VS Code is NOT a political platform

[fonix232]

I'm referring to this ticket. I find it abhorrent that a company like Microsoft will bow to religious extremists, who, by misrepresenting and twisting out historical facts, claim victimhood over things like a santa hat.

Microsoft is a western company, headquartered in a country whose money is even stapled with Christianity, and will observe Western traditions as such. Christmas is one of the most prominent such tradition that has transcended religion for hundreds of years. To make it even more prominently less religious, the "santa hat" has zero connection to religion again - it is attributed to depictions of Saint Nicholas, who, while is a Christian saint, has gotten famous not for being Christian, not for following Jesus and spreading his word, but for being generally a good person, giving out gifts. No, not massacre of Jewish people, not an attack on another religion, but simply by leaving gifts for children.

The santa hat, regardless of religion, is tied to the period of the winter holidays, no matter the name, around the world. It has no negative connotation, and the only proof given in that post was a pseudo-historical description of questionable sources. It's nothing more than playing victim, to eradicate a well-known symbol of happiness, joy, and love in favour of a minority.

In other words: having the santa hat in VS code does not repress anyone's rights, however removing it because of a single complaint opens the floodgates of such influence. It was a small easter egg (uh-oh, will I get ostracised for mentioning another Christian celebration, even though it is an internationally accepted term for small, fun features?), not the depicted war cry "death to the Jews" said person is envisioning in it. It was not a swastika, it was not "Heil Hitler" playing on a loop, it was not a manifesto to encourage creation and operation of another Auschwitz. Comparing it to them is just as disrespectful to the victims of the Holocaust than outright denying it happened. When everything, even a little santa hat, suddenly equals the Holocaust, it loses its significance. Yes, keep remembering people it happened so we never repeat such a horror, but do not diminish its effects, and compare it to an effin' santa hat.

So please, let's keep politically correct bullshit out of this app. It's a tool. It's not a political platform.

Also, if he can be offended by the addition of the santa hat, I can be offended by the removal. Pushing religious propaganda is completely unacceptable. To me this is almost as equally offensive as forcing another religion on me. Please make the re-addition of the santa hat your top priority!

Sincerely: an atheist

[amcbnc]

It is sad that in a community they let in toxic people and they are offended by anything like the user who opened the ticket to cry.

The cancer of humanity, religions. Without them we would all live better.

Microsoft that simply makes an act showing the hat of a Coca Cola character (the original Santa Claus was not red) to remember the time of festivities of a great majority of the planet and some only know how to think about genocides.

If so, that user won't use VideoLan to watch his videos either, since it also shows the Coca-Cola Santa's hat. He should go open a complaint to the VideoLan repository as well.

Let's see if humanity has already overcome its problems and left behind the mistakes it has made.

[joaoportela]

Although I agree with most of what you have said, let's please stop opening issues related to this.

I believe the situation has already gotten out of hand (see https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87440)

Let's move on and focus on what matters.

[varadero]

We have to mention how Microsoft's Kai Maetzel @kieferrm responded just an hour later:

@Christian-Schiffer we're sorry we hurt your and other's feelings. We'll remove the Santa Hat.

And a little bit later by Microsoft's Erich Gamma @egamma :

Closing the issue as confirmed by @Christian-Schiffer the issue has been addressed.

@joaoportela Sure, and what matters here is why Microsoft didn't realized the obvious - what will happen next... And the issue you mention https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87440 is far away from the desired reaction. The ONLY correct one was:

• @Christian-Schiffer , we are adding a setting so you can change it

Not closing the project and thinking 2 days what went wrong...

[fonix232]

@joaoportela We can't move on as long as this issue is not addressed and discussed properly. Microsoft's unwillingness of leaving the discussion open is what's prompting these tickets to be opened. Just like how said sad person had the right to express his opinion about the topic (even if it was based on totally skewed material and false equals), we, the other users also have the right to express our opinion about him. Microsoft choosing to side with him, and practically silence every opposing opinion is something that should not happen in the open software segment. It says that that one person's opinion is more important than the other users', and by acting so quickly, locking down any further discussion, just shows that Microsoft is either ignorant enough to believe falsified historical documents and twisted out facts, or outright they agree with it. Neither is acceptable.

And to focus on what matters... This matters. Because this is a slippery slope, and listening to a single users' complaints, then ignoring hundreds of others is a bad practice, and should be pointed out.

[salif]

Santa hat is both religious and cultural symbol. VS Code is software product used by a lot of developers in different countries with different cultures. Including it in VSCode is pushing the Western Christian culture into other cultures. VS Code should be religious and cultural neutral!

[varadero]

@salifm I am sure you can handle a setting which changes that red hat which so much hurts your feelings, can you ?

