Why Does the Left Hate Black Fridays?

FREEDOMWORKS

The New York Times asked its readership “What Does Black Friday Mean for You?” A few choice comments reveal the tone of the other 318:

To me it means getting in the car with my spouse and adult daughters and heading to Cape May...Birding! None of us buy into this nonsensical consumer binge day.

Retail stampedes are not my idea of fun. I start Christmas shopping early in the year buying mostly from vacation destinations.

[Thanksgiving] used to be the ONE non-commercialized holiday, all about family, food and tradition. Decades of union busting and capitalistic message crafting later, it's about shopping, and the mechanism is in place to make it so. We CAN take it back and should!

Black Friday = Uncivilized people crazy on buying cheap plastic stuff from China

I must confess I went to Black Friday once, because I traveled to NC to visit a friend for the Holidays.

You poor dear. Luckily, confession is good for the soul.

As the New York Times proves, Black Friday is the day wealthy whites are applauded for judging lower-class folks who are just trying to buy affordable gifts for their kids.

Look, I hate shopping any day, let alone on Black Friday. I have no interest in teeming crowds, midnight sales or much of the merchandise on offer. Of course I do some Christmas shopping each year, but would rather pay a few extra bucks to buy gifts on a slow day or online. Everyone doesn’t have that luxury.

Many of our progressive friends don’t seem to care. They cheer Walmart strikers, never noticing that the One Percent doesn’t camp out for Black Friday sales. Unions bus in mobs to scream in the faces of lower-middle-class customers, workers and guards. Way to stick it to The Man.

The howling picketers aren’t hurting the Waltons or shareholders, but merely making life more miserable for the have-nots.

The average Black Friday shopper isn’t throwing punches or trampling the infirm. And most lower-income folks waiting all night for that Xbox aren’t doing it because they're greedy. It’s because they want to put a smile on the face of their child and possibly feel guilty they couldn’t afford one before today.

It's always a balancing act determining how much money to spend on your kids versus teaching them the limits of consumerism. One week I worry that I'm depriving my kids of time and money and the next worry that I'm smothering them with too much of both.

I am confident that I spend less on my kids than most parents in our income bracket. We have no “gaming system” and our ancient tube TV couldn't hook up to it if we did. Does this make me more righteous than the Visigoths sacking the electronics aisle or does it just mean I’m a cheapskate? Heck if I know.

Black Friday isn't for me. Neither is scoffing at the millions who rely on it.