One of Fox News' most cherished memes. along with the "war on Christmas," is that liberal, anti-American higher education is corrupting our youth. But the conservative young'uns at Campus Reform serve as watchdogs over this liberal bias and, as a result, get face time on Fox. Check out how one of these patriots exposed liberal students who want to ban Christmas.
On this morning's Fox & Friends, Fox friend, Koch tool, and contender for the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Pete Hegseth, started off the segment with a Christmas gaffe of his own: "It is the holiday season, but that's not stopping some college students from playing Scrooge in agreeing to sign a petition to cancel Christmas."
Wait what? "Holiday" season, not "Christmas" season?
Video was shown of people from the right wing Campus Reform speaking to students about how Christmas is being shoved in our faces and then asking these students to sign a petition, to be delivered to the college administration. Naturally the students shown were eager to sign the fake petition.
Cohost Clayton Morris introduced a grinning Cabot Phillips, one of the petition promoters shown in the video. Phillips, a graduate of the very Christian Liberty University, said he wasn't surprised about the responses of the students because he's "been on campuses around the country" and the one thing he observes is that "students are so afraid of offending anyone that they don't stand for anything and this is something they get from the administrations." He pontificated, "If we are going to start banning holidays based on what could hurt someone's feelings," other holidays will also be banned.
Hegseth asked about the specifics of the experiment. Phillips claimed that about 40 people signed the "petition." When asked what sealed the deal for the signatures, Phillips responded that it was when he falsely claimed that he felt "oppressed" and cited students who "were triggered by these Christmas decorations."
In asking about how Phillips felt when he was on campus, cohost Abby Huntsman set up the Fox meme about godless, liberal students. She asked if students were "in the spirit" or was the atmosphere "bland, like a happy holiday."
On cue, Phillips said that in all the campuses that he has harassed, "There's no holiday cheer."
Wait, what? "Holiday cheer," not Christmas cheer?
The reason, Phillips said, is that administrations "are afraid of offending" students. Without citing any specifics, he provided a litany of anti-Christmas offenses such as colleges that banned (per Campus Reform, only a suggestion) "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and Christmas trees. Lots of giggling as he continued his claims of anti-Christmas bias.
Hegseth handed the propaganda baton to Phillips with the question, "What does this tell us?"
Phillips took the baton and provided the VERY IMPORTANT FOX MESSAGE: "I think we are raising a generation that's being raised to believe nothing should stand against their own personal beliefs and that if something offends anyone, it shouldn't be allowed and the ironic thing here is that I'm a Christian so I celebrate Christmas because it's the birth of our savior but 8 out 10 non-Christians in America, according to Pew, celebrate Christmas, so the ironic thing here is that banning Christmas is going to offend a lot more people that it would offend just keeping it."
Hegseth muttered, "Scary, mortifying."
So, in order to push a propaganda meme, Fox News runs with a story about 40 students, at one college, who, according to the right-wing Campus Reform, want to "ban Christmas." FACT: While the Fox & Friends message was that theses students wanted Christmas "banned," the actual petition addressed "getting rid of school references to Christmas." Talk about "scary and mortifying."
And, by the way, if we're not supposed to be offended by stuff, why is Fox News always featuring offended Christians?
Watch it below. From the December 18, 2016 Fox & Friends.
The most powerful known instrument in the Universe is undoubtedly the human mind, and we are slowly coming to the realisation that it’s OK to admit that We Just Don’t Know (Yet).
I’m in no way suggesting any connection between the celebration of any religious holiday by the federal government and actual religious practice or tradition. Just the opposite. Certainly the orgy of excessive spending, materialism, and gluttony known as “Christmas” here in America has absolutely no resemblance to Christ’s mission. No, Christ’s name is simply exploited for merchandising and profits.
My point is the faux Christians at Fox News mistake the marketing façade and resulting secular national holiday for an actual religious experience based on name alone. If the U.S. government were to suggest ‘celebrating’ other religions similarly (for a laugh imagine the National Restaurant Association ‘honoring’ Ramadan with cheap, unlimited buffets 👍 ) how would GOPTV™ react? I suspect just naming a holiday “Ramadan” even if, like Christmas, the secular celebration was a mockery of the religion the hopeless partisan know-nothings of Fox News would be hysterical their neo-Fascism is undermined.
Both religions do have important holidays which are essentially single day holidays; however, for Islam, there can be significant differences in the meaning, depending on the sect/branch—such as with Ashura. Aside from Ashura, Eid al-Fitr and the Islamic New Year are really the only other “one-day” celebrations—and Eid al-Fitr actually commemorates the end of Ramadan (you could almost think of it like the Muslim version of the Super Bowl—if US football fans spent the season fasting). For Judaism, you pretty much have just Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Shavuot and Purim as the main “one-day” holidays but Purim is the only one that lacks any STRONG religious connections.
Muslims and Jews alike tend to maintain STRONG religious observations and traditions when it comes to their holidays (the word is an English mash-up of “holy days”) unlike us “crass” Americans. I doubt many American Muslims or Jews would take to commercializing any of their “holy days” (not even those who are relatively secular or not strongly observant).
Anyone placing bets that the Fox Fiends will NOT be wishing any of their viewers a “Happy Hanukkah” at any point during the 8 days of the holiday?