[PWagner1]

@fonix232

If they are not careful it could end up as Notepad++ 2.0, but without the Chinese propaganda.

[joaoportela]

I think that they handled it wrong and got some serious backlash for it.

They've since did what they could have done in the first place, which is to add a setting to change the icon.

I believe that a new issue related to this subject opened every 10 minutes is only wasting people's time.

[Rob--]

In #87440 Chris says "even a single person being offended is one too many". If one person is allowed to control and influence a project so big due to cancel culture and their belief the world evolves around them, then surely I too can propose such changes and claim certain features of VS Code deeply offend me and therefore require immediate change?

[sitepodmatt]

Agreed. And no doubt you can get a pork sandwich at Redmond - offending muslims - of a beef philly steak at Zurich - offending hindus, or a chicken fillet offending vegeterians. MS need to walk back this PC position of "one silly bugger offended is one too many"

[ghost]

I'm referring to this ticket. I find it abhorrent that a company like Microsoft will bow to religious extremists, who, by misrepresenting and twisting out historical facts, claim victimhood over things like a santa hat.

Microsoft is a western company, headquartered in a country whose money is even stapled with Christianity, and will observe Western traditions as such. Christmas is one of the most prominent such tradition that has transcended religion for hundreds of years. To make it even more prominently less religious, the "santa hat" has zero connection to religion again - it is attributed to depictions of Saint Nicholas, who, while is a Christian saint, has gotten famous not for being Christian, not for following Jesus and spreading his word, but for being generally a good person, giving out gifts. No, not massacre of Jewish people, not an attack on another religion, but simply by leaving gifts for children.

The santa hat, regardless of religion, is tied to the period of the winter holidays, no matter the name, around the world. It has no negative connotation, and the only proof given in that post was a pseudo-historical description of questionable sources. It's nothing more than playing victim, to eradicate a well-known symbol of happiness, joy, and love in favour of a minority.

In other words: having the santa hat in VS code does not repress anyone's rights, however removing it because of a single complaint opens the floodgates of such influence. It was a small easter egg (uh-oh, will I get ostracised for mentioning another Christian celebration, even though it is an internationally accepted term for small, fun features?), not the depicted war cry "death to the Jews" said person is envisioning in it. It was not a swastika, it was not "Heil Hitler" playing on a loop, it was not a manifesto to encourage creation and operation of another Auschwitz. Comparing it to them is just as disrespectful to the victims of the Holocaust than outright denying it happened. When everything, even a little santa hat, suddenly equals the Holocaust, it loses its significance. Yes, keep remembering people it happened so we never repeat such a horror, but do not diminish its effects, and compare it to an effin' santa hat.

So please, let's keep politically correct bullshit out of this app. It's a tool. It's not a political platform.

Also, if he can be offended by the addition of the santa hat, I can be offended by the removal. Pushing religious propaganda is completely unacceptable. To me this is almost as equally offensive as forcing another religion on me. Please make the re-addition of the santa hat your top priority!

Sincerely: an atheist

Obviously, I agree with you that VSCode is not a political or religious platform. Therefor I opened that issue. Thus, you calling me a religious extremist while being part in some of the most extremist behavior I have seen to date is rather irrational. This begins to look a bit like the reaction in relation to the Muhammed drawings, only I as opposed to those who did that, I did not in any way mock your religion, I just stated that such symbols, religious and otherwise have no place in a professional dev environment and documented that said symbol has a long history of being used in hate crimes and crimes against humanity.

Therefor, I understand this as yet another spam issue related to me opening issue microsoft/vscode#87268 on the santa hat. If these kinds of spam comments and bad jokes were all that it was, we could all have a good laugh together. Yet, even if that were the case, the sheer magnitude of such spam alone borders to harassment. Unfortunately, spammy issue openings and comments like yours were pretty much the best of them.

Responses ranging from racist name calling including n and k words, forcing your religion down my throat by spamming my repositories and personal email account with Santa’s, Jesus loves you and merry xmas comment, DDOS attacks on my dev server attempts to hack my dev server, registering with my email on diverse porn and sex and gay dating sites as well as spammer networks, opening fake issues and sending emails to my personal account with disgusting photos such as a Santa making the Hitler Salute even one of the GitHub users sending me an email showing his rectum, opened wide, mind you, Hitler salutes all the way to suggestion I should go and kill myself as well as outright death threats and incitement to genocide. And then on top of it all, opening issues with complaint about me practically claiming I forced them to utter those incitements against me, people of color, Jews and others by opening issue #87268 . I mean c'mon, are these people for real?

