Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (147528)	11/18/2005 4:50:03 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793832

You are correct, M~, IMO anyway. In fact, if those of us who want to have Christmas mentioned in the stores, stop buying at the stores, I would think that the store owners would start to take notice. I've decided not to purchase anything from any store this year that has decided to be totally PC....I'm also going to tell the store Manager that I've made the decision, and why. Also, am thinking of getting a lot of dollar bills, all of which say "In God We Trust", and use them for my purchases, with a remark about why... Rain on Mr. Newdow.

To: Neeka who wrote (147528)	11/18/2005 8:01:31 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793832

What you fail to address is that those offended Christians are just as powerful monetarily as the anti-merry Christmas crowd. Yes, that's an interesting dimension. I didn't address it because it was irrelevant to my point, which was only to disabuse you of the notion that "majority" is relevant to this issue. And I'm disinclined to address it because I can only speculate from my experience in organizational policy making. The instinct to switch from Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays is, IMO, natural and obvious for people in those decision making positions. Big institutions like government and corporations switched a long time ago. The instinct to try to include everyone rather than marginalizing some is one of those instincts common and essential to people of good will. It's part of humanity 101. People want to be nice or at least be thought of as nice so that's one of the values that they adopt if it doesn't come naturally. And even if they don't want to be thought of as nice, they have legal departments telling them to at least act nice in those arena where they are vulnerable. My speculation is that it simply never occurred to people in those decision-making positions that there would be a backlash against something so basic and normal in their environments as being inclusive. I speculate that it never occurred to them that people who bill themselves as Christians could ever be so small and so nasty as to take offense at niceness and inclusiveness. But that has happened and they either don't know what to do with it or have decided that they are on safer ground sticking with niceness and inclusiveness. What you fail to address is that those offended Christians are just as powerful monetarily as the anti-merry Christmas crowd. I don't know if they're doing polls and studies. They probably should be. If they are, I doubt they are polling how many people prefer "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays" and going with the majority. It makes no business sense to do that. They may be polling to find out how many are so distressed by each of those phrases that they refuse to shop or have a diminished shopping urge. If they were to come up with a measure of the hypersensitive (anti Merry Christmas) vs. the nasty (anti Happy Holidays), I don't have a clue which would be larger. I would hope neither would amount to much. It's Christmas time, after all.