10 ms·

Santa hat removed from VS Code after complaint

243 points by drak0n1c 7y ago

huffmsa 7y ago
60% of the user base didn't know it existed. 25% could have liked it, 14% could have been indifferent. But this one guy is "offended" because Christmas (the celebration of the birth of a Jew named Jesus of Nazareth) "killed the Jews" and poof, it's gone. Tyranny of the minority.
me_me_me 7y ago
Why am I directed to github and not an onion article?
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  My explanation is we are all dead and in a level of hell that looks just like the life we left. And the Devil is slowly changing things to fuck with us until we realize we are in hell.
shard972 7y ago
Once again jews ruin everything.
hotz 7y ago
I honestly don't understand why people like this have to be entertained.
- Infinitesimus 7y ago
  Current US culture seems to consider how someone feels/perceives an action as a strong indicator that something wrong was done. (Eg: I didn't feel safe in that meeting, I felt uncomfortable by the remark, etc.) Combine that with a touchy subject like Judaism and the Jewish history (the article linked also throws in mentions of Hitler to invoke some strong reactions) and viola
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    I don't think anyone necessarily jumps to the conclusion that "something wrong was done". But we have so many professional victims out there (just seems exhausting to have to stay so 'woke' about everything that might offend you) that I think everyone just picks their battles. Oh, a Santa hat offends you? K, fine, no one really cares if a santa hat is there or not, get rid of it so they can shut up and start looking for something else to be offended by.
- sdinsn 7y ago
  They don't. Ultimately, it's Microsoft's fault for giving in
  - gremlinsinc 7y ago
    They should've just added a star of david next to the santa hat... or maybe a menorah?
retox 7y ago
Pathetic.
sdbillin 7y ago
It deeply offends me that people in professions that require a degree of logic and rationality can actually believe in a magical sky wizard.
- jaldhar 7y ago
  Um did you read the “logic and rationality” of the person reporting the bug? It’s all about his feelings. Plus I would argue that Father Christmas is a cthonic deity. Anyway, this Hindu would like to wish all HNers who celebrate (however you celebrate) a merry Christmas.
- coldtea 7y ago
  It deeply offends me that people who think they peddle "logic and rationality" can sum religions as "magical sky wizards" and summarily consider their role as detrimental, without understanding their social, cultural, historical, and evolutionary role and development.
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  I read that as Magical Sky Lizard and... I want to believe.
papermachete 7y ago
Pathetic display of ethnic privilege.
ivoras 7y ago
It's like Nassim Taleb said, "The most intolerant wins": https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15 https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict... Besides, if anyone's connecting the "red winter hat with a white puff" image with Jesus, Jews or anything of the sort instead of Coca Cola, their marketing department is not doing a good job.
- hrktb 7y ago
  I think we're past the point where it's easy to limit the scope of a message to a specific group, and any message that concerns personal life is just doomed to be an issue in some way. Nassim Taleb seems to be about companies giving in to the most extreme groups, but I think there will be less and less clear cut cases where a decision can emcompass all groups. For instance for his take on Halal food, some people do choose to not eat Halal. They might be arguably more intolerant that any other group, but not in relevant numbers for any food company to care about them. I don't think we're going far from the traditional marketing approach of defining a market and playing the trade-off games around each segment's inclinations. Religion and culture just got added to the mix.
- gremlinsinc 7y ago
  See, I think of Macy's.... but when I see a panda bear, boy do I crave some Coke.
Angostura 7y ago
The person who filed the complaint really needs to change his first name - I find it offensive.
- me_me_me 7y ago
  Offensive? Poor man has to live with his self-oppressing name. Daily reminder how his people were oppressed by evil outsiders. He deserves nobel peace prize.
- jedilance 7y ago
  You can open an Issue.
- osrec 7y ago
  I didn't pick up on that. How ironic!
- petagonoral 7y ago
  If you look at bottom right of his included screenshot, you'll see he has tab size set to 4 spaces. Is this really the type of person we should be taking demands from?!
  - gremlinsinc 7y ago
    I picked up 4 spaces from ruby/rails when I first started coding...then switched to 2 spaces a few years back..my god it's so much better...
    - the_gastropod 7y ago
      I don't believe Ruby has ever endorsed 4 spaces...
      - gremlinsinc 7y ago
        I swear back in 2012 it was the norm/style to use 4 spaces in Rails... Edit: Maybe it's PSR2? Or maybe it was one of the dev teams I worked for.. honestly I can't remember why I used that lol. I'm getting senile at 40, I swear.
s9w 7y ago
> we're sorry we hurt your and other's feelings. We'll remote the Santa Hat. wow. If 4chan were to make an image about a fictional interaction like this, people would call it exaggerated. edit: this has to be a troll. I cannot believe someone would actually write like that
- tomcooks 7y ago
  Maybe he meant that they will host the icon remotely, so he can block it in his hosts file if he really doesn't like it.
  - gmueckl 7y ago
    What?! This has to be a joke... what happened to good old program settings to disable things?
    - tomcooks 7y ago
      Yes it's a joke, he almost certainly meant remove.
- Infinitesimus 7y ago
  Imo that's the best reply they could have given. Certainly not a pleasant reply but it is accurate.
- LaGrange 7y ago
  ...actually 4chan regularly runs things remarkably close with this. Sometimes they _accidentally_ turn a previously innocuous symbol into hate speech (see: "okay" gesture, welcome to 2019, where seeing someone making it makes you go and check if they're just not extremely online or actually a nazi), most of the time they just announce to the world they hang out on 4chan. The examples of less successful would be several spoof LGBT rights campaigns for, uh, unpleasant things.
  - s9w 7y ago
    Yeah, I'm still not convinced if this guy is for real. But that's besides the point - them caving in to this insane demand on the spot is incredible. What's next - a word filter so I can't type "sjw" in VSCode? Seriously rethinking my decision to switch to this. This screams instability.
tomcooks 7y ago
If I were this person I would invest my time fixing the HTTPS cert on my site[0], instead of focusing on the trivialities of commercial-backed festivities, passing them as religious offences. [0](https://www.servicelayer.no/ https://www.servicelayer.no/)
- mijndert 7y ago
  I noticed the same. What a waste of time.
- throwmeback 7y ago
  I had the biggest hate-laugh of the year when I noticed this trying to determine if this guy is a troll or not.
draklor40 7y ago
Lol. PC police FTW!
excerionsforte 7y ago
Should have offered a switch via popup (on startup of the new update) and/or configuration setting to disable holiday theming and etc. Would seem to balance between sensitivities and cultural appreciation of different people, but I guess it is easier to just remove it.
misnome 7y ago
Clearly a deity of commercialism has no place in a product made by ...checks notes... Microsoft.
edu 7y ago
How ironic his name is "Christian".
snypox 7y ago
I feel like this was really intended to be harmless (it's really not pushed into your face also), people need to be able to let things go. edit: wait, multiple people is saying he's a troll, is that true?