One would think that developers at the very least would have some deductive reasoning, so using the n and k word against me, when my profile picture and name clearly show I am neither, is clearly yet another example of the irrational, homicidal and even genocidal reactions and behaviours many have exhibited in the aftermath.

Understand, I am just a dev who is trying to do the right thing and my complaint about that religious symbolism on globally available software that has nothing to do with religion whatsoever, is completely out of place as well as pointing out that the particular religious symbol, the Santa hat has been used in xmas traditions over the centuries to mock, tarnish, murder and torture people, especially Jews thus for many is a frightening symbol almost as bad as the swastika. I also added a link to document this. Microsoft of course understood that their well-meant holiday greeting has diverse effects on diverse population and ethnic groups and that some of us do not feel particularly happy about getting such symbols forced down our throats and that some even experience fear and anxiety due to some of the historic meaning of xmas including its symbolism as said Santa hat.

Now, I was not surprised that not everyone agreed with my concern, yet given I felt I explained why and documented it well, I would have expected supposedly intelligent fellow developers to show understanding and respect for my position. Now a friendly little tarnish against me here and there, while not necessarily nice or even appropriate in this context, I would have accepted and not even bothered to comment upon, much less send abuse complaints about, but this aforementioned hate fest that came in the aftermath, is not only completely unacceptable, some of it in fact not only regular criminal offences, some of the offences are outright crimes against humanity, especially those containing incitement to genocide against a protected group.

The aforementioned hates fest by the way also proves the absolute necessity to keep dev apps and networks as well other professional apps and networks free of political and religious symbolism, apparently especially xmas related symbolism since history in fact did repeat itself and I for some reason became a proxy for the hate these people have for people of color and Jews. I can only imagine how those groups must feel, I after all have only been subject to this for the third day now, the groups in question however must live with this their whole lives. So, think people and stop this madness. It most certainly is not funny, not funny at all.

As to people claiming Santa is not a religious symbol, the kind of murderous and genocidal rage some of you exhibited in the aftermath, very similar to the type of murderous and genocidal rage of old inn relation to xmas, in most cases are exhibited solely by religious and political extremists, so based on that, I am going to have to beg to differ.

Now Microsoft has changed the symbol into something that is optional, great, I guess everyone now should be happy and be able to go on with their lives. I also hope, that this unbelievable terror some of you have subjected Jews, people of color and other groups as well as me to in the aftermath now has come to an end and that if anyone feels the need to send yet another message in this matter, that massage will be a message of either support or an apology for past behavior. An apology I would suggest many of you ow the Jewish People, People of Color, Microsoft as well as myself.

Happy Holidays.

[guodong000]

next logo sketch 👇

[sitepodmatt]

I think, at the end of the day, Schiffer, with possibly good intentions, solitary knighting on behalf of a group he believes have been so terribly offended, has basically done the equivalent that "Jussie Smollett" did for racism for antisemitism, there's a lot of guilt to shoulder there - I think in future everyone should think carefully about the implications of being "offended" on behalf of others.

[ghost]

I think, at the end of the day, Schiffer, with possibly good intentions, solitary knighting on behalf of a group he believes have been so terribly offended, has basically done the equivalent that "Jussie Smollett" did for racism for antisemitism, there's a lot of guilt to shoulder there - I think everyone should think carefully about the implications of being "offended" on behalf of others.

Yet another of those what psycharity call deflection, blaming others for crimes committed by themselves. What a sad world we live in.

[remenyo]

Hey, isn't it configurable in insider settings.json holiday.gearIconStyle?

[davidcralph]

Hey, isn't it configurable in insider settings.json holiday.gearIconStyle?

indeed

[ghost]

While I disagree with the personal harrassment you have received outside of Github, I do want to point out however that I personally find the image you posted pretty amusing, the Santa hat takes up such a minute percentage of the screen that it not only required a huge red arrow to point it out, but it is so small you can't even tell it's a Santa hat until you closely examine it.

And regarding your comment on the article you linked, I would like to reference a Reddit comment that highlights the absurdity:

I love that someone sourced something from the 1400s on why VSCode can't have a christmas hat

And lastly I would just like to say as well the reason your post was viewed as "extremist" is because you mention stuff like "To me this is almost equally offensive as a swastika.", which is blatantly false. The swastika is a symbol connected to a movement about hate and genocide while a Santa hat is simply not even a religious symbol for the majority of people. As one user mentioned, the reason the Santa hat is even red is due to a marketing campaign by Coca Cola. Microsoft's inclusion of the Santa hat was not for religious reasons at all like you falsely claim, it was (as they stated) a wholesome festive easter egg that was included as a lead up to the holidays.

Well history did indeed repeat itself, you being a part of that, thus your own behavior disproves your argument.

