https://www.reddit.com/r/childfree/comments/z91yj0/was_ebenezer_scrooge_really_the_bad_guy_because/

  • pimpsandchuds [des/pair]
    ·
    2 years ago

    when you find yourself admiring the bitter, lonely despot in the story :side-eye-1:

  • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    From the comments:

    He was never the bad guy, he employed many, provided shelter for others and only evicted those that fell behind on rent and the story would be a bit cack if he was "nice" so him being "mean" gave us The Muppet Christmas Carol - the greatest Christmas film of all time ahead of Die Hard and Home Alone. Honestly I was rooting for him until he changed his ways.

    and

    I agree with you’re novel perspective. It’s a very interesting and accurate analysis of the irresponsibility of excessive and unchecked breeding.

    There's a couple people calling him out, but it's at least 50/50

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      He was never the bad guy, he employed many, provided shelter for others and only evicted those that fell behind on rent

      he is literally a moneylender and a slumlord wtf

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      also they somehow don't link Cratchit being poor and underpaid and Scrooge being rich along with Tiny Tim dying because Bob couldn't afford medicine.

      the book could not be clearer unaltered by the spirits Scrooge will straight up murder Tiny Tim.

      I suppose however this guy thinks if Tim is to die he'd better do it and reduce the surplus population to quote Scrooge

    • FoolishFool [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I don't really see how this specific example is similar to either of those tbh.

  • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    these fuckers managed to be so anti child they now support the workhouses what the fuck

    also I can't help be reminded of racist claims that black people and indians have so many kids they bring themselves into poverty which is also linked to eugenics and fascsim

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    That :reddit-logo: also posts on /r/atheism, home of the "Dear Muslima" Dick Dorkins fanclub, and there is also "88" at the end of their name. :sus-soviet:

    Also this nugget that they posted on :reddit-logo: : "Black Israelites, black racists. Is religion the cause of racism?" :lmayo: :us-foreign-policy:

    :gulag:

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    like, OK, don't have kids if you don't want.... but scrooge didn't have any friends. the closest he came was marley, a deceased business partner. his fiancee left him when she saw he loved money more than her.

    at the end of the story, scrooge still had no kids but he saw the value in community, friendship and generosity. he also saw that he had been underpaying crachit and preventing him from getting medical treatment for tim.

    i get that people can't help reading themselves into a story, but jesus. the rich, friendless asshole isn't the secret hero. but i guess capitalist ideology means no one can possibly underpay a worker.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      the rich, friendless asshole isn’t the secret hero

      :billionaire-tears:

  • chickentendrils [any, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I do understand being child-free, but someone has to reproduce or else everything start breaking down in major ways...

    I know Scrooge is literally too old for this to matter, but he's the stand-in for the capital class in general. Even in the horrific worldview of capitalism, you need more people to do the work and buy the shit to make you richer.

    • hi_communism_im_dad [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I wake up every morning and drink my coffee out of a world's best dad mug, but I definitely understand not wanting, having, or even liking children. But I cannot imagine going on to reddit dot com and cynically jerking myself and others off over the decision to not have them, just very strange.

      Someone on here mentioned some twitter fighting about children in public spaces, and I would be fine with it if every person who has posted on r/childfree has to under house arrest indefinitely.

      • Ligma_Male [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        communities like childfree pop up because people get relentlessly harassed by family to have kids they don't want.

        communities like childfree become like childfree because the people who need the outlet are the ones suffering that harassment. It's like how the most organized and militant atheists are from very religious areas because they're the ones who actually have to deal with bullshit whereas i haven't had a person assume I was religious or be shitty to me directly on the basis of religion in years.

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I think the comparison with internet atheists is apt. Some are lashing out because they're being persecuted. Some, however, are just loud contrarian assholes.

  • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    I thought the point was that Scrooge was in love and when that didn't work out, he turned to money for solace, but didn't find any, even being warned by his very own business partner the afterlife fate of those who are greedy and do not have a love for mankind.

    Reading a Christmas Carol ignoring the super natural elements is like reading Ayn Rand ignoring the sexual misconduct. You can do it, but then you are missing half of the story.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      No wonder so many :reddit-logo: New Atheists do dismiss the supernatural elements, even when they're in fiction for a literary point, and then say "Scrooge/The Galactic Empire/Thanos did nothing wrong."

      • Alaskaball [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        New Atheists do dismiss the supernatural elements,

        they dismiss supernatural elements but go straight awooga for capeshit

  • Circra [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Over a hundred years later and libs are still willfully missing the point of what is a very, very straightforward piece of political commentary. No wonder they need to stick labels all over their political cartoons.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      "Ebenezer Scrooge McDuck was actually a good guy and the three ghosts of Christmas terrorized him into becoming a bad one" is a shit-take almost as old as the original Christmas Carol fiction. I am willing to bet an edition of the Economist published a contrarian take within no less than a year of its publication.

      Like, half the fun of taking such a contrarian stance is to get attention because it is so blatantly and ham-fistedly obtuse.