I once challenged a relative of mine who is a big proponent of “tradition” to look up when those traditions came to be. They are the kind that justify objectively terrible things, just because it is tradition. And sees themselves as a better person than other, because they follow the traditions where others do no. One by one the traditions were shockingly (to them at least) recent. We’re talking mostly 1970s, invented by boomers with too much money and free time. Some as old as 1950s, some as recent as 1990s. There were some that were pre-WW2, but those are almost unrecognizable when compared to the modern version. I don’t think it changed their mind, they just ignore the facts, but it gave me a laugh that’s for sure.
Fuck traditions, especially the ones that are designed to sell stuff.
In Poland we have this anecdote explaining traditions.
Whenever I make boiled pork knuckle I cut it in half, because that’s how my Mom taught me. I didn’t know the reason, so I asked her about it: “Oh, I do it because that’s what your Granny did. It’s tradition.”. I went to Granny and asked the same: “Your Great grandmother did so, and so I do too. It’s tradition”.
I went to GG, and her answer was “I had a small pot”. That’s what tradition is.
There were some that were pre-WW2, but those are almost unrecognizable when compared to the modern version.
I love it when people say “we’ve been this for really long” and it turns out that people have been doing something called by that name, but the actual practice is completely different.
We (in)famously have https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, which, yes, is like 1500 years old. But then we added some people in blackface playing the most racist imaginable version of slaves in the 19th century. And when we finally realized that maaaaaybe wasn’t ok, all the assholes and bigots started pretending that the version of the celebration we basically invented in the 1970s is a deeply traditional celebration that started in pre-christian Europe.
And to show how absurd that is, the whole myth features a damned steamboat as a core concept.
I once challenged a relative of mine who is a big proponent of “tradition” to look up when those traditions came to be. They are the kind that justify objectively terrible things, just because it is tradition. And sees themselves as a better person than other, because they follow the traditions where others do no. One by one the traditions were shockingly (to them at least) recent. We’re talking mostly 1970s, invented by boomers with too much money and free time. Some as old as 1950s, some as recent as 1990s. There were some that were pre-WW2, but those are almost unrecognizable when compared to the modern version. I don’t think it changed their mind, they just ignore the facts, but it gave me a laugh that’s for sure.
Fuck traditions, especially the ones that are designed to sell stuff.
As XKCD once said, “An American tradition is anything that happened to a baby boomer twice.”
In Poland we have this anecdote explaining traditions.
Whenever I make boiled pork knuckle I cut it in half, because that’s how my Mom taught me. I didn’t know the reason, so I asked her about it: “Oh, I do it because that’s what your Granny did. It’s tradition.”. I went to Granny and asked the same: “Your Great grandmother did so, and so I do too. It’s tradition”.
I went to GG, and her answer was “I had a small pot”. That’s what tradition is.
I love it when people say “we’ve been this for really long” and it turns out that people have been doing something called by that name, but the actual practice is completely different.
We (in)famously have https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, which, yes, is like 1500 years old. But then we added some people in blackface playing the most racist imaginable version of slaves in the 19th century. And when we finally realized that maaaaaybe wasn’t ok, all the assholes and bigots started pretending that the version of the celebration we basically invented in the 1970s is a deeply traditional celebration that started in pre-christian Europe.
And to show how absurd that is, the whole myth features a damned steamboat as a core concept.
This puts me in mind of Stewart Lee’s ‘Coming over here’ bit.