samkone 7y ago
Stupid
nkkollaw 7y ago
I don't know what's more pathetic—that somebody will go out of his way because of a santa hat, or that the project actually removed the hat. What a clown world we live in!
petagonoral 7y ago
> Please remove it immediately and make it your top priority. Jeez, the entitlement. > To me this is almost equally offensive as a swastika. and the stupidity.
- Anthony-G 7y ago
  I hadn't noticed the "make it your top priority" part. This makes me more inclined to think it's a troll.
dimitar 7y ago
Looks like MS fell for an individual troll. I think the real story is how companies, as risk averse as they are respond to such cases - I would probably weight the risks and do as MS in such cases.
jaboutboul 7y ago
It would have been funny as hell is they added a Menorah as well, just to troll him...
arketyp 7y ago
I don't want decoration on my tools. On the other hand, I prefer tools where the personality of the maker to can still shine through. Today it's just a Santa's hat for which they can't take responsibility. And tomorrow?
hrktb 7y ago
This reminds me of Google so many years ago setting Father's Day reminder in people's Gmail. At some scale, a product can't just be whimsical, or not in any cultural or personally touching way. Boring and impersonal becomes an important virtue. There's no way this kind of fun initiative won't hit a nerve in some community or some group around the world, and if there's no logical backing behind it's just a PR hell.
- maxerickson 7y ago
  The thing is, I don't particularly want things that I use every day to "surprise" me with whimsy. I want them to be boring and reliable.
sammorrowdrums 7y ago
I don't think they should have backed down, but I understand Microsoft not wanting confrontation or a storm. But if this person is so offended, I imagine that they are constantly and persistently offended while walking the streets, full of similar symbols and seasonal displays. I'm a staunch atheist but I still appreciate a beautiful mosque, cathedral or fun display. (And I do find the money that could have been spent on helping others that was used to build cathedrals and palaces to be obnoxious, it's not that I have to have complete respect to accept their existence). This story frustrated me because it seems like a needless censorship, where it ultimately just stops managers from allowing easter eggs, which used to be such a wonderful part of much software. Hahahahahaha probably Easter eggs is also going to offend. Ok I'll call them "Cody surprises":-p
- amarshall 7y ago
  This is from a while ago, but Microsoft once banned software easter eggs. See https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2005/10/21/why-no-easter-eggs/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2005/10/21/wh...
  - sammorrowdrums 7y ago
    My favourite ever easter egg story https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/405783/why-does-man-print-gimme-gimme-gimme-at-0030 https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/405783/why-does-man...
    - sammorrowdrums 7y ago
      Trigger warning: contains Abba reference
- excerionsforte 7y ago
  Balanced thing would have been to add a config parameter to enable disable this stuff. Can't imagine a lawsuit from something that is user customizable. Some want Easter eggs and others don't. Of course if your easter eggs slow performance via bug then insta-disable.
mijndert 7y ago
I really hope this is just a troll.
jevgeni 7y ago
I understand being annoyed by religious symbols, but "it's almost as offensive as a swastika"... that's just immensely callous. Especially from a Jewish perspective.
- donohoe 7y ago
  I’m not a huge fan of Christmas. I say ‘happy holidays’ to try and be more inclusive. I’m atheist and use it as a time to spend time with family and friends. I’m 100% with you. Santa is not a religious figure any more, if ever. Is Thor a religious figure? This guy is a troll or just a ridiculous person.
alkotronikk 7y ago
Is there an VSCode extension to bring the hat back, though?
contravariant 7y ago
So the objection is against a symbol that is vaguely related to a festival that ties together an enormous number of various otherwise unrelated celebrations (that all happen at or around the winter solstice). The main objection to most of them being that they aren't Jewish (conveniently ignoring the Jewish festival of Hanukkah that occurs at around the same time). Curiously the article linked that feebly attempts to tie this all together in a coherent narrative fails to mention how the red hat is related to Christmas.
- cosarara 7y ago
  The linked article starts by presenting Saturnalia as a murderous celebration of human sacrifices, for which there is no evidence at all, so it makes me doubt the historical accuracy of the whole piece.
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    Ya, I browsed through the article and zeroed in on Christmas caroling being related to drunken people running nude through the streets and singing. Was hoping for a fun little anecdote next time someone brought up going Christmas caroling. But turns out that all seems to be bunk. Caroling seems to be related to the early practice of going door to door as peasants singing and asking for food/gifts from feudal lords... "... so bring us some figgy pudding, and bring it right here."
x3ro 7y ago
I must say I'm amused by the reactions here. I realize that the reporter displays a strong reaction to something that seems irrelevant to most people here. Comments then go on to raise concerns of rationality and objectivity. Yet most discussions I read on here are the exact opposite. They quickly dissolve into unnecessary rabbit holing about some particular niche topic a commenter particularly cares about. Few people complain about these, and many people participate. Most people participating also claim to be "rational" and "objective", yet often know very little of the topic. I feel this here is the same. People complain that people have feelings, because they feel they are superior by being all "rational". Yet when the next technical discussion comes around, all of this is thrown out of the window because "curly braces go on the next line!!1"..
coldtea 7y ago
>The Santa Hat on vscode insiders and pushing of religion is very offensive to me, additionally xmas has cost millions of Jews their lives over the centuries, yet even if that was not the case, pushing religious symbols as part of a product update is completely unacceptable. Please remove it immediately and make it your top priority. To me this is almost equally offensive as a swastika. This guy should be banned from the project. Slap a couple of lawsuits in different jurisdictions for promoting hate speech (for him equating an established religious symbol to the swastika).
- dsr_ 7y ago
  Do you know why the United States put "no establishment of a religion" in the Constitution? Because without it, you get holy wars. Eventually, the kind in which people die. When a non-religious organization starts getting involved in religion, they run into similar problems. The best course of action is to stay out of it.
  - jaldhar 7y ago
    Point of information: that’s not the reason or at least not the primary one. Many of the colonies had an established Church and the framers did not want the Federal government impinging on states rights. Eventually all the states did disestablish but the last of those did so years after the constitution was ratified. I don’t know what any of that has to do with Santa hats. Anecdote time: We are as I mentioned in my other comment Hindus. When my kids were little they were into Christmas as much as any other American children and we followed certain traditions but my daughter in particular was peeved that we never had a Christmas tree. (No ideological reason I just couldn’t be bothered.). Recently she mentioned this to her friend who then gave her a small tree as a present. That friend? A hijab-wearing Algerian Muslim.