[ghost]

Hey, isn't it configurable in insider settings.json holiday.gearIconStyle?

indeed

That said, given your reactions, I am pretty sure, if Microsoft had added the Magen David or a Hanukkah candle holder to that list, many of you would have flooded this forum with complaints. Am I wrong?

[UPDATE: Given the now 25 downvotes, you prove that I am not wrong, that this is in fact what this is all about, an anti-semitic hatefest]

[nocategory]

Hey, isn't it configurable in insider settings.json holiday.gearIconStyle?

indeed

That said, given your reactions, I am pretty sure, if Microsoft had added the Magen David or a Hanukkah candle holder to that list, many of you would have flooded this forum with complaints. Am I wrong?

Yep, you're wrong.

[ghost]

Hey, isn't it configurable in insider settings.json holiday.gearIconStyle?

indeed

That said, given your reactions, I am pretty sure, if Microsoft had added the Magen David or a Hanukkah candle holder to that list, many of you would have flooded this forum with complaints. Am I wrong?

Yep, you're wrong.

Great, than I hereby make a suggestion for Microsoft to add the Magen David and a Hanukkah Menorah in the next update.

[remenyo]

They added the option after @Christian-Schiffer and many other people discussed about it.

Please, let's move over Reddit, the conversation that you/we are taking is valuable, but this is not the right place to conduct it. As others said, this is a wider issue, not only vscode had a santa hat. (For example VLC)

They made it optional, they apologized for it, I think it's not a vscode specific problem anymore.

[David-Else]

@Christian-Schiffer I am really sorry you suffered abuse, nobody deserves that.. BUT:

1. The VAST majority of people do not see a Santa hat as religious.
2. The VAST majority of people think comparing it to a swastika is absurd, and probably offensive.

You are not the only user of this software, and you have no right to dictate it's appearance. Maybe if many more people agreed with you then there would be a case, but judging from reactions here almost nobody agrees with you.

[varadero]

Report @Christian-Schiffer for continuously insulting and provoking everybody.

@Christian-Schiffer Didn't you advertised yourself as a person in hes 50s ? I can't imagine you still think like in https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87517#issuecomment-568183281

[pferreir]

Reminder that CLISP has been using a menorah as its logo since decades:

https://clisp.sourceforge.io/impnotes/faq.html#faq-menorah-why

There are of course those who disagree with it, but the overwhelming majority couldn't care less because they realize Judaism and Zionism are not the same thing, in the same way most people will agree that crimes committed by Christians agains Jews and Muslims in the past are an awful thing but not a teaching of said religion.

But neither of this really matters because the Santa hat has nothing to do with religion. I would find it more logical that a Socialist feels offended by it.

[MaksimMedvedev]

@Christian-Schiffer initially the problem was just in how demandingly you almost ordered to do something that only you wanted to see be done.

There's such thing as COC (gawd please nobody misspell it and do not report me), there's such thing as society and community, and not a single person has a right to dictate what and how should look and work like. People understand that anything in this world can be harmful for someone, I respect this opinion, but who gave you the right to ask to "remove it immediately and make it top priority?" Why should a mass product made for developers all over the world bend to a will of a single person? That's just not the right thing. I think if you just asked to make it customizable and just explained calmly your problem, nobody would've been offended by YOUR demands and none of this would've happened in the first place.

But now all you do is just excusing yourself, calling everybody who disagrees with you rasict and extremist and abusing people around you.

How are you better than the situation you adressed in your initial issue?

[4PERTURE]

Hey, isn't it configurable in insider settings.json holiday.gearIconStyle?

indeed

That said, given your reactions, I am pretty sure, if Microsoft had added the Magen David or a Hanukkah candle holder to that list, many of you would have flooded this forum with complaints. Am I wrong?

Yes, you are

[David-Else]

@remenyo It is an issue that Microsoft have officially stated:

There were a few “thumbs down” on the issue

and that

even a single person being offended is one too many

It seems they are misrepresenting the actual strength of feeling against this on purpose, and also refuse to change their policy even after a massive democratic backlash.

It is absurd to say "even a single person being offended is one too many". Given the nature of offense it is impossible to not offend anyone. How are sane developers meant to react to this nonsense proposition?

[ex1tium]

Sadly I think @Christian-Schiffer is not right in the head. I shall pray to my Christian god for your recovery and hope you can work out the issues in your personal life. Love is the spirit of Christmas do not give up or despair my friend.

[MaksimMedvedev]

Well guys, I do not want to dictate you how to behave but as much as the situation itself is ridiculous and the guy just behaves absurdly as of now, I think we should not make it personal and call on someone's mental health. Sorry, just MHO

[ghost]

Sadly I think @Christian-Schiffer is not right in the head. I shall pray to my Christian god for your recovery and hope you can work out the issues in your personal life. Love is the spirit of Christmas do not give up or despair my friend.

