Halloween is barely over, and we’re already sparring about this ongoing, fictional “War on Christmas.” Is this real life?
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By now you’ve probably caught wind of Donald Trump’s announcement that “Maybe we should boycott Starbucks,” pointing to their simplistic annual holiday designs on their cups. “Did you read about Starbucks? No more Merry Christmas on Starbucks,” he said at a speech in Illinois. Trump continues his rant the claim that when he’s president, “We’ll all be saying Merry Christmas again.”
However, the annual holiday designs never actually said the words “Merry Christmas,” but featured simple designs of Christmas trees, ornaments, snowflakes, snowmen, etc. There is no company policy regarding employees saying “Merry Christmas” to customers, although there has been controversy over that as well.
Starbucks is a global company with over 23,000 stores in 68 countries. While a majority of Americans celebrate Christmas, not all cultures that consume Starbucks are dominated by the Christian faith. The simplistic design of the red cup is modeled to signify the coming of the holiday season, and yes, it does not say Merry Christmas on the cup, as it never has to begin with. It’s modeled to appeal to a mass audience and continue building profit for the coffee giant. Surely a wealthy man like Donald Trump should understand this, and he probably does.
However, we are a culture of conflict and short attention spans. Manufacturing conflict is an easy way to gain attention. As with any “war,” the “War on Christmas” is fueled by propoganda. This is where I find myself in the middle of my own moral and ethical conflicts by even writing about this nonsense. These conflicts are often fabricated by the media using the opinions of a minority of the lunatic fringe to bait you into clicking on an article, or at least share it without ever reading it.
Here’s a little insight into how this stuff works. Someone constructs an issue that isn’t real that polarizes two groups and instigates conflict so we will post argumentative rants on social media. By the next day, those conflicts have manifested themselves into something tangible and #Starbucks #WarOnChristmas and #DonaldTrump are trending topics on social media because we got suckered into giving a damn about what color the cups are and how people react (or how we are told they are reacting) to that imaginary conflict. Then the attention seekers get what they are after. Even those of us who see this insanity for what it is and rant about it’s ridiculousness on social media, are adding to the trend of the topic. Without the conflict drawing two polarized groups together to bicker over meaningless drivel, there is no unified front for the propaganda to become a trending topic on social media. I’ll even admit that writing this piece is adding to it and attempting to gain readers from it. Keep moving, nothing to see here. Next time, don’t take the bait.
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Photo credits: “Starbucks Shinjuku” by Kure via Wikimedia Commons, “One stuffed festival-happy trashbin” By Jason V via Wikimedia Commons
I went to Starbucks this morning.
Their Christmas Blend was the dark roast of the day.
They had Merry Christmas gift cards on display.
They had an Advent Calendar for sale.
Yup, Starbucks is waging war on Christmas….