    - dsr_ 7y ago
      Established churches lead to oppression of minority viewpoints. What do you want to do, fight over it?
ihalip 7y ago
And of course the opposite issue: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87291 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87291
- hwj 7y ago
  Seems they closed it within 12 minutes...
kresten 7y ago
The world is full of people who actively want to be offended. Who LIKE to be offended. If Christmas is so offensive why is it on every media channel constantly this time of year? They have a bubbling sense of righteous indignation ready to trigger. These are trolls no different from any other. The right way to handle this troll would have been to first get Christmas taken off some mainstream tv channels first.
- syshum 7y ago
  The problem is they are not actually offended. They like the power that pretending to be offended gives them. They need that validation, or rush at making the world bend to their unreasonable demands. They is the only "joy" they have in their miserable lives
qazpot 7y ago
Shouldn't he find his own name offensive ?
- EForEndeavour 7y ago
  Living in constant self-offence would explain his astounding levels of grouchiness. That's assuming he isn't blatantly trolling, of course.
nneonneo 7y ago
VLC gets dressed up for the holidays (the traffic cone wears a little hat), but it can be turned off in the settings. Surely making this configurable (even via some arcane non-GUI switch) would have satisfied all parties? Instead the devs of VS Code, who no doubt felt this would be a cute and generally appreciated little token to brighten a dev’s day, will be less inclined to do fun things in the future. Everyone loses.
- 2fast4you 7y ago
  I think it should be an opt-in not an opt-out. The better way to distribute some holiday cheer would be to release an official VSCode Christmas theme. That way my editor it’s changing its appearance for no reason every year
maury91 7y ago
This issue is so over the top that South Park could make a gag out of it
utterdesign 7y ago
Is the complainant related to Titania McGrath in any way? I think we should be told. https://youtu.be/yEGv6CT7kz4 https://youtu.be/yEGv6CT7kz4
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
rvz 7y ago
> The Santa Hat on vscode insiders and pushing of religion is very offensive to me Well, If it is "offensive" to you, find the settings button and turn it off. To find everything that you see "offensive" and to demand everyone to cater to your needs sounds like a sense of entitlement if not very draconian. I had high hopes for Microsoft to resist this nonsense and close politically correct issues like this, but once again, they capitulated to the minority. > I've also deleted the discussion that does not belong into our issue tracker. Well done! /s Now the whole context of parts the discussion has now been lost.
neoberg 7y ago
While I agree with some points made here in comments, I wonder what would be the reaction of people calling this "pathetic" if they added a crescent moon for muslim holidays?
- laumars 7y ago
  Christmas isn't really a Christian festival any more. I mean technically it never was (Yule is a pagan thing) but even the later amendment of the Christ metaphor has nothing to do with Santa and nor does the modern depiction of Santa have any relation to the original heritage of the character (we have Coka Cola to thank for that). That all said, I'd welcome a crescent moon and any other imagery too. I don't see the issue in celebrating festivals -- which themselves are intended to be a celebration. Tolerance should be about acceptence other festivals not censorship of them.
s9w 7y ago
I'm enjoying the fun people seem to be having in the github issues. My favorite: > "Light themes" section comes before "Dark themes" in settings dropdown which is very offensive to me (87345) edit: Also how is this only on page 3 with 100+ points in less than an hour?
- bigbaguette 7y ago
  Because it's a sensitive subject. I posted the very same submission a few hours before and it got flagged in no time
divbyzer0 7y ago
The justification linked in the issue is very weak. The only issue I can see a level hypersensitivity that would find fault with any tradition, including the one (potentially) being offended.
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjj 7y ago
As a result his repos' issues are being trolled https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issues/8 https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issu... https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issues/7 https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issu...
- SwiftyBug 7y ago
  Even a pull request: https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/pull/14 https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/pull...
julienfr112 7y ago
https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issues/7 https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issu...
- sam_lowry_ 7y ago
  He is just a troll!
  - gremlinsinc 7y ago
    wow that's awesome!
Zealotux 7y ago
Reminded me of https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=96539 https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=96539 Jean-Baptiste Kempf's answer was perfect in that regard, you don't like it that way? Fork it, you have that freedom, or don't use the insiders' version, as far as I know, the public release doesn't have the offensive svastika-like Christmas hat.
- frank2 7y ago
  at least on mac, the public release of VLC does have it (but it can be turned off in settings).
  - Zealotux 7y ago
    My comment wasn't clear as I've mixed VLC and VSCode, what I meant was that the public release of VSCode doesn't have the hat, the complaint was about the insiders' version.
ryuukk_ 7y ago
good, technology and futuristic workspaces should stay atheist, fuck santa, and fuck religious people i LOL at the mad people, hahaha, be mad and stay mad forever, that's all that matters
luord 7y ago
I'm about 99% sure that this was a joke, mocking the people who complain about menial stuff like this. It's sad that it was taken seriously. I mean, the reporter seems to be literally called Christian, even if he's Jewish, I'm sure he's learned to live with the association.
- sheepdestroyer 7y ago
  I insta lolled when I saw his name and read his report. How can he live with himself then?
9c8675a8 7y ago
Race to the bottom of grayness and utter nothingness. Fuck this overly sensitive and intolerant(!) non-culture.
yread 7y ago
The linked Sefaria blog post is also complete hogwash! Lord Misrule is a mediaval tradition, it didn't involve brutal murders, "rape and other sexual license; consuming human-shaped biscuits" wtf?
ch_123 7y ago
As an atheist who received a Catholic education, I think calling a Santa hat a religious symbol is a stretch - Saint Nicholas is generally not depicted or described as wearing a "Santa" outfit. It's really more of a Western culture symbol rather than anything. I agree with the assessment of some of the other posts that the guy who opened the issue is either trolling, or has made an attempt at satire that was taken too seriously.
- maxerickson 7y ago
  If you want to analyze it that way, it's a secular Christian symbol, not a Western symbol. There's plenty of westerners that don't do the Christmas.
  - laumars 7y ago
    Santa's red outfit was designed as part of a Coka Cola promotion. So I think the GP is more actuate saying it's a western symbol. Whether some westerners choose not to celebrate Christmas is kind of moot. I don't celebrate Halloween but there's still no disputing some of the traditions are modern regional twists.
    - maxerickson 7y ago
      The marketing was aimed directly at the group described by secular Christian, I don't see how the fact that it originated as marketing changes anything.
