I'm politically incorrect...does that make me a bad person?

[MelBridgeman]

Airport Christmas Trees Gone After Rabbi's Request

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2715008&page=1

[ZDogg]

Festivus for the Rest of us!

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by foofighter15

haha. You never know if the Leafs have a spy in here.

These days I think the Leafs are too busy looking for naked pictures of themselves on the net to be spying around here.

[sadora]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Hands up whoever feels their rights and freedoms have been eroded by political correctness.

This stuff comes up every year and I always wonder who honestly feels affected by this crap. Who cares what the mall calls Christmas?

Does these trivial nothings actually offend people?

PC is a bunch of BS IMO, and does anyone actually get offended by the word Christmas.
There's one little bit that offends me in the original post and that's the language portion of the rant. Being an immigrant myself I'm lucky that I came at a young age, I learned the language fairly quickly. And yes, I agree that people should try to learn the language. But using my parents as the best example, they speak English, perhaps not as well as some would like but you have to understand that the language barrier is tougher when you get older. Let's see you be forced to leave Canada because suddenly the political climate here becomes unbearable and dangerous, so you have to go live somewhere where English isn't the first language. Depending on how old you are you might have difficulties learning the language but you might also do okay...then one day some effing moron in a message board goes on a rant about not wanting YOU to speak your language...then tell me how you feel about it.

[sadora]

Originally Posted by ZDogg

Festivus for the Rest of us!

That's awesome...that's what we're calling our xmas (hope no one gets offended by the x before mas) party at work. Festivus for the rest of us...the pub crawl.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Airport Christmas Trees Gone After Rabbi's Request

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2715008&page=1

Yeah, that was discussed here a lot last year.

[The Yen Man]

Are you a bad person? Well, in the immortal words of Troy McClure when little Timmy asked him a similar question:

Little Timmy: "I have this crazy friend who tells me its wrong to eat beef. Is he crazy?"

Troy: "No, just ignorant."

Seriously, that rant in the email is ignorant. Like many people have pointed out, its not even immigrants who are offended. It's some of these PC Nazis that's causing the stink, and they use the offending immigrants arguments to their own advantage. Ask any immigrant if they're offended by "Merry Christmas" and I can guarantee you that 99.99 percent of them won't be.

[sadora]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Ask any immigrant if they're offended by "Merry Christmas" and I can guarantee you that 99.99 percent of them won't be.

Nope. I'm not offended by that.

[sec304]

HO HO HO!! Oops, sorry if I offended anyone by that comment...

[Kipper is King]

Ok, I agree that people working in retail not being able to say "Merry Christmas" is overkill.

But we must be respectful of immigrants. Canada is a mosaic, not a melting pot. I think it is wonderful that immigrants are able to come here and maintain their culture and heritage.

As for the language difficulties they may have, I don't mind. Often, immigrants are trying hard to learn English. If you moved to another country, I'd bet you would have trouble with the language too. As well, immigrants have a right to speak in their mother tounge as they please.

[Kipper is King]

Originally Posted by sec304

HO HO HO!! Oops, sorry if I offended anyone by that comment...

Mommy! Santa's imitating a prostitute!

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Kipper is King

Ok, I agree that people working in retail not being able to say "Merry Christmas" is overkill.

But we must be respectful of immigrants. Canada is a mosaic, not a melting pot. I think it is wonderful that immigrants are able to come here and maintain their culture and heritage.

As for the language difficulties they may have, I don't mind. Often, immigrants are trying hard to learn English. If you moved to another country, I'd bet you would have trouble with the language too. As well, immigrants have a right to speak in their mother tounge as they please.

I do not find it disrespectful to say Merry Christmas. Really, you are just passing on a message of peace. Would you find it disrespectful to say Happy Hannukak to some Jewish friends?

It just comes down to common sense and it comes down to education and it comes down to both sides meeting one another in the middle. Make it a point to be informed about the cultures of others. It is when you are uneducated about something that you are more likely to put your feet in your mouth.

With education comes acceptance , and I say acceptance rather than tolerance. In my opinion, it conveys a totally different picture to say you accept the differences of others rather than saying you tolerate those differences.

[Ayrahb]

Blue square for the thread starter for the sake of matching his/her post font colour?

We have PC for a reason, even if it does go overboard sometimes. Some of us demand it because there are people out there who tend to take too many liberties in the way they treat others.

