Post a controversial opinion

Mushy appeasement

i feel awful for people who are capable of enjoying mayo because they are broken

^ evidence of bodhisattva-like compassion in industrial quantities

i am a malthusian. there are too many people using too much oil on the planet, now. we cannot sustain this. i would be willing to vote for a candidate that would institute a two-child policy in the u.s., or any other western state.

i'm kind of okay with a little bit of fascism.

I recently heard that Christmas was originally in the summer but a pope moved it to win over converts. Do any Christians still do it in summer?

australians iirc

fascism is bad monster mash. you might just mean like authoritarianism i think but that kinda sucks too :( regardless you probably have much to look forward to.

Anyone who celebrates xmas in the southern hemisphere celebrates it at midsummer, basically

People who are otherwise not religious or especially not Christian putting up Christmas trees are weird.

My family does this, I participate and (usually) enjoy it, and I agree with you.

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, 13 December 2015 23:55 (Yesterday) Permalink

I like blinking lights so there.

Should only Christians eat Easter Eggs?

Christians have so much fun, yay Christians!

I thought Christmas Trees was a pagan thing, anyway.

Go on, where in the nativity does a tree have a particularly important role?

Frankincense and (I have no idea how to spell) Mhyrr come from trees

Myrrh.

But anyway,

Christians have so much fun, yay Christians!

― Anyway, it's not a three, it's a yogh. (Tom D.), Monday, 14 December 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

We should adopt whatev religion affords us more time off work. Do Hindus have more holidays?

Frankincense and (I have no idea how to spell) Mhyrr come from trees

can probably add the manger to this list

the gold prob came from an alluvial deposit but you don't see too much tarted up alluvium in december; no consistency.

I wasn't raised with any religious affiliation whatsoever but my family has always celebrated X-Mas. I love the decorations and the spirit of the thing so I've maintained the celebration (with entirely secular decorations). My Jewish girlfriend was into it to a limited extent in previous years but she really pushed to kick the decorating up a notch this year. We also have a menorah. Ours is an inclusive household.

I totally get being weirded out by the pervasiveness, though, as someone who's never had any connection to the reason for the season. Butthurt Christians doubling down on their insistence that no one ever wantonly make reference to HOLIDAY festivities just makes it weirder.

it makes me uneasy when the "secular" celebrations that "everyone" does just happens to coincide with longstanding traditions explicitly associated with a specific religion (however rooted in Paganism or non-Christianity many of the traditions may be). Just because I can sing a dozen Christmas songs does not make them secular, it means that I'm the product of decades of more or less innocent indoctrination.

This is basically OTM. I don't find it that odd when non-believers who have a Christian background celebrate Christmas in a secular sort of way but I think it is a bit funny that my Hindu family celebrates it, although I'm not religious at all myself. I couldn't even tell you when any Hindu holidays are. (I think Deepawali was about a month ago? I got some emails iirc.)

'secular'

While we're on Christian hegemony, Catholicism and Protestantism should not be considered different religions, at least no more so than Saivite Hinduism and Vaishnavite Hinduism.

rum romanism and rebellion imo

(I think Deepawali was about a month ago? I got some emails iirc.)

Yes I was in India last November - it was a novelty to see emptier streets in a big Indian city (Pune)

"Just because I can sing a dozen Christmas songs does not make them secular"

I kinda think it kinda might, or at least it suggests that what's bleeding out here is not so inherent to Catholicism that you can't participate to a fairly large extent without ever encountering any yknow religion

My personal beef is muted but I understand the beef. Rudolph has nothing to do with Christianity but hearing of his mighty feats every December is a perennial reminder to non-adherents of the pervasiveness of Christianity.

Try to remember how we all felt when My Name Is Earl was still on the air.

(Perhaps only applicable to USILXors.)

christmas is so vast & inclusive it is appropriation-proof. ironic christmas trees, satanic festive jumpers; everyone can go for it

sadly my name is earl and its wider reverberations were not limited to the US in a similar way to e.g. christian guff not being limited to churches

wait is my name is earl bad now or

Rudolph : Christianity :: My Name Is Earl : Scientology

We should adopt whatev religion affords us more time off work.

OTM. Sleeping late is the universal religion.

Dude hates Christmas and ketchup I'm off to lay a cheeky tenner on him kicking at least three puppies this week

I love ketchup! My entire post about ketchup was me talking about coming to grips with the fact that I love the condiment equivalent of Coca-Cola.

