Be Thankful for Complainers

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Tomorrow, be thankful for complainers. Just when you thought you were the only one who had really boring dreams and always used the one stall that was out of toilet paper, a Finnish choir group has come along to express solidarity with all those suffering from these minor disturbances.

The Complaints Choir of Helsinki, singing beautifully in Finnish, has made public appearances in its Scandinavian homeland, and recently online through blogs and YouTube.

There is something to be said for a multitude of ringing voices singing their gripes and grievances about everything from the mundane (“Reference numbers are too long” and “The battery on my mobile is always going flat”) to the more sublime protests (“Bullshitters get on too well in life” and “People have no time for fair trade goods, but rush to where they grow”). Sometimes it’s a combination of both (“I can’t escape the headlines of the tabloids”).

I would love to have this choir sing their refrain of “Christmas season starts earlier every year” at a Starbucks, where they start playing carols and peddling snowflake-adorned coffee paraphernalia the day after Halloween. It drives me crazy.

Of course, I guess I could stop going to Starbucks. But then I couldn’t complain. And what would be the beauty in that?

–Caroline Dobuzinskis

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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