'Still doing this'? Julia Ioffe doubles down on the 'Merry Christmas' hate (with some help from WaPo)

If you’re anything like us, you read Julia Ioffe’s anti-“Merry Christmas” tweets and thought to yourself, “If only someone would give her even more real estate to crap on people who are just trying to be nice.

Well, lucky for us, the Washington Post blessed us all with this gift:

As you may have heard, I have some thoughts about the ubiquitous “merry Christmas” greeting so I wrote something about it. (Spoiler alert: I’m not angry, lonely, or bitter. Just not a Christian.) https://t.co/l3EioApMKp

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) December 21, 2018

Ioffe writes:

Christmas is a lovely holiday, but it is definitely not a secular one. It is a celebration of Christ, as its very name implies. As a Jewish person, I have zero problems with your celebrating the birth of a person you believe is God’s only son, who grew up to die for your sins. I don’t share your faith, but I don’t begrudge you the joy of your celebration. In fact, I often participate, as I will this year when I bring Christmas presents wrapped in Christmas paper to a Christmas dinner with my friends and their sweet children. There’s no problem here: We know, respect and celebrate each other’s differences.

Except she clearly has problems with people celebrating. Her entire column consists of a series of complaints about how awful it is to be surrounded by people who are enjoying this time of year.

To say it’s off-putting to be wished a merry holiday you don’t celebrate — like someone randomly wishing you a happy birthday when the actual date is months away — is not to say you hate Christmas. It is simply to say that, to me, Julia Ioffe, it is alienating and weird, even though I know that is not intended. I respond: “Thanks. You, too.” But that feels alienating and weird, too, because now I’m pretending to celebrate Christmas. It feels like I’ve verbally tripped, as when I reply “You, too!” to the airport employee wishing me a good flight. There’s nothing evil or mean-spirited about any of it; it’s just ill-fitting and uncomfortable. And that’s when it happens once. When it happens several times a day for a month, and is amplified by the audiovisual Christmas blanketing, it’s exhausting and isolating. It makes me feel like a stranger in my own land.

"Twas five nights before Christmas, and my Lyft driver was the umpteenth person to wish me a “Merry Christmas” that day. He probably just meant it the way most people do, as a kind of December shorthand for 'have a good day.'"

BUT WHAT IF HE DIDN'T? pic.twitter.com/QGDEt3w8Ye

— Five Card Charlie (@KC_Rounder) December 21, 2018

Oh ffs.

— name cannot be blank (@breakfastislife) December 21, 2018

Lots of us aren't Christians. But we are still able to understand that when people say Merry Christmas they aren't insulting us.

— wait, what?!?! (@burkhartlaw97) December 21, 2018

I will never complain about Maggie Haberman's obsessive desire to re-litigate a bad tweet ever again. This is now parody.

— Holiday Harley Peyton (@HarleyPeyton) December 21, 2018