Yet another fine example to why many do not like the kind of "love" you people are spreading. Thank you for yet again, proving my case.

[ghost]

@Christian-Schiffer I am really sorry you suffered abuse, nobody deserves that.. BUT:

1. The VAST majority of people do not see a Santa hat as religious.
2. The VAST majority of people think comparing it to a swastika is absurd, and probably offensive.

You are not the only user of this software, and you have no right to dictate it's appearance. Maybe if many more people agreed with you then there would be a case, but judging from reactions here almost nobody agrees with you.

I already answered that, please read the following. https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87517#issuecomment-568182017

[ex1tium]

Sadly I think @Christian-Schiffer is not right in the head. I shall pray to my Christian god for your recovery and hope you can work out the issues in your personal life. Love is the spirit of Christmas do not give up or despair my friend.

Yet another fine example to why many do not like the kind of "love" you people are spreading. Thank you for yet again, proving my case.

I didn't mean to offend you. You see I tried to directly translate a figure of speech from my native language to English and I understand it did not come out so well. Still I hope you can find a peace with yourself.

[Clawthorn]

Hey, isn't it configurable in insider settings.json holiday.gearIconStyle?

indeed

That said, given your reactions, I am pretty sure, if Microsoft had added the Magen David or a Hanukkah candle holder to that list, many of you would have flooded this forum with complaints. Am I wrong?

Why on earth would people be upset over the devs adding more options to the holiday gear icon?

Now you're just being ridiculous.

[fonix232]

@Christian-Schiffer if you truly don't understand what the issue with your whole issue ticket was, I'm truly sorry for you.

First of all, I will get into this again: Santa is NOT a religious icon. Yes, one of the characters he is based on, St. Nicholas, was a Christian man of faith in the 3rd century - way before your linked article's claim of Jewish genocide in the 5th century. Not to mention that that very article you linked is full of factual errors, exaggeration of events (e.g. making out he whole Saturnalia event as something as inherently anti-Jewish, or making out the birth of Jesus as "anti-Torah"), and is, no matter how we look at it, extreme religious.

Now, if you base your argument on a religious extremist claim, it is pretty straight-forward to presume that you belong in that group - why else would you bring it as an argument? You're either white-knighting a religious extremist group, or belong to them. The third option is that you're a troll who simply enjoys screwing up nice things we have.

the Santa hat has been used in xmas traditions over the centuries to mock, tarnish, murder and torture people, especially Jews thus for many is a frightening symbol almost as bad as the swastika.

See, this is where you're reaching. The santa hat has - historically - no connection to any sort of Jewish-torture, or mockery. It's a symbol of love, joy, giving, and family. You bringing in this argument, without actual proof (no, the fact that during Saturnalia, there were Jewish victims, along Anglo-Saxons, Germanic tribe members, and even Christians - it was not targeted at Jews).

Now a friendly little tarnish against me here and there, while not necessarily nice or even appropriate in this context, I would have accepted and not even bothered to comment upon, much less send abuse complaints about, but this aforementioned hate fest that came in the aftermath, is not only completely unacceptable, some of it in fact not only regular criminal offences, some of the offences are outright crimes against humanity, especially those containing incitement to genocide against a protected group.

Dude, YOU brought in the hate fest. And I haven't seen anyone inciting genocide against any groups. All I saw was people (rightfully) calling you out on your bullshit claims. The very way you worded it, including the "santa hat = swastika" and "christmas = holocaust", furthers the impression that you're either a very dedicated troll, or a religious extremist. And your vehemence of protecting your argument when it has been proven to be on the wrong side of facts and history, does not help your case.

Face it, you made a MASSIVE community angry by your choice of words and facts, and now you can't live up to the fact that you were wrong.

Now, I was not surprised that not everyone agreed with my concern, yet given I felt I explained why and documented it well

Your issue posted was not a concern, but a religious demand. Also, you "felt" you documented it well? Dude, you brought, I repeat, a factually wrong documentation, a single source you based your argument on. Jewish culture is quite prevalent

As to people claiming Santa is not a religious symbol, the kind of murderous and genocidal rage some of you exhibited in the aftermath, very similar to the type of murderous and genocidal rage of old inn relation to xmas

Holy crap. You're more than delusional, you need serious psychiatric help, ASAP. You're comparing an event that hasn't happened for thousands of years (and it was far from genocidal - yes, there were gladiator games that involved some deaths, however genocide is defined as the systematic murder of certain people - and again I repeat, Saturnalia was NOT targeting Jews only, thus the genocide argument is false), with something that doesn't even have remotely anything to do with it? The only link between Saturnalia and Christmas is the timing. And the thing is, this is the effin' winter solstice. It was celebrated BEFORE the Romans were even a wet dream in Romulus' dreams. There are even some proof that Stonehenge was built with the winter solstice in mind - which predates the Romans by a few thousand years. Or is suddenly Stonehenge a sign of inciting genocide against Jews too?

