Does it seem like the “War on Christmas” comes earlier every year? ’Tis barely the season yet, and this week wingnuts are seeing red about Starbuck’s decidedly minimalist holiday cups.
Starbucks decided to keep it simple for the holidays this year. Last month the company revealed its toned down holiday season cups: two toned, red and white, sans the “symbols of the season” — reindeer, ornaments, snowflakes, etc.
Vice president Jeffrey Fields said the company wanted to “usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.” The cups were intended to be a blank canvas for customers draw their own designs. Starbucks said it would continue to embrace and welcome customers from all backgrounds and faiths. What a lovely holiday sentiment, right? Very “Peace on Earth, good will to men.”
Well, not in wingnuttia. There was no “joy to the world” in wingnuttia. Former paster and self-proclaimed “social media personality” Joshua Feuerstein started a firestorm when he posted a video to Facebook claiming that Starbucks removed “Christmas from their cups because they hate Jesus,” and encouraging customers to say, “Merry Christmas” instead of their names, so that baristas would have to write the phrase on their cups.
[fve]https://youtu.be/OpXsueDQi0E[/fve]
Now, to anyone with even a little sense, the major flaw in this plan is obvious: All it will accomplish is that lots of people will get the wrong order. Even with barista’s shouting, “Merry Christmas? Is there a Merry Christmas here,” the mood will quickly change from festive to foul.
Wingnuts, as usual, lost what was left of their minds.
- Bristol Palin urged her followers not to fall for the Starbucks controversy, because it was “an attempt by the LEFT to make Christians look stupid.” As if they needed any help from a “vast left-wing conspiracy” to accomplish that.
- Donald Trump declared, during campaign stopped in Illinois, “If I become president, we’re all going to be saying Merry Christmas again.” Just how he plans to enforce that is anybody’s guess. Last year, Trump declared “war on Christmas” himself, with a holiday wishing everyone “Happy Holiday, from the Trump Hotel Collection.”
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV1nLI6ql05zkhI6l75AqXmtmCvHinSlR&w=640]
The conspiracy bit doesn’t fly, because Feuerstein has been around for years, and has a huge conservative Christian following online. It wasn’t a “leftist” who urged right-wingers to use #MerryChristmasStarbucks to post pictures online.
Can I get a name for your cup? Sure. "Merry Christmas" #MerryChristmasStarbucks pic.twitter.com/lFgFASnBsi
— Jay Carr (@Jay_Carr) November 6, 2015
Im asking Starbucks to put Merry Christmas on my cup. #MerryChristmasStarbucks pic.twitter.com/CuZIBxZ6oS
— Leah Whatley (@ElyonSpaGirl) November 6, 2015
Because they took "Merry Christmas" off their cups! #MerryChristmasStarbucks pic.twitter.com/FPEcxb6af0
— Kelly Williams (@Rain_Fire75) November 6, 2015
But the hashtag proved incredibly easy (and great fun) to mock.
I think I maybe fixed this Starbucks cup problem but I dunno if I'm doing it right??? #MerryChristmasStarbucks pic.twitter.com/CNByFkskxf
— Mike Kendrick (@mike_kendrick) November 10, 2015
Twitter Mocks #MerryChristmasStarbucks With Hysterical #ItsJustACup https://t.co/xquKz1DQpa #lgbt #p2 #noh8 #gay pic.twitter.com/hQTTIDVpBl
— Gay Civil Rights (@gaycivilrights) November 10, 2015
Just picked up my morning coffee at Starbucks https://t.co/AwOhPNsXEi #MerryChristmasStarbucks pic.twitter.com/W4SUqiRupw
— Christian Nightmares (@ChristnNitemare) November 10, 2015
I don't know guys, my red cup is very accurate #merrychristmasstarbucks pic.twitter.com/K7TrP6ZOYN
— Princess Love (@kevinjn) November 9, 2015
I fixed the controversial Starbucks "Christmas" cup. #merrychristmasstarbucks pic.twitter.com/kCOIPyb9mU
— jamilah (@JamilahLemieux) November 9, 2015
Jesus, your robe isn't Christmasy enough. Taking the you out of Christmas. 🙁#MerryChristmasStarbucks @Starbucks pic.twitter.com/6KnBEyL6UQ
— Mandy Meisenheimer (@mandymeis) November 8, 2015
Showing my support for #pigperson hate preacher bigot @TheEvangelist and his #merrychristmasstarbucks campaign pic.twitter.com/F4ueGgvI4Y
— rob dobi (@Robdobi) November 7, 2015
Here’s how Starbucks’ cups have changed over the years.
Notice anything? There’s no baby Jesus, no cross, no wise men, no North Star, but plenty of trees, ornaments, snow flakes, and snowmen — all sort of secular symbol. Since when did those things become Christian symbols? Starbucks didn’t remove overtly Christian symbols from its cups, because it never put those symbols on them in the first place.
Anyway, as Rude Pundit pointed out, if some Christians are upset about Starbucks’ minimalist holiday cups, then can fill theirs with Starbucks’ explicitly named “Christmas Blend” for 2015.
Hey, Christians raging over Starbucks' red cup, here's their 2015 Christmas Blend coffee. Not holiday: pic.twitter.com/SJ6im7aak5
— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) November 9, 2015
Just don’t tell them that Starbucks has also turned 97 of its Seattle locations into LGBT safe spaces and is training 2,000 of its employees on how to respond to and engage with LGBT victims of violence, and how to report hate crimes to police. And don’t tell them that Starbucks
Here’s the rest of the best in wingnuttia this week:
- Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, and Bobby Jindal all spoke this weekend at the National Religious Liberties Conference in Iowa, an event hosted by Colorado pastor and activist Kevin Swanson, who has preached that the penalty for homosexuality is death, and defended a proposed anti-gay law in Uganda.
- This time, Swanson was a little nicer. He said the death penalty could be held off until gays had time to repent.
- Swanson also said that if he son were gay and got married he’d sit in cow manure and spread it all over his body. That might actually be fun to watch.
- She back! Former Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared on Tony Perkins’ “Washington Week” radio show, and said that Christians need to start converting Jews before the Rapture comes. “We recognize the shortness of the hour,” she said.
- Executive director of the Independent Women’s forum, a conservative women’s group, said during an appearance on PBS’s To the Contrary that the “over-sexualization of women” is to blame for violence against women.
- Ouch! John Bel Edwards, Sen. David Vitter’s Democratic opponent for governor of Louisiana, went there this week, with an ad reminding voters of Vitter’s salacious past.
- According to Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Social security causes people to “spiral downward” into heroin addiction.
- Donald Trump’s campaign organizers sat Johari Osayi Idusuyi behind Trump at a recent campaign speech, “because she’s black.” Idusuyi became an instant internet celebrity when she protested by quietly reading her book while Trump spoke. “I’m genuinely not interested in him as a person, but if you have the chance to see a presidential candidate, why not?” Idusuyi said.
- Guess what the wifi password for the GOP presidential debate was: StopHillary.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV1nLI6ql05yLbjqLfDGKb5ywoCIbP–40&w=640]
