Editorial: Let the War on Christmas begin ... with coffee
Unsurprisingly, the internet has once again found a ridiculous reason to rage in an uncontrollable manner better suited for kindergarteners; and once again, it has to do with Christians, Christmas, political correctness, and being offended; and, like everything else the internet explodes over, it doesn’t matter. In fact, the Starbucks Christmas cup kerfuffle may be one of the most pointless arguments to gain so much attention.
It all started with an overzealous internet personality, Joshua Feuerstein. In a video, Feuerstein accuses Starbucks of taking Christ out of Christmas through their new Christmas cup. He complains that the absence the Christmas symbols, present on their previous cups, means that Starbucks has given into political correctness. It’s funny that Feuerstein accused Starbucks of political correctness considering that they still sell tree ornaments, an Advent calendar, “Christmas Blend” coffee, and “Christmas” gift cards.
Starbucks has created Christmas cups annually since 1996. The cups often portray snowmen, snowflakes, or other Christmas themes. However, this year’s cup is a simple red cup and some people have lost their minds. Somehow, snowflakes count as the true meaning of a Christian Christmas. Because nothing represents Jesus’s birth better than snowflakes. But the color red? Outrageous.
Now, we all know that obviously people have taken the whole situation too far and that it’s just a case of some unimportant guy raging unnecessarily for his personal beliefs. What makes it so awful is that anyone cares in the first place. The majority of the anger from this video is not from Feuerstein and his followers but from the rest of us watching his ridiculous rant and screaming internally as well as externally on social media. His video currently has just under 16 million views. Those views are not from his noble followers but from the rest of us sharing our communal disdain for this man’s disdain.
The video causes a reaction among any sensible person because we realize how silly Feuerstein’s crusade is. So we share it, rant about it, write school editorials about it. This man does not deserve our attention.
Let’s make a proposition. The next time we see a man on the internet doing something that enrages us so much that we feel we must make a reaction; we are going instead to watch videos of kittens chasing dots of light. We may scream our brains out into a pillow if we must, but we will not publicly recognize that such a man exists because as long as a man like Feuerstein knows he can create public outrage, he is winning. So instead of ranting about how this man does not truly embody the spirit of Christianity or Christmas, ignore him. He isn’t worth our time.
This editorial reflects the collective opinion of the LSNews.org editorial board. Its lead author was opinion editor Aaron Davies. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Lampeter-Strasburg School District, its administration, or the advisor of LSNews.org. Questions or concerns can be directed to lspioneernews@gmail.com.
--THE EDITORIAL BOARD (AD)