  - zaarn 7y ago
    Santa is more of a US symbol really, other countries have different represenations (Germany for example has baby jesus, literally, and the only reason we have santa is lazy US companies not wanting to reprint)
aganame 7y ago
...and they replaced the icon with an actual snowflake. This is like an Onion article. I'm a somewhat a proud sjw myself, and this is just silly. It smells like a deliberate attempt to make us look bad.
- ThrowawayR2 7y ago
  > "It smells like a deliberate attempt to make us look bad." This individual is in Norway and so it seems unlikely that he has anything to do with the culture wars in the US. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." as they say.
- conradfr 7y ago
  There's always someone more sjw than you and maybe one day you'll even be labeled alt-right for no reason and taste what you did to others.
  - aganame 7y ago
    What do you think I have done to others?
- anotherevan 7y ago
  > replaced the icon with an actual snowflake. But I live in the southern hemisphere and it is summer now. Today it was once of the hottest days in my country's recorded history... Should I be offended that they are using northern hemisphere iconography? Are Microsoft anti-southern hemisphere? This reminds me of the Windows Fall Creators Update two years ago, which they are calling the Autumn Creators Update outside of North America, including in the southern hemisphere where it was Spring. Also, no apostrophe. A marketing fail on so many levels.
  - pgeorgi 7y ago
    > Should I be offended that they are using northern hemisphere iconography? I'm not sure the snowflake is (primarily) meant as a seasonal marker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake_(slang) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake_(slang)
sam_lowry_ 7y ago
And the one who closed the ticket is Erich Gamma from the Gand of Four fame.
petecooper 7y ago
Unsurprisingly, there are related (for want of a better word) issues appearing: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87341 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87341 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87348 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87348 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87342 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87342 The issue janitors have an interesting day ahead.
wildpeaks 7y ago
What does Santa have to do with religion, it's like the tooth fairy or Bigfoot ?? I almost wonder if it's not a troll account given most of his repos are forks and his profile links to a website that doesn't load.
haunter 7y ago
Judging by the thread on /g/ 4chan will have a good day with this guy
tahdig 7y ago
Genuinely curious why this post was flagged.
polotics 7y ago
IMHO this looks like a classic agent-provocateur move, very well written to trigger identity-politics divisiveness. Flag flag flag.
tkel 7y ago
This guy is obviously just a troll. However it's important to note the unsaid political point. That society has gone "too far" in being tolerant. Bad-faith actors like this will try to weaponize attitudes of good-faith people to try to turn back social progress.
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  Bad faith fucking with people that are exercising good faith isn't taken seriously enough.
gl0rb 7y ago
... His name is Christian.
gremlinsinc 7y ago
> To me this is almost equally offensive as a swastika. Seriously ? Christmas didn't cause the holocaust. Christian idiots who don't know who Christ is or what he taught definitely caused millions of deaths but that's more on their leadership/organized religion. I'm exmormon, ex-christian. Agnostic, but seriously people need to take a chill pill. Santa's more like Mickey Mouse than a religious figure at this point. Hardly a religious symbol imho. If anything he's a symbol of xmas than christmas. For me I just treat Christmas like it's Festivus, while my wife and other family celebrate Christmas because that's what they believe. Tolerance goes both ways. This person is as much a hate monger as a Christian hating on Muslim's. It's only offensive because he chooses to be offended by it, just as the religious right chooses to be offended with a transgender person goes into what they deem is 'the wrong' restroom. It's all perception, people need to stop it with being so offended, while at the same time accepting others for who they are obviously. How did our world get so toxic... Why can't we all just get along?
LucaSas 7y ago
I believe the person who started this is just a bad actor. Surely he must have known that this will only lead to more outrage and hatred. Now we need to have the whole "war on xmas" and "political correctness gone crazy" debates, just because there is one idiot out there that people decided to listen to instead of ignore.
heh 7y ago
Yikes. I'm Jewish, non-religious. This guy is absolutely crazy. Do I personally like Christmas? No. Do I like having it shoved down my throat every time I go to get groceries? No. Do I like it when some people seem to get offended when I tell them I don't celebrate Christmas? No. But to compare it to swatztikas and the Holocaust is ludicrous. (And as a person with grandparents who went through the holocaust, this is deeply offensive- don't cheapen the memory of the holocaust with BS.) Calling Hannukah "Jewish Christmas" is pretty offensive,but a little hat which has it's origins in a Coca-Cola commercial is not.
MattConfluence 7y ago
> To me this is almost equally offensive as a swastika. This seems quite ignorant of history coming from a Norwegian. The red "santa hat" was a symbol of resistance during WWII, so much that it was actually banned by the Nazis/collaborator government for a time. Wikipedia article in Norwegian, try an automatic translation service if you're interested in reading: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisselue#Nisselue_som_norsk_symbol https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisselue#Nisselue_som_norsk_sy...
mikl 7y ago
People have been using all sorts of excuses to visit evil upon another for all of recorded history. Dig deep enough in history, and you can condemn almost any tradition. It is senseless to consider ancient history when evaluating modern traditions. What people did hundreds or even thousands of years ago is of historic interest, sure, but it does condemn Christmas today, any more than the slaughter of the Canaanites condemns jews today. And today, Christmas is a celebration of goodwill and peace to all. That should not offend anyone. So in that spirit, merry Christmas
SR-71_Blackbird 7y ago
I will never buy another Microsoft product because they are spineless.
turowicz 7y ago
Interesting that he decided to post this using his real name and surname. You can find him and his employers on LinkedIn.
2fast4you 7y ago
I don’t think the Santa hat belongs in VSCode, but not for the reasons outlined in this issue. I don’t want my editor changing its UI every for the holidays
asadkn 7y ago
Microsoft has done the right thing here. The non-issue could be created an issue of. Who'd want the negative PR. That being said, it's prudent not to add the most common religious or cultural symbols for a global product. If you cater to one, you'll be expected to do the same for other cultural rituals.
TruffleLabs 7y ago
Do you say “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Holidays”, or just “Happy New Year”? Is there a “safe” greeting this time of year?
tanepiper 7y ago
No one did a reverse image search to find out Christian Shiffer probably doesn't exist - this was trolling https://tineye.com/search/f8144058b180a1d4df439745cfea4b1c8c6550d9?page=1 https://tineye.com/search/f8144058b180a1d4df439745cfea4b1c8c...
starefossen 7y ago
This is why we can’t have nice things!
wornohaulus 7y ago
Swastika is a religious symbol for us hindus .. whats so offensive about that ???

