US Evangelicals attempt new world stupidity record

[bilby]

Well, in case anyone has been living under a rock, apparently some evangelical Christians in the US are upset with Starbucks, because this year's Starbucks Christmas-themed cup isn't sufficiently 'Christmassy':

Now, that's pretty dumb; but when you look into it, it appears to be not just stupid, but fractally stupid - stupid at every possible level of magnification.

How stupid is it? Here's my top ten:

1. It's November. Christmas isn't for another six weeks.
2. Last year's cup featured an evergreen tree, which is a pagan symbol
3. Previous years cups have mostly had snow or evergreen tree themes. Neither is a Christian symbol.
4. In fact, not one genuinely Christian symbol has appeared on a Starbucks 'Christmas' cup in the past seven years.
5. Snow, which apparently would have been OK, was unheard of in 1st Century Judea.
6. Red and green have become well established as symbolic of Christmas.
7. Thanks to the well known church 'The Coca-Cola Corporation'.
8. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a 'War on Christmas'.
9. The Jesus character in the Christian's favourite work of fiction wasn't born in December.
10. The modern celebration of 'Christmas' at the summer solstice* is the result of an historical victory in the 'War on Saturnalia'.
    

Those ten by no means exhaust the multifaceted splendour of this fractal stupidity. Being offended by something this inoffensive requires a special level of stupid.








*Winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere

 

[thatsneakyguy]

I am sure this is posted somewhere else on this forum:

Man tricks Starbucks into saying Merry Christmas

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf9dnRk3R88[/YOUTUBE]


Full video:

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojHyX3Mp8K8[/YOUTUBE]

 

[braces_for_impact]

They used to complain about the traditional Christmas imagery. I.E. Santa, Reindeer, Xmas trees, etc. Now they complain it's not there. These people have the thinnest skins I've ever seen. One must be tremendously insecure in their beliefs if they're offended because a corporation isn't sufficiently zealous in their choice of seasonal decorations.

Then there's second tier national embarrassment Bristol Palin on the matter: Starbucks cups ‘are an attempt by the left to make Christians look stupid’ Bristol, if there's one thing we know, it's that right wing Christians don't need our help in looking stupid.

 

[Bronzeage]

Let's pretend I'm Starbuck's vice president in charge of advertising and customer relations. I'm facing a reduced ad budget because of falling revenues. I need some way to get the Starbucks brand spread over every social media forum in the county. This is tricky because negative news is easy to spread. One person puts up a post about someone found a spider swimming in their latte and it's all over the world in 20 seconds. It has to be something which puts Starbucks in a sympathetic light.

What would I do?

 

[Horatio Parker]

I worked across the street from that Starbucks for seven years; I went there once.

Guess I got out in front of the War on the War on Xmas.

 

[braces_for_impact]

Let's pretend I'm Starbuck's vice president in charge of advertising and customer relations. I'm facing a reduced ad budget because of falling revenues. I need some way to get the Starbucks brand spread over every social media forum in the county. This is tricky because negative news is easy to spread. One person puts up a post about someone found a spider swimming in their latte and it's all over the world in 20 seconds. It has to be something which puts Starbucks in a sympathetic light.

What would I do?

Pay Christian Douchebag extraordinaire Josh Feuerstein to grab his gun and his bible and lose his shit over a paper cup?

Seriously, even if Starbucks started this somehow, it wouldn't work if there weren't people to take the bait.

 

[Keith&Co.]

One must be tremendously insecure in their beliefs if they're offended because a corporation isn't sufficiently zealous in their choice of seasonal decorations.

Jesus has promised them that they'd be treated with scorn and derision for being Christains who follow Jesus.

If they then receive scorn and derision, that's PROOF that Jesus did accurately prophecize their fate.

If they're not receiving obvious scorn and derision RIGHT NOW, then the Jesus who was proven right yesterday may not be right today, so they MUST find derision and scorn.

...and then lose their shit because God is indeed in their corner.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Seriously, even if Starbucks started this somehow, it wouldn't work if there weren't people to take the bait.

Well, that's the cool thing about having a crazy neighbor. You KNOW they'll take the bait.

 

[braces_for_impact]

John Pavlovitz has a great take on it.

This Red Cup Christianity…

… thrives on the fight. It needs an enemy to exist, a battle to feel vital, a cause to rail against to give it weight and meaning and urgency.

… is born in privilege. It expects to be catered to and to control in all situations, not realizing that this was never promised nor necessary nor normal.

… defaults to feeling persecuted. It perceives everything less than completely conforming to it as an assault and attack and injustice.

… rushes to eliminate and shun. Its response to any adversity or dissension is to destroy it or wall it away. It cannot peacefully coexist with difference or diversity.

… shouts much and listens little. Another perspective isn’t ever really welcome, and to avoid hearing a voice other than its own, it merely becomes louder and more vicious.

… brokers in fear. The sky is perpetually falling and it screams as much from the rooftops, fully believing that others can be frightened into faith.

… trades love for power. Its agenda is rarely to encourage or show compassion or model humility, but rather to demonstrate a bitter, showy strength that feeds its fragile ego.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Starbucks charges ridiculous amounts of money for relatively bad coffee. That people keep on spending ridiculous amounts of money there is the outrage. Not what they put on a seasonal cup.

If you say "Merry Christmas" and don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks during the holidays Press Like

 

[Shake]

Starbucks charges ridiculous amounts of money for relatively bad coffee. That people keep on spending ridiculous amounts of money there is the outrage. Not what they put on a seasonal cup.

