• 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2533·
    1 month ago

    Christmas is no longer a holiday that honors the Christian god, it’s a holiday that honors the god of capitalism, money.

    • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      657·
      1 month ago

      Cool, so it’s still worth eschewing /s

      I would like to note though that xmas is a very sore time of year for a lot of people (mostly queer, but others too) who do not have a good relationship with their family

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      1 month ago

      I just use it to have a merry time with my family. Corporations try to co-opt everything; Christmas is no different. Is Pride about honoring greed and capitalism just because companies make everything rainbow? No, and neither is Christmas even though they try their best with that too. The only difference is buying gifts, but Christmas is about more than that, and homemade gifts are always an option.

    • M137@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 month ago

      We’ve stopped with presents in my family, except for the kids. And they don’t get showered in them, a few things they really want, preferably cheap. Everyone else just wants nice food and family coziness.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
      611·
      1 month ago

      Wait, did I read that correctly and they replaced the hat with a snowflake?? Hahahaha

      And yes, people often forget that generally offense is taken. When it’s intentionally given, it’s pretty clear.

    • LePoisson@lemmy.world
      371·
      1 month ago

      Jesus Christ what is wrong with people… Microsoft giving in to a clear troll, surprised they didn’t just lock and ignore that shit and move on.

      • BangersAndMash@lemmy.world
        28·
        1 month ago

        Jesus Christ is not my Lord and saviour. I demand you delete this post immediately and apologise. This is as insulting to me as pineapple on a pizza

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 month ago

          Pineapples are an affront to my deity since they are neither pine nor apples. Please delete your account immediately

    • Ansis100@lemmy.world
      20·
      1 month ago

      Love the fact that this spawned new issues complaining about the debugger icon promoting violence against insects.

      • timestatic@feddit.org
        1·
        1 month ago

        What, the gear or the snowflake? I mean I know they are trolling but how do they make a connection to insects with that? That insects die in winter from cold temperatures?

        • Ansis100@lemmy.world
          4·
          1 month ago

          I meant the debugger button, not the settings button. In the issue it showed up as an bug with a line going through it, as if saying “no insects allowed”.

    • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
      11·
      1 month ago

      Nice. Honestly, pretty well corralled, I would say.

      Incidentally, I’m amused that one of the more popular responses includes the classic phrase

      “Why can’t we all just get along”

      Which I tend to notice after having had it explained well to me once by someone with more empathy than my own.

      I won’t belabor it, but they pointed out to me that being tempted to say “Why can’t we all just get along” is usually a sign that we haven’t actually listened effectively.

      So now when I hear or read “Why can’t we all just get along”, I see that [X] and hear the buzz from “Family Feud”, and hear one of the Family Feud host kindly say “No points. Let’s try again.”

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 month ago

        Yeah, that’s basically saying “Can’t we just ignore the issue?”, which is easy if you’re the one who the issue isn’t affecting.

    • nialv7@lemmy.world
      64·
      1 month ago

      not supporting the complainer but it is kinda scary how much control western culture has over tech…

      there are so many holidays over the world. why christmas but not, say, Songkran or Chinese New Year?

      • marcos@lemmy.world
        182·
        1 month ago

        Because the authors celebrate Christmas, but not Songkran or the Chinese New Year.

  • josefo@leminal.space
    853·
    1 month ago

    What religious symbol? Saint Nicholas had nothing to do with the fat guy dressed in red that coca cola made up. The hat is fine goddammit

  • PureTryOut@lemmy.kde.social
    613·
    1 month ago

    Christmas is religion yes, but Santa doesn’t really have anything to do with religion other than being on Christmas right?

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
      421·
      1 month ago

      Yea, Santa is the more secular icon. There are even Christians that take issue with the Santa character (which is a combination of “Pagan” and Christian mythos). I put Pagan in quotes, as that’s a Christian term for certain non-Christian beliefs.

    • Riskable@programming.devEnglish
      279·
      1 month ago

      Santa is a stand-in for Jesus… for children. They’re both magical beings that can perform miracles and have similar methods: Both Santa and Jesus have naughty lists and forms of punishment that come later; much later (both are equivalent lengths of time to a child though 🤣). Both bring “gifts”. Both have traditional appearances. Both have followers that wear silly hats and strange clothes. But most importantly…

      Both are imaginary.

      If you believe in Santa as an adult you’re ridiculed. If you believe in Jesus as an adult you’re just labeled, “Christian”. Yet the fact that nearly every child eventually finds out Santa isn’t real is quite disturbing to a lot of Christians. After all, if they could stop believing in Santa–who is so similar to Jesus in every way–then they could stop believing in Jesus.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
        271·
        1 month ago

        You have to start off believing the little lies like the Hogfather before you can believe in the big lies like justice

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 month ago

        After all, if they could stop believing in Santa–who is so similar to Jesus in every way–then they could stop believing in Jesus.