243 points by drak0n1c 7y ago

60% of the user base didn't know it existed. 25% could have liked it, 14% could have been indifferent. But this one guy is "offended" because Christmas (the celebration of the birth of a Jew named Jesus of Nazareth) "killed the Jews" and poof, it's gone. Tyranny of the minority.

me_me_me 7y ago

Why am I directed to github and not an onion article?

Gibbon1 7y ago
My explanation is we are all dead and in a level of hell that looks just like the life we left. And the Devil is slowly changing things to fuck with us until we realize we are in hell.

shard972 7y ago

Once again jews ruin everything.

hotz 7y ago

I honestly don't understand why people like this have to be entertained.

Infinitesimus 7y ago
Current US culture seems to consider how someone feels/perceives an action as a strong indicator that something wrong was done. (Eg: I didn't feel safe in that meeting, I felt uncomfortable by the remark, etc.) Combine that with a touchy subject like Judaism and the Jewish history (the article linked also throws in mentions of Hitler to invoke some strong reactions) and viola
- jjeaff 7y ago
  I don't think anyone necessarily jumps to the conclusion that "something wrong was done". But we have so many professional victims out there (just seems exhausting to have to stay so 'woke' about everything that might offend you) that I think everyone just picks their battles. Oh, a Santa hat offends you? K, fine, no one really cares if a santa hat is there or not, get rid of it so they can shut up and start looking for something else to be offended by.
sdinsn 7y ago
They don't. Ultimately, it's Microsoft's fault for giving in
- gremlinsinc 7y ago
  They should've just added a star of david next to the santa hat... or maybe a menorah?

retox 7y ago

Pathetic.

sdbillin 7y ago

It deeply offends me that people in professions that require a degree of logic and rationality can actually believe in a magical sky wizard.

jaldhar 7y ago
Um did you read the “logic and rationality” of the person reporting the bug? It’s all about his feelings. Plus I would argue that Father Christmas is a cthonic deity. Anyway, this Hindu would like to wish all HNers who celebrate (however you celebrate) a merry Christmas.
coldtea 7y ago
It deeply offends me that people who think they peddle "logic and rationality" can sum religions as "magical sky wizards" and summarily consider their role as detrimental, without understanding their social, cultural, historical, and evolutionary role and development.
Gibbon1 7y ago
I read that as Magical Sky Lizard and... I want to believe.

papermachete 7y ago

Pathetic display of ethnic privilege.

ivoras 7y ago

It's like Nassim Taleb said, "The most intolerant wins": https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15 https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict... Besides, if anyone's connecting the "red winter hat with a white puff" image with Jesus, Jews or anything of the sort instead of Coca Cola, their marketing department is not doing a good job.

hrktb 7y ago
I think we're past the point where it's easy to limit the scope of a message to a specific group, and any message that concerns personal life is just doomed to be an issue in some way. Nassim Taleb seems to be about companies giving in to the most extreme groups, but I think there will be less and less clear cut cases where a decision can emcompass all groups. For instance for his take on Halal food, some people do choose to not eat Halal. They might be arguably more intolerant that any other group, but not in relevant numbers for any food company to care about them. I don't think we're going far from the traditional marketing approach of defining a market and playing the trade-off games around each segment's inclinations. Religion and culture just got added to the mix.
gremlinsinc 7y ago
See, I think of Macy's.... but when I see a panda bear, boy do I crave some Coke.

Angostura 7y ago

The person who filed the complaint really needs to change his first name - I find it offensive.

me_me_me 7y ago
Offensive? Poor man has to live with his self-oppressing name. Daily reminder how his people were oppressed by evil outsiders. He deserves nobel peace prize.
jedilance 7y ago
You can open an Issue.
osrec 7y ago
I didn't pick up on that. How ironic!
petagonoral 7y ago
If you look at bottom right of his included screenshot, you'll see he has tab size set to 4 spaces. Is this really the type of person we should be taking demands from?!
- gremlinsinc 7y ago
  I picked up 4 spaces from ruby/rails when I first started coding...then switched to 2 spaces a few years back..my god it's so much better...
  - the_gastropod 7y ago
    I don't believe Ruby has ever endorsed 4 spaces...
    - gremlinsinc 7y ago
      I swear back in 2012 it was the norm/style to use 4 spaces in Rails... Edit: Maybe it's PSR2? Or maybe it was one of the dev teams I worked for.. honestly I can't remember why I used that lol. I'm getting senile at 40, I swear.

s9w 7y ago

> we're sorry we hurt your and other's feelings. We'll remote the Santa Hat. wow. If 4chan were to make an image about a fictional interaction like this, people would call it exaggerated. edit: this has to be a troll. I cannot believe someone would actually write like that

tomcooks 7y ago
Maybe he meant that they will host the icon remotely, so he can block it in his hosts file if he really doesn't like it.
- gmueckl 7y ago
  What?! This has to be a joke... what happened to good old program settings to disable things?
  - tomcooks 7y ago
    Yes it's a joke, he almost certainly meant remove.
Infinitesimus 7y ago
Imo that's the best reply they could have given. Certainly not a pleasant reply but it is accurate.
LaGrange 7y ago
...actually 4chan regularly runs things remarkably close with this. Sometimes they _accidentally_ turn a previously innocuous symbol into hate speech (see: "okay" gesture, welcome to 2019, where seeing someone making it makes you go and check if they're just not extremely online or actually a nazi), most of the time they just announce to the world they hang out on 4chan. The examples of less successful would be several spoof LGBT rights campaigns for, uh, unpleasant things.
- s9w 7y ago
  Yeah, I'm still not convinced if this guy is for real. But that's besides the point - them caving in to this insane demand on the spot is incredible. What's next - a word filter so I can't type "sjw" in VSCode? Seriously rethinking my decision to switch to this. This screams instability.

tomcooks 7y ago

If I were this person I would invest my time fixing the HTTPS cert on my site[0], instead of focusing on the trivialities of commercial-backed festivities, passing them as religious offences. [0](https://www.servicelayer.no/ https://www.servicelayer.no/)

mijndert 7y ago
I noticed the same. What a waste of time.
throwmeback 7y ago
I had the biggest hate-laugh of the year when I noticed this trying to determine if this guy is a troll or not.

draklor40 7y ago

Lol. PC police FTW!

excerionsforte 7y ago

Should have offered a switch via popup (on startup of the new update) and/or configuration setting to disable holiday theming and etc. Would seem to balance between sensitivities and cultural appreciation of different people, but I guess it is easier to just remove it.

misnome 7y ago

Clearly a deity of commercialism has no place in a product made by ...checks notes... Microsoft.

edu 7y ago

How ironic his name is "Christian".

snypox 7y ago

I feel like this was really intended to be harmless (it's really not pushed into your face also), people need to be able to let things go. edit: wait, multiple people is saying he's a troll, is that true?

samkone 7y ago

Stupid

nkkollaw 7y ago

I don't know what's more pathetic—that somebody will go out of his way because of a santa hat, or that the project actually removed the hat. What a clown world we live in!

petagonoral 7y ago

> Please remove it immediately and make it your top priority. Jeez, the entitlement. > To me this is almost equally offensive as a swastika. and the stupidity.