If you say "Merry Christmas" and don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks during the holidays Press Like

Or as others have said, there's plenty of reasons to be upset at/offended by Starbucks, but red holiday cups aren't one of them.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Record stupidity? That's an awfully hard record to beat!


Besides, we need to declare war on Christmas for the sake of the Christian children. How many souls are lost because young kids asked Satan for presents?

 

[Bronzeage]

Let's pretend I'm Starbuck's vice president in charge of advertising and customer relations. I'm facing a reduced ad budget because of falling revenues. I need some way to get the Starbucks brand spread over every social media forum in the county. This is tricky because negative news is easy to spread. One person puts up a post about someone found a spider swimming in their latte and it's all over the world in 20 seconds. It has to be something which puts Starbucks in a sympathetic light.

What would I do?

Pay Christian Douchebag extraordinaire Josh Feuerstein to grab his gun and his bible and lose his shit over a paper cup?

Seriously, even if Starbucks started this somehow, it wouldn't work if there weren't people to take the bait.

It's New Coke brilliant.

 

[bilby]

Record stupidity? That's an awfully hard record to beat!


Besides, we need to declare war on Christmas for the sake of the Christian children. How many souls are lost because young kids asked Satan for presents?

That cause doesn't warrant a war on Christmas; Just a war on spelling mistakes.

 

[thatsneakyguy]

Pay Christian Douchebag extraordinaire Josh Feuerstein to grab his gun and his bible and lose his shit over a paper cup?

Seriously, even if Starbucks started this somehow, it wouldn't work if there weren't people to take the bait.

It's New Coke brilliant.

You are on to something there:

Simply Red: The Con-Man Behind the Rightwing's Starbucks Cup Freak-Out

Joshua Feuerstein is a self-described evangelist and "social-media personality". I recognized his name because he is the same asshat who harassed one of my local bakeries (and illegally recorded the phone call) because they refused to fill a fake order for an anti-gay cake. His followers bombarded their Facebook site with Ben Carson-like yarns of their supposed "bad experiences" with the bakery. Astoundingly, all of these reviews happened immediately after the date Joshua posted his hate-filled video. The bakery had to temporarily close in response to the harassment, which included death threats.

In response, I asked people in this community to fight back. You did. The bakery raised needed cash to offset their losses, got a lot of Likes on their Facebook page to offset Joshua’s minions, and a boatload of new customers. (The owner also made this 5-tier delicious smack down.)

As despicable as this guy was, I took him at his word that he was just a preacher with an obvious persecution complex. However, I have since learned that Feuerstein is much worse than that: he's a con artist.

First off, he is an entitled brat who according to this video apparently lives quite well sponging off of his mega-rich parents. Yet he is not above e-begging his duped followers to raise money for a $20,000 camera that he claimed he absolutely had to have to make YouTube videos. His followers, unable to think of anything better to donate to, gladly gave him the money and Joshua utterly ****** thanked them. Yet his videos since he has raised the funds, from the bakery harassment video to his latest red cup diatribe, seem to have been shot on a cellphone. People rightfully asked where the camera was that he promised to buy. He was even confronted directly and admitted he didn't buy it after all. Meanwhile, his social media is filled with pictures of outrageously expensive shoes, jewlery and watches. I mean VERY Expensive Watches.

On his site, you can buy T-shirts, DVDs, and even apparently become a monthly "partner" where he asks that you give him 50 dollars a month so he can supposedly stop people from committing suicide. I have no idea what kind of suicide prevention requires a monthly installment plan, but then again, I'm not a con-man.

None of the articles I’ve seen mention any of this, but instead take his nonsensical rant at face value and allow him a ton of exposure as some sort of representative of the discord among Christians today. It is not real. I don’t buy for a second that a man like him was driven bonkers over a stupid red cup. What he saw was an opportunity to gin up the faux outrage machine and grow his pool of poor suckers, while the media obliged without the slightest insight into his past.

 

[EricB]

Starbucks charges ridiculous amounts of money for relatively bad coffee. That people keep on spending ridiculous amounts of money there is the outrage. Not what they put on a seasonal cup.

If you say "Merry Christmas" and don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks during the holidays Press Like

This is one I will never understand. Better coffee from the pot in the kitchen for pennies on the dollar by comparison.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Actually, the Christers were more entertaining when they accused Procter & Gamble of supporting satanism with their man on the moon logo.

 

[dendrast]

Record stupidity? That's an awfully hard record to beat!


Besides, we need to declare war on Christmas for the sake of the Christian children. How many souls are lost because young kids asked Satan for presents?

That cause doesn't warrant a war on Christmas; Just a war on spelling mistakes.

A war on dyslexic kisd.

 

[bilby]

That cause doesn't warrant a war on Christmas; Just a war on spelling mistakes.

A war on dyslexic kisd.

Dyslexia. If you can spell it, you haven't got it.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

Starbucks charges ridiculous amounts of money for relatively bad coffee. That people keep on spending ridiculous amounts of money there is the outrage. Not what they put on a seasonal cup.

If you say "Merry Christmas" and don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks during the holidays Press Like

This is one I will never understand. Better coffee from the pot in the kitchen for pennies on the dollar by comparison.

I only drink black coffee, and I have to say that Starbucks makes a better cup of black coffee than me. But I use Folgers and a Mr. Coffee machine. If I put more effort into it and crushed my owns beans then I could have the same or better quality, but coffee is a utilitarian thing for me. Anyway, people don't go there for the classic cup of joe; they go for the caffeinated milkshakes that they mysteriously refer to as "coffee."