Black Friday = Buy Nothing Day

[allegrox]

Since it is officially Black Friday as the spirit of Consumerism* once more takes over another convoluted display of national pride, it seems appropriate to consider this an un-holiday. As it is traditional on Thanksgiving to compile a list of things for which one is thankful, I will do the opposite. Here is a list of ten things for which I am completely ungrateful, in no particular order. Make your own and pass it on.

1. The kind of blind consumerism that makes people ask me "Why would you make that [for almost no cost] when you could just buy it [or something almost like it, for many times the cost, not to mention waste]?"
2. The absurd half-indifference with which Americans say "It doesn't matter who's president; what matters is that you vote," and the semi-democracy that makes that statement almost make sense. These people will also claim to believe the outcome of elections to be important.
3. The equally absurd belief that not voting made you cool.
4. Political correctness at the expense of actual correctness.
5. Abridgment of reasonable political correctness (and in fact reality) under the guise of honest revelation. This usually takes the form of supposedly reluctant, well-somebody-had-to-say-it-finally hate speech prefaced by a statement of how annoying political correctness is. It is a favorite technique used by comedians to create rapport with conservative audiences.
6. The never-ending Red Scare. Communism is still the enemy. Socialism? Same thing! Fascism? What's that? Which brings me to...
7. Ubiquitous and complete lack of any understanding of what our economic system is or what the labels mean - the kind of idiocy that causes supposedly educated people to confuse our government's capitalist or fascist actions with socialist ones (i.e. bailouts).
8. The hyper-religious status quo that makes people tell me how much better off I'd be believing in something, anything, even if it's not real, because faith is supposed to be healthy. The only unhealthy thing about not believing in nonsnse is the annoyance of being constantly reminded that you should in fact accept it anyway. [I'll add that I have all due respect for those who can believe sincerely in whatever nuttery they want and still not feel the need to force it on others.]
9. The common belief that personal life decisions and moral positions should be the subject of law. For example, same-sex marriage.
10. The headache that keeps me from thinking of a tenth item.

* I'm following archaic capitalization rules here for effect.