Anthony-G 7y ago
I hadn't noticed the "make it your top priority" part. This makes me more inclined to think it's a troll.

dimitar 7y ago

Looks like MS fell for an individual troll. I think the real story is how companies, as risk averse as they are respond to such cases - I would probably weight the risks and do as MS in such cases.

jaboutboul 7y ago

It would have been funny as hell is they added a Menorah as well, just to troll him...

arketyp 7y ago

I don't want decoration on my tools. On the other hand, I prefer tools where the personality of the maker to can still shine through. Today it's just a Santa's hat for which they can't take responsibility. And tomorrow?

hrktb 7y ago

This reminds me of Google so many years ago setting Father's Day reminder in people's Gmail. At some scale, a product can't just be whimsical, or not in any cultural or personally touching way. Boring and impersonal becomes an important virtue. There's no way this kind of fun initiative won't hit a nerve in some community or some group around the world, and if there's no logical backing behind it's just a PR hell.

maxerickson 7y ago
The thing is, I don't particularly want things that I use every day to "surprise" me with whimsy. I want them to be boring and reliable.

sammorrowdrums 7y ago

I don't think they should have backed down, but I understand Microsoft not wanting confrontation or a storm. But if this person is so offended, I imagine that they are constantly and persistently offended while walking the streets, full of similar symbols and seasonal displays. I'm a staunch atheist but I still appreciate a beautiful mosque, cathedral or fun display. (And I do find the money that could have been spent on helping others that was used to build cathedrals and palaces to be obnoxious, it's not that I have to have complete respect to accept their existence). This story frustrated me because it seems like a needless censorship, where it ultimately just stops managers from allowing easter eggs, which used to be such a wonderful part of much software. Hahahahahaha probably Easter eggs is also going to offend. Ok I'll call them "Cody surprises":-p

amarshall 7y ago
This is from a while ago, but Microsoft once banned software easter eggs. See https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2005/10/21/why-no-easter-eggs/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2005/10/21/wh...
- sammorrowdrums 7y ago
  My favourite ever easter egg story https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/405783/why-does-man-print-gimme-gimme-gimme-at-0030 https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/405783/why-does-man...
  - sammorrowdrums 7y ago
    Trigger warning: contains Abba reference
excerionsforte 7y ago
Balanced thing would have been to add a config parameter to enable disable this stuff. Can't imagine a lawsuit from something that is user customizable. Some want Easter eggs and others don't. Of course if your easter eggs slow performance via bug then insta-disable.

mijndert 7y ago

I really hope this is just a troll.

jevgeni 7y ago

I understand being annoyed by religious symbols, but "it's almost as offensive as a swastika"... that's just immensely callous. Especially from a Jewish perspective.

donohoe 7y ago
I’m not a huge fan of Christmas. I say ‘happy holidays’ to try and be more inclusive. I’m atheist and use it as a time to spend time with family and friends. I’m 100% with you. Santa is not a religious figure any more, if ever. Is Thor a religious figure? This guy is a troll or just a ridiculous person.

alkotronikk 7y ago

Is there an VSCode extension to bring the hat back, though?

contravariant 7y ago

So the objection is against a symbol that is vaguely related to a festival that ties together an enormous number of various otherwise unrelated celebrations (that all happen at or around the winter solstice). The main objection to most of them being that they aren't Jewish (conveniently ignoring the Jewish festival of Hanukkah that occurs at around the same time). Curiously the article linked that feebly attempts to tie this all together in a coherent narrative fails to mention how the red hat is related to Christmas.

cosarara 7y ago
The linked article starts by presenting Saturnalia as a murderous celebration of human sacrifices, for which there is no evidence at all, so it makes me doubt the historical accuracy of the whole piece.
- jjeaff 7y ago
  Ya, I browsed through the article and zeroed in on Christmas caroling being related to drunken people running nude through the streets and singing. Was hoping for a fun little anecdote next time someone brought up going Christmas caroling. But turns out that all seems to be bunk. Caroling seems to be related to the early practice of going door to door as peasants singing and asking for food/gifts from feudal lords... "... so bring us some figgy pudding, and bring it right here."

x3ro 7y ago

I must say I'm amused by the reactions here. I realize that the reporter displays a strong reaction to something that seems irrelevant to most people here. Comments then go on to raise concerns of rationality and objectivity. Yet most discussions I read on here are the exact opposite. They quickly dissolve into unnecessary rabbit holing about some particular niche topic a commenter particularly cares about. Few people complain about these, and many people participate. Most people participating also claim to be "rational" and "objective", yet often know very little of the topic. I feel this here is the same. People complain that people have feelings, because they feel they are superior by being all "rational". Yet when the next technical discussion comes around, all of this is thrown out of the window because "curly braces go on the next line!!1"..

coldtea 7y ago

>The Santa Hat on vscode insiders and pushing of religion is very offensive to me, additionally xmas has cost millions of Jews their lives over the centuries, yet even if that was not the case, pushing religious symbols as part of a product update is completely unacceptable. Please remove it immediately and make it your top priority. To me this is almost equally offensive as a swastika. This guy should be banned from the project. Slap a couple of lawsuits in different jurisdictions for promoting hate speech (for him equating an established religious symbol to the swastika).

dsr_ 7y ago
Do you know why the United States put "no establishment of a religion" in the Constitution? Because without it, you get holy wars. Eventually, the kind in which people die. When a non-religious organization starts getting involved in religion, they run into similar problems. The best course of action is to stay out of it.
- jaldhar 7y ago
  Point of information: that’s not the reason or at least not the primary one. Many of the colonies had an established Church and the framers did not want the Federal government impinging on states rights. Eventually all the states did disestablish but the last of those did so years after the constitution was ratified. I don’t know what any of that has to do with Santa hats. Anecdote time: We are as I mentioned in my other comment Hindus. When my kids were little they were into Christmas as much as any other American children and we followed certain traditions but my daughter in particular was peeved that we never had a Christmas tree. (No ideological reason I just couldn’t be bothered.). Recently she mentioned this to her friend who then gave her a small tree as a present. That friend? A hijab-wearing Algerian Muslim.
  - dsr_ 7y ago
    Established churches lead to oppression of minority viewpoints. What do you want to do, fight over it?

