Athe-Pagan Hate Mail - A Quick Response

I don't have time to write today due to work and a family emergency.   Here's a quote from an article about an exhibition about how the Nazis co-opted Christmas.

"Christmas was a provocation for the Nazis -- after all, the baby Jesus was a Jewish child," Judith Breuer, who helped prepare the exhibition and co-authored the accompanying book with her mother, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "The most important celebration in the year didn't fit with their racist beliefs so they had to react, by trying to make it less Christian."

The exhibition, which includes such peculiar objects from the Breuers' massive collection as swastika-shaped cookie-cutters and Christmas tree baubles emblazoned with the Nazi symbol, shows the bizarre ways the Nazis came up with to try to take the Christ out of Christmas. They tried to persuade housewives to bake cookies in the shape of a sun wheel, a form similar to the swastika, and they attempted to replace the Christian figure of Saint Nicholas, who traditionally brings German children treats on Dec. 6, with the figure of Odin, the Norse god.

One symbol posed a particular problem for the Nazis, namely the star, which traditionally decorates Christmas trees. "Either it was a six-pointed star, which was a symbol of the Jews, or it was a five-pointed star, which represented the Soviets," Breuer says. Either way, the star had to go.

And to the points you object to in yesterday's post:

One particular sinister example of the Nazi Christmas tradition is the Julleuchter ("Yule lantern"), a kind of candlestick which can also be seen in the exhibition. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, had the supposedly "Germanic" lantern produced by inmates in the Dachau and Neuengamme concentration camps to give as a present to members of the SS. The same version of the Julleuchter that Himmler had made is still sold today in certain shops with a New Age bent as a traditional Christmas decoration.

And many of the myths that the Nazis invented are still circulating. "You can still read in places about how Christmas is really an ancient Germanic festival of the winter solstice," Breuer says, pointing out that there is little evidence of any such celebration.

That article refers to that myth in German popular culture, the English speaking world's source of it, as RMJ has pointed out, is likely the product of English Puritan anti-Catholic invective.  Which would account for the fact that in the United States many of the Christmas traditions such as Christmas cookys come from the Dutch influence.   I remember reading an essay from Thomas Boyleston Adams in which he talks about how the proper Boston Calvinists were scandalized when their fellow Calvinists, the Huguenots, celebrated Christmas which their ancestors had made illegal.  Not all Calvinists were opposed to some form of Christmas celebrations.   If I can find where I put the book I'll type out that passage.

Update:  I wonder what would happen if someone asked you to own Sheldon Adelson, Richard Perle, Midge Decter, William Kristol, .. the neo-cons in general.  So I just pose that as a topic for consideration alongside your asking me to account for pseudo-Christians on FOX.

Update 2:  I don't think I've ever refered to Sheldon Adelson in a way that would be used to carecterize other Jews as you are using some clearly phony Christians on FOX to characterize Christians.  Here's the only other reference to him I find in a word search of this blog.

That SOME Jews have too much power, Sheldon Adelson, for example, is not a matter for serious doubt, but that's due to the undue power of that what is probably, historically,  the least Jewish of all branches of our government, The Supreme Court.  It is the Supreme Court which has given the country to billionaires and millionaires.  As I recall, it was the Jewish members of the court in recent years who would probably have done the most to sustain the congressional limits on such as Adelson's political influence, enhancing the power of The People as a whole.   I would suspect if most of the Jews who have sat in the Senate had more power, they would have blocked the nominations of the corporate Republicans to the court and we would have gotten the government out of the hands of the billionaires.  If we had a Judiciary committee staffed by Howard Metzenbaums and Russ Feingolds the country wouldn't be in danger of becoming a fascist oligarchy.   I would love it if such Jews had a decisive voice in making the laws of the United States, though we might sometimes part company on support of the Israeli government.  That survey question is something I couldn't possibly answer and would never have any inclination to answer for all of those reasons stated above and below. 

Update 3:  You know Bunky, I could publish your comments to show that's exactly what you claimed the only reason I haven't is because they are rather stupid.

Update 4:  I have no problem allowing you to show what a fool you are, it's that I don't want to cheapen my blog by posting it.

Update 5: 2 comments  Setting Up the Simp So He Suckers Himself

2 comments:

steve simelsDecember 11, 2015 at 4:57 PM
"I don't want to cheapen my blog "

Well, that horse left the barn some years ago.


The Thought CriminalDecember 11, 2015 at 5:08 PM
Well, yeah, I have published your comments before.