I don’t even know if it even depends on the OP; it seems to depend more on which direction the wind is coming from that day.
prrs thread, to me, reads exactly like a fundamentalist Christian who is disgusted that his work would dare to bring the unholy pagan devil-worship of Halloween into the workplace.
The kind of man who scowls at people’s bowls of orange and black M&Ms and writes little letters in his head about how offensive it is to see the Christian faith smeared like that. Who looks at the secretary’s Halloween cat ears and wishes someone would make a rule about such overt anti-Christian displays. Who grits he teeth and smirks every time he hears “Happy Halloween!”
How much sympathy would this guy get if he came on and posted about how offended and disgusted he was during his works Halloween party?
Shrill no-fun fundamentalists of any stripe suck.
This post reads to me like a left-handed Presbyterian whose cat has gotten stuck in a heating vent and, in attempting to free her, he gets stuck in the vent himself while accidentally gluing the cat’s tail onto his own tongue and then is prevented from yelling for help in any comprehensible way so he must eat the cat for sustenance except the cat eats him and eventually manages to extricate herself from the vent.
If you have a problem with fundies yammering about Halloween, then Pit them yourself. You got busted for behaving like a jerk (and this is the Pit, remember, where that’s okay to say) and now you’re inventing all sorts of exaggerated and improbable scenarios to attribute to me so you don’t look so foolish. I said you were mostly a fine poster before you decided to pitch a fit in my MPSIMS thread and you were–so why don’t you try a little harder to keep improving your good post/bad post ratio?
Would he deserve sympathy? Are you justifying your behavior saying that someone else would have done the same had the circumstances been different?
I have sympathy for people getting pushed by pushy people. It doesn’t matter if the pushy people are pushing broccoli or opera or Jesus or Monster Mash. Pushiness is rude. Objecting to being pushed is reasonable. (Obviously, there are a handful of exceptions.) The thing being pushed is usually irrelevant.
The party wasn’t a matter of him inviting himself to someone else’s party and then raining on their parade. It was him feeling pressure to go to the party and feeling pressure to do things at the party that he wasn’t comfortable doing. Now sure, that pressure might be imaginary. We’re all capable of being the martyrs in our own mental dramas. But I’d bet most of us have encountered the same sort of pushiness in our own lives, people who just can’t leave us alone, who are constantly telling us to cheer up! or have a drink! or sing us a song, Mr. Piano Man! (Okay, maybe not that last one.)
When those pushy people are all bound up with work, when avoiding them is a hassle, when it happens every year but is never the sort of thing that you want to make some sort of drastic public statement about, well, that’s the sort of thing MPSIMS is pretty much made for. Minor, piddly stuff that can be annoying in that minor, piddly way that makes up so much of life.
If people can’t vent on this message board the whole fucking place will be a ghost town in about two weeks.
Thank you for expressing my perspective perfectly.
No, numbnuts. I felt that it was reasonable that you might be annoyed at coworkers pressuring you into singing Christian songs at work.
But your behavior in subsequent posts and in this thread is totally douchey.
This is not new behavior for you. I provided a cite.
The notion that I have a “hidden agenda” with regard to you is absurd. Are you really that arrogant?
But we know your perspective. You think it too much trouble to have five minutes’ private talk with a trusted friend about your unease at attending a Christmas party, and believe instead that all workplace Christmas parties should be banned, that you not be put to the inconvenience. You talk of shoving crosses up asscracks, and think yourself poorly done by if you are not treated with the utmost respect in return.
Please don’t think yourself the target of my hate. I’m sure you’d prefer it to what I actually feel for you, but I’m afraid I can’t give you that satisfaction. I wish you happy holidays and a cheerier 2009. I intend to do the best I can to secure the same for myself. And for those reading this thread who won’t be offended by the sentiment, a Merry Christmas, and God Bless Us, Every One. 
Thank you for expressing my perspective imperfectly.
I know I said I’d stay out, but what the hell, my willpower is weak.
I agree entirely with what you said.