ihalip 7y ago

And of course the opposite issue: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87291 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87291

hwj 7y ago
Seems they closed it within 12 minutes...

kresten 7y ago

The world is full of people who actively want to be offended. Who LIKE to be offended. If Christmas is so offensive why is it on every media channel constantly this time of year? They have a bubbling sense of righteous indignation ready to trigger. These are trolls no different from any other. The right way to handle this troll would have been to first get Christmas taken off some mainstream tv channels first.

syshum 7y ago
The problem is they are not actually offended. They like the power that pretending to be offended gives them. They need that validation, or rush at making the world bend to their unreasonable demands. They is the only "joy" they have in their miserable lives

qazpot 7y ago

Shouldn't he find his own name offensive ?

EForEndeavour 7y ago
Living in constant self-offence would explain his astounding levels of grouchiness. That's assuming he isn't blatantly trolling, of course.

nneonneo 7y ago

VLC gets dressed up for the holidays (the traffic cone wears a little hat), but it can be turned off in the settings. Surely making this configurable (even via some arcane non-GUI switch) would have satisfied all parties? Instead the devs of VS Code, who no doubt felt this would be a cute and generally appreciated little token to brighten a dev’s day, will be less inclined to do fun things in the future. Everyone loses.

2fast4you 7y ago
I think it should be an opt-in not an opt-out. The better way to distribute some holiday cheer would be to release an official VSCode Christmas theme. That way my editor it’s changing its appearance for no reason every year

maury91 7y ago

This issue is so over the top that South Park could make a gag out of it

utterdesign 7y ago

Is the complainant related to Titania McGrath in any way? I think we should be told. https://youtu.be/yEGv6CT7kz4 https://youtu.be/yEGv6CT7kz4

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

rvz 7y ago

> The Santa Hat on vscode insiders and pushing of religion is very offensive to me Well, If it is "offensive" to you, find the settings button and turn it off. To find everything that you see "offensive" and to demand everyone to cater to your needs sounds like a sense of entitlement if not very draconian. I had high hopes for Microsoft to resist this nonsense and close politically correct issues like this, but once again, they capitulated to the minority. > I've also deleted the discussion that does not belong into our issue tracker. Well done! /s Now the whole context of parts the discussion has now been lost.

neoberg 7y ago

While I agree with some points made here in comments, I wonder what would be the reaction of people calling this "pathetic" if they added a crescent moon for muslim holidays?

laumars 7y ago
Christmas isn't really a Christian festival any more. I mean technically it never was (Yule is a pagan thing) but even the later amendment of the Christ metaphor has nothing to do with Santa and nor does the modern depiction of Santa have any relation to the original heritage of the character (we have Coka Cola to thank for that). That all said, I'd welcome a crescent moon and any other imagery too. I don't see the issue in celebrating festivals -- which themselves are intended to be a celebration. Tolerance should be about acceptence other festivals not censorship of them.

s9w 7y ago

I'm enjoying the fun people seem to be having in the github issues. My favorite: > "Light themes" section comes before "Dark themes" in settings dropdown which is very offensive to me (87345) edit: Also how is this only on page 3 with 100+ points in less than an hour?

bigbaguette 7y ago
Because it's a sensitive subject. I posted the very same submission a few hours before and it got flagged in no time

divbyzer0 7y ago

The justification linked in the issue is very weak. The only issue I can see a level hypersensitivity that would find fault with any tradition, including the one (potentially) being offended.

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjj 7y ago

As a result his repos' issues are being trolled https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issues/8 https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issu... https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issues/7 https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issu...

SwiftyBug 7y ago
Even a pull request: https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/pull/14 https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/pull...

julienfr112 7y ago

https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issues/7 https://github.com/Christian-Schiffer/servicelayer.chat/issu...

sam_lowry_ 7y ago
He is just a troll!
- gremlinsinc 7y ago
  wow that's awesome!

Zealotux 7y ago

Reminded me of https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=96539 https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=96539 Jean-Baptiste Kempf's answer was perfect in that regard, you don't like it that way? Fork it, you have that freedom, or don't use the insiders' version, as far as I know, the public release doesn't have the offensive svastika-like Christmas hat.

frank2 7y ago
at least on mac, the public release of VLC does have it (but it can be turned off in settings).
- Zealotux 7y ago
  My comment wasn't clear as I've mixed VLC and VSCode, what I meant was that the public release of VSCode doesn't have the hat, the complaint was about the insiders' version.

ryuukk_ 7y ago

good, technology and futuristic workspaces should stay atheist, fuck santa, and fuck religious people i LOL at the mad people, hahaha, be mad and stay mad forever, that's all that matters

luord 7y ago

I'm about 99% sure that this was a joke, mocking the people who complain about menial stuff like this. It's sad that it was taken seriously. I mean, the reporter seems to be literally called Christian, even if he's Jewish, I'm sure he's learned to live with the association.

sheepdestroyer 7y ago
I insta lolled when I saw his name and read his report. How can he live with himself then?

9c8675a8 7y ago

Race to the bottom of grayness and utter nothingness. Fuck this overly sensitive and intolerant(!) non-culture.

yread 7y ago

The linked Sefaria blog post is also complete hogwash! Lord Misrule is a mediaval tradition, it didn't involve brutal murders, "rape and other sexual license; consuming human-shaped biscuits" wtf?

ch_123 7y ago

As an atheist who received a Catholic education, I think calling a Santa hat a religious symbol is a stretch - Saint Nicholas is generally not depicted or described as wearing a "Santa" outfit. It's really more of a Western culture symbol rather than anything. I agree with the assessment of some of the other posts that the guy who opened the issue is either trolling, or has made an attempt at satire that was taken too seriously.

maxerickson 7y ago
If you want to analyze it that way, it's a secular Christian symbol, not a Western symbol. There's plenty of westerners that don't do the Christmas.
- laumars 7y ago
  Santa's red outfit was designed as part of a Coka Cola promotion. So I think the GP is more actuate saying it's a western symbol. Whether some westerners choose not to celebrate Christmas is kind of moot. I don't celebrate Halloween but there's still no disputing some of the traditions are modern regional twists.
  - maxerickson 7y ago
    The marketing was aimed directly at the group described by secular Christian, I don't see how the fact that it originated as marketing changes anything.
- zaarn 7y ago
  Santa is more of a US symbol really, other countries have different represenations (Germany for example has baby jesus, literally, and the only reason we have santa is lazy US companies not wanting to reprint)

aganame 7y ago

...and they replaced the icon with an actual snowflake. This is like an Onion article. I'm a somewhat a proud sjw myself, and this is just silly. It smells like a deliberate attempt to make us look bad.

