For some inexplicable reason, Americans have developed this need to be offended by everything they see and hear. In the past several months, America has expressed its deep and passionate offense toward the following things: Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” music video, Cosmopolitan’s “First Family” cover, Ariana Grande’s donut-licking, and Girl Scouts cookie prices. But we Americans have officially outdone ourselves with our most recent outcry: the Starbucks holiday 2016 cup.
It’s a plain red cup with the classic Starbucks logo and a white lid. The only ones who should feel personally attacked by the Starbucks cup are the other colors in the rainbow. Why, please, does this offend any free-thinking human being?
The claim is that Starbucks is waging a war on Christmas by removing the classic trees, snowflakes and ornaments that have historically decorated its cups in past holiday seasons. Starbucks’ response to the criticism is that the “unadorned cup allows customers to put their unique drawings and message on it.” Maybe that is the real reason, or maybe Starbucks just realized that there are other religions out there and the company can’t fit every single one of their religious holiday symbols on a freaking coffee cup.
The most outrageous part of this whole mess is that people are actually taking time out of their days to post videos, photos and messages on social media to condemn the coffee company. Joshua Feuerstein, an Arizona Christian, posted a 1:18 minute video to his Facebook page claiming that Starbucks removed the Christmas decorations from their cups because the company hates Jesus. The video received more than 200,000 likes. People like Feuerstein should take a minute to remember that in less than an hour after ordering the coffee drink, the cup will end up in the garbage and for that reason, it doesn’t really matter what’s on it.
I can think of at least two more offensive things that Starbucks does to its customers that no one else seems to have noticed: they are already using holiday cups in early November, and they charge nearly $5 for a cup of mediocre coffee. Also, since when did Starbucks cups become the sole representation of Christmas?
There are at least some clear-headed people out there who recognize how thoughtless this “Starbucks Hates Organized Religion” conspiracy is and are fighting back against the haters. The #ItsJustACup is circling around the Internet with nothing but good intentions. The hashtag has either stood on its own or ended with a statement like “Children are starving. Girls in developing countries are experiencing genital mutilation. Veterans are homeless. There's no cure for cancer.”
Instead of wasting our time boycotting the coffee chain and writing nasty remarks online, we should just drink our coffee in whatever cup it comes in and carry on with our lives. There are more important things in life than what the container of your coffee looks like.
Jessica Cherner is a College senior from Bethesda, Maryland.
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