he is Jewish & I guess I was somehow supposed to know that. It's just asinine. Not only that it's BAD sale s- we were the custoemr - you don't bitch the customer out - ever....over silly smurf like Merry Christmas.

What a douche.

As far as the whole "Merry Christmas" thing, I don't care about it tbh. We celebrate Christmas, but if someone tells me "Merry/Happy some holiday I don't celebrate", big whoop. However, I can see how someone else may be offended...and I'm not going to whine about the fact that they're offended. How hard or detrimental is it to be considerate and say Happy Holidays?

Really, I'm just sick of hearing about it. It's not nearly as common to hear/see Happy Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/or any other holiday that's common to other religions all over stores, t.v, and public places...yet I never hear them whining about how there's a "war" on their holiday. Simply put, people don't like change. Christmas has always been the "untouchable" holiday so to speak, and its saturation all over the media and everything else has been widely accepted. Now that a change seems to be coming, people are acting like it's a crisis.