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My response would have been: "Why don't you shove it."
I would have been like "thanks for the paper, I need it for my fireplace" and just crumpled it up and threw it in the fire. Never would have even bothered with calling the news on it and give these people the satisfaction.
I see this as part of the same "hairshirt" mentality of people being convinced that affluence and happiness are bad things. This pattern is illustrated with Covid restrictions and dismay at holiday lights and celebrations. Other examples:
I stated (and removed most of the post which you can link to):
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbgusa
The invention of the automobile and the creation of modern high-speed highways were a great stimulus to the nation's economy, from enhanced productivity and the connection of remote markets to each other.....
LOW SPEED LIMITS
The environmental movement, unofficially kicked off with Earth Day in April 1970 marked a certain guilt that many had with our affluence. There were gains, so to speak but did we deserve them and/or were they worth the cost?**********I suspect the real motive was a "hair-shirt" mentality; that self-abnegation may feel good for the soul and for the conscience if not for the economy.
CELL PHONE USE RESTRICTIONS
**************
Few care to remember the days of the use of payphones when out of the house, or having to ask a business or personal host to "borrow" the phone, incurring message unit or toll charges. Cell phones became ubiquitous by the mid-1990's and smart phones, in the form of Blackberries, not too long after. The gains in productivity were immense. People could actually work while traveling. They could make or return business calls, set up meetings, and let people know when they were running behind schedule. This, plus other aspects of the high-tech revolution has caused a 1950's and 1960's like boom, and also without inflation. Times, except for the 2008-9 sharp recession have been good.
America's instinct for Puritanical self-doubt and guilt led to a similar "hair-shirt" mentality, followed first by laws against use of hand-held cell phones, which made and make little sense, and then more sensible laws against texting behind the wheel. But the law makes no distinction between texting, hand-held use of a cell phone for talking or changing a music selection, which is much like changing a radio station. Nobody ever discussed restricting car radios back in the day. Maybe people had more cajones then and wouldn't accept a nanny state.
CONCLUSION
Sensible safety laws are fine. But they should be tailored to allow activities that are safe, and not be used for either "feel-good" expiation of guilt, or to fill localities' coffers.
I see this episode with the decorations, and with Covid restrictions, as part of the same pattern.
We better not have a car because some people don't have one. We better not have children because some people can't get pregnant. We better not make over 50,000 a year because many people don't make that much. We better not buy a house because some people rent. We better not better ourselves because some people are lazy and don't want to work.
I would have been like "thanks for the paper, I need it for my fireplace" and just crumpled it up and threw it in the fire. Never would have even bothered with calling the news on it and give these people the satisfaction.
I don't know who was the biggest snowflake: The person who wrote the letter, the person who thought it was significant enough to take to the media, or the editor who thought it was actually news.
We better not have a car because some people don't have one. We better not have children because some people can't get pregnant. We better not make over 50,000 a year because many people don't make that much. We better not buy a house because some people rent. We better not better ourselves because some people are lazy and don't want to work.
Sort of echos my point one post above.
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