I find this debate slightly pointless - you're not getting what you did wrong, in your own little skewed world, and don't understand why people are attacking you.

if Microsoft had added the Magen David or a Hanukkah candle holder to that list, many of you would have flooded this forum with complaints.

Honestly, no. I couldn't give a fuck if it's a Santa hat, a Christmas tree, Hanukkah candle or menorah, Kwanzaa candle, or anything. It's a nice gesture. It's not an offensive thing, no matter how much you're trying to convince us. In any sane person's mind, a santa hat represents joy, happiness, giving out gifts, and being together with your family. If it represents genocide aimed at you, then it's something wrong with you, and not with the rest of the world.

[Goubeling]

[PWagner1]

@Christian-Schiffer if you truly don't understand what the issue with your whole issue ticket was, I'm truly sorry for you.

First of all, I will get into this again: Santa is NOT a religious icon. Yes, one of the characters he is based on, St. Nicholas, was a Christian man of faith in the 3rd century - way before your linked article's claim of Jewish genocide in the 5th century. Not to mention that that very article you linked is full of factual errors, exaggeration of events (e.g. making out he whole Saturnalia event as something as inherently anti-Jewish, or making out the birth of Jesus as "anti-Torah"), and is, no matter how we look at it, extreme religious.

Now, if you base your argument on a religious extremist claim, it is pretty straight-forward to presume that you belong in that group - why else would you bring it as an argument? You're either white-knighting a religious extremist group, or belong to them. The third option is that you're a troll who simply enjoys screwing up nice things we have.

the Santa hat has been used in xmas traditions over the centuries to mock, tarnish, murder and torture people, especially Jews thus for many is a frightening symbol almost as bad as the swastika.

See, this is where you're reaching. The santa hat has - historically - no connection to any sort of Jewish-torture, or mockery. It's a symbol of love, joy, giving, and family. You bringing in this argument, without actual proof (no, the fact that during Saturnalia, there were Jewish victims, along Anglo-Saxons, Germanic tribe members, and even Christians - it was not targeted at Jews).

Now a friendly little tarnish against me here and there, while not necessarily nice or even appropriate in this context, I would have accepted and not even bothered to comment upon, much less send abuse complaints about, but this aforementioned hate fest that came in the aftermath, is not only completely unacceptable, some of it in fact not only regular criminal offences, some of the offences are outright crimes against humanity, especially those containing incitement to genocide against a protected group.

Dude, YOU brought in the hate fest. And I haven't seen anyone inciting genocide against any groups. All I saw was people (rightfully) calling you out on your bullshit claims. The very way you worded it, including the "santa hat = swastika" and "christmas = holocaust", furthers the impression that you're either a very dedicated troll, or a religious extremist. And your vehemence of protecting your argument when it has been proven to be on the wrong side of facts and history, does not help your case.

Face it, you made a MASSIVE community angry by your choice of words and facts, and now you can't live up to the fact that you were wrong.

Now, I was not surprised that not everyone agreed with my concern, yet given I felt I explained why and documented it well

Your issue posted was not a concern, but a religious demand. Also, you "felt" you documented it well? Dude, you brought, I repeat, a factually wrong documentation, a single source you based your argument on. Jewish culture is quite prevalent

As to people claiming Santa is not a religious symbol, the kind of murderous and genocidal rage some of you exhibited in the aftermath, very similar to the type of murderous and genocidal rage of old inn relation to xmas

Holy crap. You're more than delusional, you need serious psychiatric help, ASAP. You're comparing an event that hasn't happened for thousands of years (and it was far from genocidal - yes, there were gladiator games that involved some deaths, however genocide is defined as the systematic murder of certain people - and again I repeat, Saturnalia was NOT targeting Jews only, thus the genocide argument is false), with something that doesn't even have remotely anything to do with it? The only link between Saturnalia and Christmas is the timing. And the thing is, this is the effin' winter solstice. It was celebrated BEFORE the Romans were even a wet dream in Romulus' dreams. There are even some proof that Stonehenge was built with the winter solstice in mind - which predates the Romans by a few thousand years. Or is suddenly Stonehenge a sign of inciting genocide against Jews too?