What I’m not sure of is who’s being pushy. It’s not pushy for me to ask you what your favorite sports team is; it IS pushy for me to insist you watch the Superbowl with me after you tell me you don’t like football and that you have no interest in watching. If you come to my Superbowl party and tell me you don’t have a favorite team, it’s not pushy for me to tell you about my favorite team, even if the party is right across from your office.
Similarly, it’s not pushy for prr’s coworkers to ask him his favorite carol. When he says he doesn’t have one, it’s not pushy for them to suggest one. Especially when he’s shown up at the party specially designed and advertised for the practice of Christmas traditions.
If he declined to show up, and if his coworkers pressured him to come, that’d be pushy. If he explained that he doesn’t celebrate Christmas, and they STILL pressured him to come, that’d be obnoxiously pushy.
But there’s no pushiness in the OP, and if there’s been evidence of pushiness in subsequent posts, I’ve not seen it.
Someone has to know that you don’t like something before their offering it to you is pushy; and if you show up at an event where it’s gonna be offered, you need to take some responsibility for it. I don’t go to Superbowl parties for exactly this reason.
Daniel
I stopped reading around post #130, but didn’t this whole thread turn out to be a big “gotcha” game? People advise (to use the term loosely) prr not to make big deal about it with his coworkers, when it turns out he didn’t make a big deal about it to his coworkers.
It’s rather like starting a thread along the lines of:
OP:“I don’t like the chocolate cookies my coworker offered me.”
Reply: “So? What’s the big deal? Just tell him you don’t like chocolate cookies.”
OP: “Obviously you do think it’s a big deal because you responded and you’re suggesting I take action against my coworker. Why do you have such a compulsive interest in my actions?”
It’s a weak form of trolling. I point it out for my own amusement and not because of any particular feelings for prr inspired by this thread - I’ve known he was a jerk for some time.
Now you’ve done it jsgoddess. Prepare to get pitted next time you disagree with him.
Didn’t enjoy it. Did this actually make sense in your mind? Were you just trying to be funny?
I’m not entirely sure what Festivus is.
:: checks Wikipedia ::
Sure, why not?
But I refuse to capitalize “bonobo” except that the beginning of a sentence.
You just made the baby Bonobo cry. 
Aww, crying baby Bonobos. That’s some Christmas spirit, Skald. :mad:
I have no beef in the sven/prr disagreement, but I think a poster on the original thread got it right when s/he suggested prr doesn’t like these type of events because he’s an introvert. I’m OK with stuff like that now because I’ve learned how to fake it, but back in the day when I was very shy and anti-social a party like that where it was demanded I sing and I couldn’t just hide in the corner would have made me very apprehensive about going. It’s horrible when you know you’re expected to join in and you just can’t. Even now I’m sure I offend people who think I’m stuck up for not attending something, or even standing around shooting the shit at work, but sometimes I just can’t do it. (Yes, I know, I’m a pwecious snowflake. :p)
Whatever. Being an introvert is fine, you asshole, just so long as you never post about it, or singing, or Christmas, or something in MPSIMS, because you do that and people just don’t like that, okay? So stuff a fucking sock in it, and keep it to yourself from now on, okay? And if you don’t like my tone, too bad. Fuck all whiny fuckers like you. Just go to hell, and stay there.
And if you don’t take my advice --and I mean RIGHT NOW, buster!-- I’m going to ask the LHoD to have a talk with you, understand?
mudkicker, just being an introvert isn’t good enough - you have to start whining that no-one, anywhere, has the right to spend a single company nickel on this unless they’re willing to pony up an identical amount for The Latest Freaky Idea I Just Pulled Outta My Ass, or moan about the violation of your constitutional rights, or some such. I honestly don’t think you’ll be able to manage it unless you’re willing to spend years working on becoming self-obsessed to the point of risibility.
Is it because I said it was a closet wall instead of the closest wall? I didn’t mean to criticize your choice of walls I only wanted to be sure it would do the most good.
Okay, but it’ll cost ya $500.
Daniel