I did trip over the cat this morning, but I think that was more shin contact, and yeah, he had it coming.

coca-cola is pretty good, had one this morning

looking at pictures of people loving the hell out of santa and christmas crap in japan always warms my heart

"A festival commemorating the birth of Christ has become so thoroughly mainstream that everyone participates, regardless of belief." I mean, I have fun with it too but are ILXors really unwilling to, um, unpack this? Or is it just that it's an obvious point and it's more fun to celebrate? Christmas never had a pagan meaning, even if Christians co-opted pagan symbols and rituals for a Christian festival.

Mayo and ketchup are both duds, btw, although ketchup is tolerable if vinegar is not available for fries.

how do you feel about halloween?

coca-cola is awesome, i'd assume that was a non-controversial opinion except that p much everyone i know seems to brag about how they never drink soda

whoa, have we really never had a condiments poll?

I think this should be a ballot poll and not a radio button poll, why because a) why should ILM have all the fun, b) it might even be possible to get JCLC to cough up a ballot, and c) somewhat more accurate results. I'd even be willing to run it.

Mustmayostardayonnaise ftw.

Yeah soda snobbery is the new "I don't watch tv". Just wait until soda reaches its Sopranos/Wire stage then everyone will be drinking it on their Hulus and Netflixes

xp DO IT WMC

And soda rules, btw. Who cares if it's bad for you. Most of the best things in life are bad for you: cigarettes, nuclear weapons, slap fighting

I pretty much never drink soda. So when I do drink soda, it's amazing. I used to do it on the reg but I could never allow it to become so pedestrian and underappreciated an experience again.

Coca-Cola is queen of the colas, and colas rule the roost among standard (i.e., common fountain) sodas. All reasonable people agree on this.

But non-standard sodas have their own separate hierarchy: Gosling's ginger beer, Pennsylvania Dutch birch beer, San Pellegrino Pompelmo, ginger ale, Dr. Pepper, Dr. Brown's black cherry, root beer, cream soda...

I don't drink regular soda because I'm diabetic. But the difference between Coke Zero (tastes like what I remember Coke tasting like) and Diet Coke (tastes like I poured a battery in my mouth) is astonishing to me.

Love Coca-Cola more than ketchup, but the former has even more all but fallen from my diet, even as a sometimes food. In fact, soda consumption in the US at least has been dropping precipitously. (Hence, shrinking sizes: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/less-is-more-for-coca-cola-small-packs-mean-big-business/ ;not coincidentally, American weights have been dropping as well.) Related or perhaps coincidentally, iirc Coca-Cola not too long ago started making "Mexican" Coke (that is, made with real sugar) exclusively for the US market while introducing HFCS into Mexican Coke sold in Mexico (still one of the top if not the top soda consuming nation). It's as if they've given up on the US as a will-consume-anything and are focusing their energies elsewhere. See also: cigarette companies.

FWIW, I think the "I don't watch TV" thing really coincided with the rise of iPads and stuff, and is therefore somewhat disingenuous. All those "I don't watch TV" people are clearly watching the hell out of other, smaller screens. Like, I don't watch the news, not a minute of it, and haven't for years. And I don't watch sports. So I don't have cable, and, functionally, don't watch TV. But I stream lots of movies, and old shows, and surf the web, etc., which has supplanted TV. My kids, for example, literally never ask to watch TV, and I'm not sure even understand the concept of shows you can only watch once a week. But they sure watch "TV."

nah, I know people who have done this "I don't watch tv" thing for years. Most of them just really aren't into scripted entertainment which is kind of weird, but hey, do your own thing.

it's perfectly fine for people to listen to Drake

i feel like we're so close to crossing over with unacceptable fetishes now

http://adequateman.deadspin.com/how-to-find-ethical-porn-1747377597

Show real sex and real pleasure. One producer says, “There’s no expectation that the performers be ‘open to the camera’ or hamming it up for the viewer. They simply do what they do and I try and capture what I can.” Some companies exclusively work with real couples.

is this porn rockism? lol. if you're a pornographic performer who is proud of his or her ability to earn a living from a performance & you're told that it is actually Bad For You that you've been performing, that doesn't seem v ethical to me....

i prefer my porn free range & organic