I find this debate slightly pointless - you're not getting what you did wrong, in your own little skewed world, and don't understand why people are attacking you.

if Microsoft had added the Magen David or a Hanukkah candle holder to that list, many of you would have flooded this forum with complaints.

Honestly, no. I couldn't give a fuck if it's a Santa hat, a Christmas tree, Hanukkah candle or menorah, Kwanzaa candle, or anything. It's a nice gesture. It's not an offensive thing, no matter how much you're trying to convince us. In any sane person's mind, a santa hat represents joy, happiness, giving out gifts, and being together with your family. If it represents genocide aimed at you, then it's something wrong with you, and not with the rest of the world.

It's quite ironic to think that VS Code has been developed or maintained by a group of people who may have different religious beliefs to each other, and something quite mundane as a gear icon with a santa hat blew up into a huge argument! I say just enjoy the week off! It'll be interesting to see what happens at Easter!

[remenyo]

I see it as a cool upgrade to this Easter egg forced by a questionable debate.

Should vscode devs revert the Easter egg entirely, or leave it as is now at least during the holidays?

I think the answer is clear.

Do anyone here want vscode devs (you know, people, who put this Easter egg into vscode because at least for them this part of year is connected to celebration) feel bad during their holiday because threads of religion × democracy discussion here on a feature which was modified since then to mitigate a problem?

I think the answer is clear here too.

Try to think what MSFT could do in this divisive situation. (This, as many other threads will be partially or fully removed I think.)

(You = reader)

• If you don't like this new feature please, discuss in a new issue.
• If you like this new feature, that's it buddy, you did it, but please discuss on a different medium.
• If you feel being unequally treated:
• • Probably you are celebrating Christmas, then please think, that this was a generous present to people who are not celebrating Christmas.
• • If you don't celebrate Christmas and/or you don't practice any religion, probably you are the minority here. Please try to accept the majority's traditions, while respectfully telling the community about your own traditions or history related to your problem. Try to discuss nicely how can the community develop solutions to your specific problems. As we can see there are open ears. (This advice is not specific to religion/this problem. In another universe, the thing would be that the layout is optimized for average aspect ratio, but you have a 32:9 monitor.) If the solution is easy / actual vscode developers will address the problem quickly.
• If you are hateful, you are probably not in line with the code of conduct (I'm not sure, but you shouldn't be.)

Be nice. Inclusive design is cool. Chill, maybe code something.

As @Wagnerp said, Have a great, peaceful weekend! 😀

[unstoppable-force]

I'm referring to this ticket. I find it abhorrent that a company like Microsoft will bow to religious extremists, who, by misrepresenting and twisting out historical facts, claim victimhood over things like a santa hat. [...] Sincerely: an atheist

Thank you brother. I wanted to write the same thing.

As an atheist I'm not taking offense in Christmas. It may have some religious roots in the past, but today it is a holiday of being together with your loved ones (and the commercial aspect of gift exchange).

And being honest, it doesn't bother me that some snowflake who is miserable with his life would take offense in a Santa hat. What really grinds my gears though, is how fast M$ bowed to his unreasonable demands. That is a perfect example of what is wrong with the world today. How one miserable individual can spread his own hate and misery to the rest of the world using the shield and sward of "social justice" and employ companies as M$ for his cause. And that is why we can't have nice things any more.

[fonix232]

@unstoppable-force precisely my point. I have no problem with someone voicing their opinion, or said opinion being taken account. I have a problem with rush decision-making without any research - as any sane person minimally versed in history and access to Google/Bing/Yahoo could determine that the article posted by @Christian-Schiffer as the sole argument is full of factual errors, and heavily skewed opinions, not facts. And to make things worse. he further claimed such exaggerated things - and while I do not agree with the people harassing him, and find much of the hate mail he got, the issue he sparked, and stoked, is far from over.

[balsoft]

@Christian-Schiffer it's all about being both normal and social.

You see, a normal person finds Santa's hat to be a delightful symbol of family reunion. I'm an atheist, I don't celebrate Christmas and neither does my family, we all celebrate New Year. And Santa (or a local equivalent) has been a symbol for winter festivities for all normal people throughout the last millenium or so, independent of the religion. If it hurts you (which I actually doubt), you are not normal.

But being anormal is totally fine by itself! Let me draw a very rough analogy here.

You work in a giant company with hundreds of coworkers. Most of them celebrate and have fun during winter festive times. They all decorate their offices and have fun together. Also, someone puts a pine tree with some decorations (no religious symbols or anything like that) near the entrance. You don't celebrate any holidays of wintery kind. This makes you anormal, but nobody is blaming you for not having fun. What you should do is walk past the tree and get back to work. What you choose to do is cut down the tree with help from the boss, and then argue with all of your colleagues about how Christmas is actually Holocaust and christmas tree reminds you of dead people. This is awful, don't you think?

