For years, every time the holiday season rolls around, we’re reminded of the ongoing War on Christmas. It’s actually become kind of a joke (as well as a punchline) at this point. Despite what we’ve been told, it really hasn’t become some kind of crime to wish someone a “Merry Christmas,” and it’s OK for someone else to wish you a “Merry Christmas.” Most people don’t get bent out of shape either way, whether or not they celebrate Christmas.
But apparently all this time, there’s been another War on Christmas angle that we hadn’t considered. And it turns out that the reason we hadn’t considered it is that it’s insanely dumb and you’d have to be a complete idiot to ever come up with it.
And that brings us to Patrick Shyu, a former tech lead at Google and Meta as well as a YouTuber and social media personality. Like the relative handful of weirdos who genuinely have a problem with “Merry Christmas,” Patrick Shyu does as well. But his disdain for the phrase has nothing to do with Christianity or religion in general:
I find "Merry Christmas" highly offensive.
The holidays cause stress, depression, and mental health issues for 25-40% of people. It's like a "merriness contest" on social media to force happiness, and a Western subversion of every other culture. What's a non-offensive greeting?
— TechLead (@techleadhd) December 25, 2022
“Merry Christmas” is a pretty non-offensive greeting, actually.
Merry Christmas!
— Leon Wolf 🇺🇦 (@LeonHWolf) December 26, 2022
Merry Christmas!
— Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) December 26, 2022
Literally millions of Americans struggle with stress, depression, and mental health issues not just at Christmas, but all year long. And yet, we feel quite confident in saying that if we were to poll all of those people right now, an extreme few of them — if any at all — would respond that hearing the phrase “Merry Christmas” threatens to jeopardize their mental health or undo any progress they may have made. For eff’s sake, it’s just a nice thing you say to someone when you’re trying to do something nice.
And if you haven’t yet managed to figure that out, perhaps you have some mental health issues of your own.
If you find people wishing you happiness offensive, I recommend venting to your pillow or a therapist.
— ArchLobster 🇪🇨 🇺🇸 (@ArchLobster) December 26, 2022
Honestly, we’re not sure that a therapist could do someone like Patrick much good. A halfway decent therapist would look at Patrick’s tweet, roll their eyes, and laugh him right out of the office (or off of the telehealth call, as it were). That’s definitely what we’d do. Even his pillow should be reject his company.
Perhaps if the holiday creates a problem for someone’s mental health, the solution is to seek out a priest or psychiatrist to work through that instead of insisting everyone around you who mean you no harm coddle your neuroses. https://t.co/odUotKUlQg
— Hooch (@CompanyHooch) December 26, 2022
See, now that’s a reasonable approach to this whole thing. If you’re the only one with the problem, then the odds are that you are the problem.
Well then, Merry Christmas it is.
It must really suck to be so weak you are offended by a greeting intended to be cheerful and positive.
— Deputy Matt (@BangSwitchMatt) December 26, 2022
Merry Christmas! Please accept it in the spirit with which it was given.
— Jay (@OneFineJay) December 26, 2022
Well, just so you know, Jay, Patrick does not accept your “Merry Christmas” with any spirit whatsoever. Apparently he doesn’t need your “Merry Christmas,” thank you very much, because his Christmas is probably a hundred times better than yours, anyway, and if you knew just how great his Christmas was, you’d just be even more depressed.
To be clear, I'm having a supremely happy Christmas. Probably 100x better than yours and would cause mass-depression & carnage if I were to share such unimaginable joy on social media and then say, "oh, happy holidays to u too, lol." I'm trying to save your life by refraining.
— TechLead (@techleadhd) December 25, 2022
Gee, thanks, Patrick. But ironically, you could’ve saved yourself from being ratio’d and dragged on Christmas if you’d just refrained from your stupid “Merry Christmas” take that literally nobody asked for and literally nobody will ever take seriously.
Oh, and Patrick? Merry Christmas.
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