ThrowawayR2 7y ago
> "It smells like a deliberate attempt to make us look bad." This individual is in Norway and so it seems unlikely that he has anything to do with the culture wars in the US. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." as they say.
conradfr 7y ago
There's always someone more sjw than you and maybe one day you'll even be labeled alt-right for no reason and taste what you did to others.
- aganame 7y ago
  What do you think I have done to others?
anotherevan 7y ago
> replaced the icon with an actual snowflake. But I live in the southern hemisphere and it is summer now. Today it was once of the hottest days in my country's recorded history... Should I be offended that they are using northern hemisphere iconography? Are Microsoft anti-southern hemisphere? This reminds me of the Windows Fall Creators Update two years ago, which they are calling the Autumn Creators Update outside of North America, including in the southern hemisphere where it was Spring. Also, no apostrophe. A marketing fail on so many levels.
- pgeorgi 7y ago
  > Should I be offended that they are using northern hemisphere iconography? I'm not sure the snowflake is (primarily) meant as a seasonal marker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake_(slang) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake_(slang)

sam_lowry_ 7y ago

And the one who closed the ticket is Erich Gamma from the Gand of Four fame.

petecooper 7y ago

Unsurprisingly, there are related (for want of a better word) issues appearing: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87341 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87341 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87348 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87348 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87342 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87342 The issue janitors have an interesting day ahead.

wildpeaks 7y ago

What does Santa have to do with religion, it's like the tooth fairy or Bigfoot ?? I almost wonder if it's not a troll account given most of his repos are forks and his profile links to a website that doesn't load.

haunter 7y ago

Judging by the thread on /g/ 4chan will have a good day with this guy

tahdig 7y ago

Genuinely curious why this post was flagged.

polotics 7y ago

IMHO this looks like a classic agent-provocateur move, very well written to trigger identity-politics divisiveness. Flag flag flag.

tkel 7y ago

This guy is obviously just a troll. However it's important to note the unsaid political point. That society has gone "too far" in being tolerant. Bad-faith actors like this will try to weaponize attitudes of good-faith people to try to turn back social progress.

Gibbon1 7y ago
Bad faith fucking with people that are exercising good faith isn't taken seriously enough.

gl0rb 7y ago

... His name is Christian.

gremlinsinc 7y ago

> To me this is almost equally offensive as a swastika. Seriously ? Christmas didn't cause the holocaust. Christian idiots who don't know who Christ is or what he taught definitely caused millions of deaths but that's more on their leadership/organized religion. I'm exmormon, ex-christian. Agnostic, but seriously people need to take a chill pill. Santa's more like Mickey Mouse than a religious figure at this point. Hardly a religious symbol imho. If anything he's a symbol of xmas than christmas. For me I just treat Christmas like it's Festivus, while my wife and other family celebrate Christmas because that's what they believe. Tolerance goes both ways. This person is as much a hate monger as a Christian hating on Muslim's. It's only offensive because he chooses to be offended by it, just as the religious right chooses to be offended with a transgender person goes into what they deem is 'the wrong' restroom. It's all perception, people need to stop it with being so offended, while at the same time accepting others for who they are obviously. How did our world get so toxic... Why can't we all just get along?

LucaSas 7y ago

I believe the person who started this is just a bad actor. Surely he must have known that this will only lead to more outrage and hatred. Now we need to have the whole "war on xmas" and "political correctness gone crazy" debates, just because there is one idiot out there that people decided to listen to instead of ignore.

heh 7y ago

Yikes. I'm Jewish, non-religious. This guy is absolutely crazy. Do I personally like Christmas? No. Do I like having it shoved down my throat every time I go to get groceries? No. Do I like it when some people seem to get offended when I tell them I don't celebrate Christmas? No. But to compare it to swatztikas and the Holocaust is ludicrous. (And as a person with grandparents who went through the holocaust, this is deeply offensive- don't cheapen the memory of the holocaust with BS.) Calling Hannukah "Jewish Christmas" is pretty offensive,but a little hat which has it's origins in a Coca-Cola commercial is not.

MattConfluence 7y ago

> To me this is almost equally offensive as a swastika. This seems quite ignorant of history coming from a Norwegian. The red "santa hat" was a symbol of resistance during WWII, so much that it was actually banned by the Nazis/collaborator government for a time. Wikipedia article in Norwegian, try an automatic translation service if you're interested in reading: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisselue#Nisselue_som_norsk_symbol https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisselue#Nisselue_som_norsk_sy...

mikl 7y ago

People have been using all sorts of excuses to visit evil upon another for all of recorded history. Dig deep enough in history, and you can condemn almost any tradition. It is senseless to consider ancient history when evaluating modern traditions. What people did hundreds or even thousands of years ago is of historic interest, sure, but it does condemn Christmas today, any more than the slaughter of the Canaanites condemns jews today. And today, Christmas is a celebration of goodwill and peace to all. That should not offend anyone. So in that spirit, merry Christmas

SR-71_Blackbird 7y ago

I will never buy another Microsoft product because they are spineless.

turowicz 7y ago

Interesting that he decided to post this using his real name and surname. You can find him and his employers on LinkedIn.

2fast4you 7y ago

I don’t think the Santa hat belongs in VSCode, but not for the reasons outlined in this issue. I don’t want my editor changing its UI every for the holidays

asadkn 7y ago

Microsoft has done the right thing here. The non-issue could be created an issue of. Who'd want the negative PR. That being said, it's prudent not to add the most common religious or cultural symbols for a global product. If you cater to one, you'll be expected to do the same for other cultural rituals.

TruffleLabs 7y ago

Do you say “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Holidays”, or just “Happy New Year”? Is there a “safe” greeting this time of year?

tanepiper 7y ago

No one did a reverse image search to find out Christian Shiffer probably doesn't exist - this was trolling https://tineye.com/search/f8144058b180a1d4df439745cfea4b1c8c6550d9?page=1 https://tineye.com/search/f8144058b180a1d4df439745cfea4b1c8c...

starefossen 7y ago

This is why we can’t have nice things!

wornohaulus 7y ago

Swastika is a religious symbol for us hindus .. whats so offensive about that ???