this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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Okay, rant time. If you don't like rants, skip this comment.
Listen motherfuckers, Halloween isn't about candy. The fact that the candy has become the point is a fucking problem.
We've lost the social cohesion, the sense of community, and even the superstitions that made Halloween such a popular holiday.
And that fucking sucks.
Nobody really believes we're scaring off bad spirits any more, but we could at least celebrate the weird, the scary, and just spend one night a year dressing up for fun.
Fuck the candy. The only reason we have to give out candy is because assholes fucked up being able to give out home made treats. Man, did any of y'all have the fucking awesomeness of getting candy coated apples, or home made fudge, or wax paper wrapped cookies? Or anything but the sugar bombs in a bag you buy? But no, some assholes had to fuck around and break the ability to trust the social contract of Halloween.
Shit, I'm the only asshole in my entire town baking and making things today. Why? Because I'm the only idiot willing to put up a sign on my door "home made treats available on request by adults". Which means I'm the only house on the fucking street that has cars pulling up with kids in them, accompanied by adults. Parents don't let kids walk the streets on Halloween any more because humans are fucking horrible and can't be trusted not to mess with kids. So that means nobody even fucking bothers to hand out anything, they all go to fucking trunk and treat shit, which ends up being about the fucking candy instead of having fun because a bunch of people in parking lots isn't a community.
Fuck. Fuck the assholes that ruined Halloween and turned it into a day for fucking candy.
There's actually a huge amount of trick or treaters here but the thing is they all go to like the very best neighborhoods that go all out and no one wants to go to mid tier neighborhood with only a few houses that are doing things anymore.
I love Halloween. Every other holiday I have to cook, clean, plan. So much work. Halloween? Creativity and candy and kids. Fun, without all the baggage. American Halloween I honestly love.
ETA: we get trick or treaters here, from little kids to teens. Not a suburb or a rich neighborhood. First one today pulled up in a truck and I was about to be judgy, hate the car house to house thing, dad got out, opened the door for his blind daughter who was in a wonder woman costume, helped her up our front steps so she could trick or treat. I love Halloween.
I haven't even had a trick or treater come to my door in probably like 6 years. The 2 or 3 years before that, I was getting no more than 3 visits per year. This is the first year I've just straight up not even bought candy. Halloween is gone. I thought that after covid got under control, maybe there'd be a resurgence since it's an activity that kids can do together with their friends outside of home, meeting other kids and shit, and that was all very much taken for granted until people were stuck inside for two years. But nope. 24/7 news convinced parents that there are drugs and poison and razor blades in their treats, and the houses their kids visit will be inhabited by pedophiles and scary [insert dogwhistle]s, and some lunatic will either commit a mass shooting or drive over as many people as possible. No fun allowed.
We let the terrorists win. The domestic terrorists, specifically. We're afraid of what might happen, and nobody is doing anything to quell those fears, so we just hand over a little more liberty and freedom for the sake of supposed safety and security. What a boring dystopia.
Wait⦠people are still trick or treating??
Then we need a PR campaign to motivate adults to break out of the spiral of fear they've fallen into.
Make Halloween a left or a right wing thing. Frame it in terms that celebrating Halloween follows and honors the values of each political tribe, and not celebrating it violates those core values.