Some unfortunately demand it just for the sake of complaining. I am talking about the type of people who are whining that John Masefield's picture looks too much like Hitler in that pub or like the good rabbi in the airport Christmas tree article.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by kevman

editing out the nigh-impossible to read e-mail

I am against the kind of low-intelligence demonstrated by those people who write, send out, and propogate these kinds of ridiculous e-mails. Write out your thoughts intelligently with the proper grammer and formatting (please release CAPS LOCK) or don't write them at all.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

I'm a minority. Probably one of the most minor of minorities cause I'm pretty sure there aren't too many Malaysian born people in Calgary.

I have no issues with Christmas. As a matter of fact, I celebrate it. I love everything about Christmas, and I can honestly say I didn't celebrate Christmas prior to coming to Canada.

I don't think I've ever encountered anyone objecting to Christmas. I have encountered caucasian folks correcting me on the greeting though (Don't say Merry Christmas, seasons greetings instead!), which I found amusing and told them to go F*** themselves.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by TheyCallMeBruce

I'm a minority. Probably one of the most minor of minorities cause I'm pretty sure there aren't too many Malaysian born people in Calgary.

I have no issues with Christmas. As a matter of fact, I celebrate it. I love everything about Christmas, and I can honestly say I didn't celebrate Christmas prior to coming to Canada.

I don't think I've ever encountered anyone objecting to Christmas. I have encountered caucasian folks correcting me on the greeting though (Don't say Merry Christmas, seasons greetings instead!), which I found amusing and told them to go F*** themselves.

Yes, the problem in general is not the immigrants it is these stupid SOB's that run around and want everyone to be PC and from what I have seen these people are white Canadians sticking thier nose in places it doesn't belong.

Having said that, my wife is a teacher.....when she was working in the public school division there were a few students in every class that refused to stand for the national anthem because they said it was against there religion. I say BFS. They wanted to move to Canada to have a better life yet they can't be proud of Canada and support their new country. It has nothing to do with religion.

[corporatejay]

Someone brought up an interesting point. Has anyone who is of muslim/jewish/buddhist/other relilgious point of view ever said "saying merry christmas is offensive to me". Cuz I never have. If my jewish friends wish me Happy Chanukah I don't say "please, I'm christian, that offends me".


Like someone said, this seems like extremism on both ends

[Devils'Advocate]

First off, I agree with those that are saying that the right is blaming the immigrant population for something that they have no role in. It's typically not the Muslims that are at fault here, but blaming them is the politically correct thing to do these days.

Secondly, this is mostly between the Christians and the atheists. The ones kicking up dust are people like me who correct people when they wish me a Merry Christmas. I know everyone and their dog are going to pile on now - "but they were only wishing you well!!!". Yeah, well, so is that guy down at Rideau Centre that is constantly screaming "MAY THE GRACE OF GOD BE WITH YOU!" and "MAY OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR WATCH OVER YOU!". Maybe that's what the Walmart greeters should be saying.

So if you want to blame somebody, blame me. The evil heathen atheist.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

First off, I agree with those that are saying that the right is blaming the immigrant population for something that they have no role in. It's typically not the Muslims that are at fault here, but blaming them is the politically correct thing to do these days.

Secondly, this is mostly between the Christians and the atheists. The ones kicking up dust are people like me who correct people when they wish me a Merry Christmas. I know everyone and their dog are going to pile on now - "but they were only wishing you well!!!". Yeah, well, so is that guy down at Rideau Centre that is constantly screaming "MAY THE GRACE OF GOD BE WITH YOU!" and "MAY OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR WATCH OVER YOU!". Maybe that's what the Walmart greeters should be saying.

So if you want to blame somebody, blame me. The evil heathen atheist.

When someone wishes you merry Christmas....what exactly do you say back?

[Thor]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

First off, I agree with those that are saying that the right is blaming the immigrant population for something that they have no role in. It's typically not the Muslims that are at fault here, but blaming them is the politically correct thing to do these days.

Secondly, this is mostly between the Christians and the atheists. The ones kicking up dust are people like me who correct people when they wish me a Merry Christmas. I know everyone and their dog are going to pile on now - "but they were only wishing you well!!!". Yeah, well, so is that guy down at Rideau Centre that is constantly screaming "MAY THE GRACE OF GOD BE WITH YOU!" and "MAY OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR WATCH OVER YOU!". Maybe that's what the Walmart greeters should be saying.

So if you want to blame somebody, blame me. The evil heathen atheist.

lol

As a fellow Atheist I don't care if people say Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, etc.. I don't care what decorations stores put up, its pretty and really we have much much bigger issues to deal with in life than this.

My only request is that public schools be kept secular, and that government stays out of religion and its holidays.

Other than that, decorate your houses, your churches stores, cars.. I'm more than OK with it all, just don't have the government or our public schools involved.

I think thats only fair.