@SmashTheState – When I was growing up, I asked my grandparents why they made a big deal of having me believe in Santa Claus when clearly I’d learn later that he was a big fat fake. Their answer was something about learning how to believe, and hope, so that later I’d be able to believe and hope in Jesus Christ, and His (even better) gifts of eternal life in Heaven, rather than just some toys. While I didn’t end up Christian, it is fascinating to see how “so you can believe in Jesus” has become “so you can get all greedy in preparation for a career on Wall Street.”
That said, it shouldn’t surprise me at all when lots of other concepts have been re-imagined by this generation, including how “paleo-conservatives” like Barry Goldwater have gone through RINO status and ended up cast as liberals, since the Right took an even harder Right.
To make this post pertinent to the question, I thought coal was a funny joke that happened among adults or older teens, with coal candy or other similar novelty items. But giving kids coal because they’ve been bad? Actual coal? Lame-o. Unless they’re into carbon sequestration, or barbecues or somethin’.