What you should have done is ignore the icon and move on with your life. That would have been the normal social choice. Instead you chose to ruin the festive attitude of every developer who saw these threads. After the massive backlash of the community, instead of moving on with your life, you are continuing to ruin the fun. This behavior is antisocial and it clearly indicates that either you really have some psychological problems (in which case, I'm really sorry for you and wish you to disconnect from the internet for a while and get better) or you are outright trolling/attention whoring. In both cases, I think you should stop this.

[balsoft]

Hey, isn't it configurable in insider settings.json holiday.gearIconStyle?

Yes, indeed now it is, had it been done from the start, I would not have filed the issue.

Just to let you know, before I filed that issue, I did try to find a way to remove it through configuration, I'll add a portion of my search history for your convenience.

You could just roll back the update in case you really can't stand this symbol. What you chose to do instead is deprive thousands of developers of some festive attitude.

[J0s3f]

I really wonder if @Christian-Schiffer has ever talked about him being offended in the name of all Jewish people with any Jewish person. Or even met any Jewish person in the current year. 🤔

[Folling]

I wouldn't even want to criticise them for being offended. You can be offended for a myriad of reasons, and they don't need to make sense to other people. You are free to like and dislike whatever you please, but controlling and directly influencing something that is an optional choice anyway is ridiculous.

I'm Jewish myself, and I personally do not associate Christmas with the torture Jews were submitted to during the past few millennia. Christmas nowadays is mostly associated with joy, presents, and sharing positive feelings. I doubt there are many (if any at all) people left, that still celebrate Christmas by torturing people, or even celebrating it for the fact, that that was done in the past.

The analogy the article you linked to pulled, by claiming that it's similar as if we still celebrated Hitler's Birthday is nonsensical. Hitler's birthday would be celebrated for, well, Hitler. Christmas is being celebrated because Jesus was born - a Semite himself. Yes it's primarily celebrated by Christians, but that hardly adds anything to the point. It is not unique to that group of people, many people of different beliefs take part in the holiday: Atheists, Agnostics, Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc. And Santa Claus, or even more specifically - Santa's hat is not a religious symbol. It's a pagan symbol, the colours were even influenced by Coca Cola (iirc.). Yes, St. Nicholas is a Christian figure, but there are other characters Santa Claus is based on. And to my best of knowledge, St. Nicholas had nothing to do with Jews or any form of torture whatsoever. Santa never hurt a Jew, he couldn't if he tried since he doesn't exist. And Christmas wasn't celebrated as what your article rightfully points out ever since Santa Clause was a thing.

Again, you're free to dislike it as you please, but expecting a change affecting millions in something so subliminal, simply because it goes against your own beliefs is presumptuous, as far as I'm concerned.

[unstoppable-force]

I really wonder if @Christian-Schiffer has ever talked about him being offended in the name of all Jewish people with any Jewish person. Or even met any Jewish person in the current year.

Might have. Radicals tend to stick together, exchanging hate and pad each other on the back. And before someone tells me that not all Jewish people are like that, I know, I've never met a person who would take offense in Santa because of the Jewish faith, till now. The thing about internet, that if you look, you will find people who share what you may wanna believe. Flat Earth, Holocaust denials, pray away cancer groups or Santa haters. Really sad for @Christian-Schiffer . But I'm more sad for the people who work with him, because I feel like this snowflake has a complete meltdown over every and any issue either it affects him out not in his post-factual reality

[Folling]

Slow down there Sherlock! You're making a lot of assumptions based on a few comments you read, quite hurtful ones as well, this is supposed to address the issue at hand, not philosophise about uncommon beliefs and their validity in and impact on modern society.

[SRGOM]

Santa hat is both religious and cultural symbol. VS Code is software product used by a lot of developers in different countries with different cultures. Including it in VSCode is pushing the Western Christian culture into other cultures. VS Code should be religious and cultural neutral!

Perhaps we can include a bomb for what the wapo would call austere religious scholars like you?

[poige]

In Russian there's a proverb "a fool taught to pray will break his forehead".

[SRGOM]

In Russian there's a proverb "a fool taught to pray will break his forehead".

Are you the Russian that pulitzer award winner and esteemed publications like new York times , Washington Post and CNN say single handedly cast enough votes for bad orange man to win the election?

[poige]

In Russian there's a proverb "a fool taught to pray will break his forehead".

Are you the Russian that pulitzer award winner

for quoting proverbs? Well, why not.

[HeadClot]

Guys knock this off. If you care so much about a Santa hat then just roll back to the update or patch it back in your own branch of VS Code.