        This is a laughably bad faith interpretation of the issue. Please, please leave this r/atheism exaggerated strawman rhetoric out of this website. I’m pretty sure most people on Lemmy are already atheist anyways.

      • P4ulin_Kbana
        3·
        1 month ago

        You might not believe about what the Bible says about Jesus, but historically, there was at some point a person named Jesus. Whether or not he was like the Bible describes is another story. /lh

        • Riskable@programming.devEnglish
          3·
          1 month ago

          Historically, there were probably tens of thousands of people named, “Jesus” around that time. There were also loads and LOADS of people crucified by the Romans. If you were to make up a story and try to make it believable wouldn’t you pick a likely starting point?

          • P4ulin_Kbana
            1·
            1 month ago

            That there was a person named Jesus who got a lot of attention and they are an important figure in Christianity.

      • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
        141·
        1 month ago

        “Based on” and what people associate with now are vastly different. Most people don’t even know if Saint Nick is based on a real person.

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 month ago

          They popularized it, but didn’t truly invent the classic depiction. Related fun fact, Santa used to commonly be green, and he looks pretty cool that way too!

    • TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub
      112·
      1 month ago

      Besides both being fairy tales, I would say it’s even anti religious, since religious Christmas clashes with it, yet he doesn’t bring gifts to baby Jesus. He brings commercial toys to all the other children.

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 month ago

          Now I’m curious, you know those gift spots where you can drop them off at like grocery stores and stuff to give to families in need? I wonder if the majority of those are labelled as from Santa, or from the parents? It’d be interesting to do a little survey.

          • Nougat@fedia.io
            1·
            1 month ago

            I would think that in that kind of “unstructured” gift donation that parents/guardians would be able to come in and pick appropriate gifts for their kids, along with some wrapping paper, then wrap and tag them themselves.

            • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              1 month ago

              Right, that’s probably what they do, but I’m wondering how they tag it after they select one. Apologies for the confusion

  • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    412·
    1 month ago

    What’s more infuriating is that they immediately gave in and removed it without any discussion

    • AlmightyTritan@beehaw.org
      2·
      1 month ago

      Ehhh better to be safe that have a discussion on religion and persecution in the issues board. Then it doesnt linger as an open ticket.

      I feel like discussion about something like this is better suited for like a forum or a dedicated discussion channel. They discuss in a followup on the issue thread that they think even one offended person is too many, and they want to be as neutral as possible, which I think is commendable.

      I think even if its a troll, its better to err on the side of “what if it is a real person, and they are offended.” Obviously, this needs to be taken within reason, like intolerance is not a valid reason etc etc.

    • BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      1 month ago

      I’m no fan of Microsoft but I get it… In the current political climate nobody wants to take the risks of being the subject of a backlash involving Judaism. The cost of keeping it was way greater than to remove it.

      I act the same every time I meet a lunatic claiming whatever I’m doing is “offending” them: I politely apologise and go on with my day without a fuss in order to be left alone.

  • Randelung@lemmy.world
    352·
    1 month ago

    It’s always baffling how people can define something as unacceptable. Says who? You? Who are you to just make that decision so unilaterally?

    You can have your opinion, but it’s just that.

        • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
          31·
          1 month ago

          That’s how it always goes. It’s not that I’m offended. Is that it is offensive, objectively. It’s silly.

          • Randelung@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 month ago

            Yes, that’s what I’m challenging. Who do people think they are to think their subjective opinion is objective truth?

            It usually goes hand in hand with not justifying themselves because “everyone agrees it’s unacceptable”.

            • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
              1·
              1 month ago

              Sorry I edited my comment to make it clear I agree it’s silly. Nothing is objectively offensive.

  • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
    352·
    1 month ago

    This is nothing new, people expect religion not to be part of the “professional” environment. Dunno if VS code applies.

    At the office (big corp) they don’t call it the “Christmas Party”, it’s “the holiday party”. They put lights and stuff up but no more Christmas trees/stars etc… not everyone celebrates christmas so that’s fine by me. If Microsoft wants to put a little santa hat on their product that’s fine by me too. If I was using some service based in Mexico and they put a little hat on a product for cinco de mayo i wouldn’t care. Christmas has other implications so it might be different, dunno

    • mvilain@fedia.io
      93·
      1 month ago

      Back in the mid-80s, when I got an email from HR about the Christmas Party at the local office, I sent a reply to the district HR manager complaining that not everyone in the company celebrated Christmas. Later that day, another email came out announcing the Holiday Party. So glad I had a hand in educating HR.

      • cfi@lemmy.world
        5·
        1 month ago

        Company’s used email to that extent in the 80s? I get that tech jobs, unis, and research groups used it, but there was a company using it widely enough that HR used it?

    • RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works
      61·
      1 month ago

      Personally, I’d rather we started celebrating everyone’s religious holidays instead of tiptoeing around Christmas. More parties and we get to learn about different cultures.