First world problems: Cups stir up controversy

First world problems:  Cups stir up controversy

This holiday season, cries of outrage arose across social media as Starbucks Coffee made an unpopular design change. Self-proclaimed ‘good Samaritans of the Christian world’ everywhere posted outrageous claims of the company, stating that “Starbucks removed Christmas from their cups because they hate Jesus.” Starbucks has refused to change the cups back, explaining that the new design was meant to be minimalistic and easier for patrons to doodle on, as they had been doing for years. “This year’s design is another way Starbucks is inviting customers to create their own stories with a red cup that mimics a blank canvas,” the company
representative explained.
If there was a universal list of things that aren’t true, Starbucks “removing Christmas from their cups” would probably be at the top. The old cups were red and green with depictions of ornaments, reindeer, Christmas trees, and even Santas in the background, whereas the new cups keep the general color schemes, but lack the patterns. Red and green are universally associated with Christmas, not any other holiday, so as to why people are becoming offended, I haven’t the slightest clue.
Nor do I understand why all the people calling out Starbucks for “hating Jesus” would rather spend $5 on a cup of coffee instead of actually donating to a soup kitchen or charity, which is something I can wrap my head around completely.
The same people boycotting Starbucks in turn for the Dunkin Donuts explicitly labeled Christmas cup (reading JOY in red and green letters inside a wreath) are the ones living in comfortable, first-world McMansions, blogging on one of their numerous, needlessly fancy, expensive laptops about all kinds of injustices, from the rudeness of the teenage Target employee who “wouldn’t check in the back” to look for their hair product, to the homeless man on the sidewalk outside of their local deli and how the town “should really do something about those people.”
It is so much easier to complain about the ‘problems’ that you face that somehow defy your religion than actually to realize that there are people killed for practicing their beliefs, people driven out of countries for it, people continuously persecuted for it. It is so much easier to remain comfortable while ‘fighting the injustices of the world’, so much easier to turn a blind eye to the people in need around you, to act as if anything that remotely resembles a ‘threat’ to your beliefs is automatically the most important problem in the world. Shockingly enough, world hunger doesn’t end whenever you have an issue. Genocides will continue throughout the worst of your tantrums, and people who need charity will not suddenly rise to help defend you at your beck and call. Sitting on your couch complaining about a coffee cup is not a testament to the dedication you show for your faith, but is instead a prime example of how first-world citizens can completely ignore topics of others’ misfortune, placing a Starbucks sticker over the face of a child dying from hunger. So, to the people Starbucks has “greatly offended”, the next time you have to drive 20 minutes out of the way to get another brand coffee instead, don’t let that big head of yours block someone else’s vision while driving.