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[Sergarr]

It's not a good idea to try spreading the religious influence even further into the government via erecting religion-themed monuments, when it's already fully controlled by the people the majority of whom believe that Constitution should be dismantled and Christianity be made national religion. The Y'all-Qaeda needs to be stopped, not appeased.

[smjjames]

It's not a good idea to try spreading the religious influence even further into the government via erecting religion-themed monuments, when it's already fully controlled by the people the majority of whom believe that Constitution should be dismantled and Christianity be made national religion. The Y'all-Qaeda needs to be stopped, not appeased.

The problem with doing that is that Christianity isn't one monolithic same everywhere religion, one version is going to be favored over the other, be it Catholicism, Protestanism, Baptism, Methodist.... There's probably a representative for almost every Christian denomination in the US, and then some. Which is ironic because that's the same situation that led to the pilgrims settling in the US.

I wonder if they might decide to pull what Henry the eighth did and set up some church as the national religion.

[TheBiggerFish]

Point of order - there's Christmas the Christian holy event, and there's Christmas the national holiday.  They're not 100% the same thing.  Christmas definitely has secular aspects.

[Sergarr]

There's also the New Year's Day, which is both religious and secular. Though in Russian case it's more like a New Year's Week And A Bit More of continuous celebration with reason being "we've managed to live for one more year, yaaay!"

[Sheb]

Well, that's cultural Christian vs. actual Christian.

[McTraveller]

Goodness you folks are active posters in the mornings - I take it not many of you have children and/or attend (non-)religious events on Sunday mornings.

So some random things, mostly just related to free speech stuff.  I'm amused at all the stuff going around now about how media companies (Facebook and Twitter most dominantly but also Google to some extent) should or shouldn't censor things or have algorithms that effectively filter views in general.  The argument is generally along the lines of "free speech protections are in place only for the government in the US, not for private companies, so private companies can do whatever they want".

I would argue against that view - one of the reasons for free speech protections was to prevent a powerful entity from controlling the dissemination of information.  When the amendment was penned, it was arguable that the only entity strong enough to control information that way was the government.  In today's society, I would say that private companies can do much more damage even than the government when it comes to filtering the information that is presented.

The media companies basically control the opinion of the country - sure there are a couple companies that present slightly different views, but when you control the top three or so conduits through which people receive information, you essentially control what people think of is important - note that it doesn't even have to be that you are saying certain things are false: just by nature of the information that is presented more often than information that isn't presented, that imparts a "societal importance" of some topic.

The media companies really scare me in this - mostly because I think that the younger generations today aren't getting an education (hah! see how I closed the loop there?) that helps them think for themselves, so basically whatever the media companies push, that is what people know.  Essentially something along the lines of "what the media shows you is what you know."

The worst part of it is that there is no even semblance of accountability with the media companies - at least with the government there is the remote chance of voting people out of office. With media companies - good luck!

[Shadowlord]

Those two holidays belong to the Consumerist religion, y'see.

McT: Facebook is already controlling what you see on Facebook.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I almost despise the secular Christmas as much as I do the real one. This nation's holiday culture is a neurotic mess and should be opposed.

[Shadowlord]

I like the excuse to eat properly. Also to eat pie.

Which is to say, I don't normally eat properly. You're supposed to get how many servings of vegetables per day? Do grains count as vegetables? No? Well then. Hmpf! (Also I don't understand how anyone could eat as many servings of stuff as are on the food pyramid and not get fat)

[MrRoboto75]

I almost despise the secular Christmas as much as I do the real one. This nation's holiday culture is a neurotic mess and should be opposed.

I just hate how the "Spirit" of it starts earlier and earlier.

Like, August hits and stores are stuffed with Christmas and Halloween decorations literally an aisle away.  Eventually Christmas will fuse with Easter and make everything confusing.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I think more likely you will see "why do millennials hate Christmas" whine articles before it all manages to fuse into one morass.

[Sheb]

I like Christmas. Decorating the tree with my 6-years old sisters is great fun, and we get to share a lot of present a quality family time.

[Shadowlord]

I think more likely you will see "why do millennials hate Christmas" whine articles before it all manages to fuse into one morass.

Which will probably have a crazy conclusion like "They'd rather overlay a christmas tree on their facebook avatar and tweet about it than put up a real christmas trees, buy gifts, and drive to see family, because millennials are lazy amirite guys?"

[Sheb]

The best-looking tree I ever made was with my bigger sister, where we decked it entirely in candles (We are half-German after all), red banderolle and about 100 white roses made of toilet paper.

[Wolfhunter107]

How'd you get the toilet paper to fold?