The latest Jesus and Mo cartoon, called “theory”, came with this note:
Prompted by this from The Telegraph (stop loading before download is finished to see full article).
Sadly, I can’t see the article as it’s paywalled. But in the cartoon, Mo for once shows a percipient bit of analysis! If you read the Torygraph article, please summarize it below.
I got thru to the article by following J&M’s author’s suggestion. Stop the download before the download is finished. It worked for me. It’s a pretty funny article about how in the UK they have been downplaying the word C*******s for years so as to offend no one. The funny part is that by denying Xmas, they are offending Xians. “In this cowardly green and pleasant land, Christians don’t just figure low down on the offence barometer – they don’t figure at all. They are not allowed to feel offence.” Youu could apply that notion to hetero white males.
The article is a nonsensical litany about the word Christmas being cancelled, and its “true meaning” being lost to consumerism, ie, it’s no longer a Christian holiday and somehow Boris Johnson is responsible.
Funny. BJ has been around since 1958? (Stan Freberg’s “Green Xmas” was released then) I didn’t know.
A great Jesus ‘n’ Mo, thanks! I can’t read The Torygraph article either, but I’m guessing that it’s (at least in part) a reaction to a recent proposal by the European Commission that officials adopt “inclusive” language e.g. replacing “Christmas” with “holiday season” etc. The proposal has been withdrawn now. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/30/eu-advice-on-inclusive-language-withdrawn-after-rightwing-outcry
My bad. I successfully read the article at the second attempt (stopping the download didn’t work first time). The article is about the British government’s Cabinet Office making a very similar suggestion about language to its own officials:
Even after Brexit, it seems that Boris Johnson’s government has more in common with the Brussels bureaucrats than it cares to admit to itself.
IIRC, he spent quite a bit of time in Brussels reporting on the EC.
“Making up falsehoods about the EU” would be more accurate than “reporting”
“Keep Christ in Christmas”
Go ahead then, if it makes you happy!… oh, you won’t be happy until we are too. Ah, such is life.
Christopher Hitchens had a great moment in his speaking where he suggested that ^^^ they won’t be happy until you are too – something like that.
And its corollary, “We won’t be happy until you aren’t.”
The annual festival of claiming that Christmas is being cancelled is upon us again. As usual leaving out the fact that the only people to actually cancel Christmas were Christians, specifically Puritans.
Celia Walden is married to Piers Morgan, so please remember her in your prayers.
I’m having trouble getting my comments to stick so this is just a test. Sorry.
Now it works! Never mind.
It’s a miracle!
When it did not work, were you commenting through WordPress?
I was logged into WordPress but commenting directly on the WEIT site on a Windows 10 machine via the latest Chrome browser. I restarted the browser in case it was misbehaving but that didn’t fix it. What finally fixed it was relogging into WP. This has happened before but not too often. I suspect it is something to do with WordPress.
I think the midwinter festivities, Yule and the like were usurped by the Christians.
Where do the decorating of evergreen trees in midwinter, eating venison, the giving of presents (from above) and the different Klausemans dressed in red come from?
Now don’t get me wrong, if the Christians want to add their Saviour’s birthday to that they are welcome, but don’ say that is it’s true meaning.
I suspect the true meaning is that we like to have a bash when things look dark, cold amd bleak.
Yes, the light begins to return (and our very ancient ancestors knew this, amazingly). Have a party!
To quote Hitch: “This is actually a pagan festival; it’s a good old Norse booze-up, and why the Hell not? I like solstices as much as the next person.”
I do not find that amazing, they may have been barbaric, but nowhere it is said they were retarded or so. Ancient people looked at the skies, it seems, after all, they did not have electric light pollution in those days.
You’re absolutely right, but even when I was a Christian I can’t say that I felt the defensiveness Mo talks about in the comic strip. I’m sure some Christians do, so I think the strip makes a good observation. But really, there’s not much harm in recognizing that a symbolic celebration is symbolic. A Christian feeling defensive about Jesus not really being born on Xmas is like someone trying to defend Easter egg hunts by saying Jesus ate colored eggs. There’s just no need to pretend the symbolism isn’t symbolism. Not even for believers.
How about Festivus or something like that. I think they had an aluminum pole instead of a tree. It would be impossible to eliminate Xmas. What the hell would they do with all those container ships. They are too big to be potted plants and they need a lot of work to make cruise ships out of them.
After we gather at the table to tell everyone how disappointed we are in them, it’s time for The Feats of Strength!
I’ve got a lot of problems with you people!
In the Nordic countries, they’ve been quite content to refer to Krimmis as Jul and pronounced as Yule, or derivatives of that. I checked the etymology of that – no sense of JC there, it originally referred to the pre-Xtian festival that surely correlated with the expansion of daylight hours.
So if you want to avoid Happy Holidays too, or mentioning the Solstice, just use the Swedish “Glad Jul”. (They also say God Jul, which had nothing to do with the putative celestial being and isn’t pronounced as in English either – closer to Gude .)
Or, Norwegian: God Jul!
Yes, hence it’s WEIT reader Dom’s preferred term. He’s a keen follower of the Gävle goat, too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat
My Swedish is not really sharp , but I guess the ‘god’ in that context may possibly be related to ‘good’?
Do people here know of non-Christians who are offended by phrases like ‘Merry Christmas’? A quick internet search revealed a few.
If a WEIT reader is offended, that would do too 🙂
I think it is worth citing Hitchens on this topic – the topic of celebration during the solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, to relieve the darkness – to celebrate joviality, happiness, and good things in the company of others who enjoy that too :
“Religion Poisons Everything”
Fact: John Winthrop BANNED the celebration of Christmas in newly formed Massachusetts colony. Fact: Christmas was NOT celebrated in the America of Washington, Adam, and Jefferson. Fact: Christmas did NOT become a public holiday until later in 19th century.
If people knew this, they would realize that there is actually a CONSERVATIVE case for deemphasizing Christmas as a state affair. People can have all the celebrations (and do all the shopping) they want. Just don’t expect the state to play up the date as a tribute to the nation’s supposed Christian origins, while, as it turns out, Christianity as practiced in the colonies and shortly after the Revolution was vastly different from today’s notion of it.
axial tilt is the reason for the season(s)
The article is archived at:
https://archive.md/20211130105527/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/11/29/pc-brigade-cancelled-christmas-long-covid-did-boris/