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Rockefeller Christmas Tree canceled? Columbia professor Brian Kahn slammed for calling tradition 'toxic' symbol

The headline of his opinion piece read: ‘Cancel the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree for Good’

The Rockefeller Center’s Christmas tree is a star attraction every year. This year, however, all may not be well with it. According to our earlier report, after the pictures and clips of the 75-foot-tall tree from Oneonta, NY, arriving in front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, surfaced on social media, users found that the tree looked worn out and scraggy.

However, the Rockefeller Center believes that everything is absolutely fine with the tree as it quipped, “Wow, you all must look great right after a two-day drive, huh? Just wait until I get my lights on! See you on December 2!”

A spokesperson for the Rockefeller Center explained to Today why it might look a little bit more worn out this year. "The tree is fully wrapped, branch by branch, for a couple of weeks before it is cut and driven into the city on a flatbed truck," she said adding: "The journey took two days this year.” "When it’s unwrapped and first put up, the branches don’t immediately all snap back into place, and those are the photos you’re seeing. It takes a while before it fully settles."

However, the tree again became a topic of discussion when Columbia University professor, as mentioned in Daily Mail, Brian Kahn wrote an op-ed for Gizmodo and suggested the Christmas tree to be "canceled". The headline of the opinion piece was: ‘Cancel the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree for Good’.

He wrote: “This year’s tree is also perfectly poised to reflect something more than our national mood: It reflects the absolutely toxic relationship we have with the natural world and the need to rapidly reverse course. If this year’s tree sees any justice, it’s that it should be the last.” He also wrote: “Everything about this tree tells a piece of the story of our past century-plus relationship with nature and extractive capitalism.”

Kahn further added, “The tree is a Norway spruce, which, as you can likely guess from the name, is not native to the US. That in and of itself reflects how upended our relationship with nature is. In its previous home, though, it had an iota of dignity lost completely once it was transported to Midtown Manhattan. And in that home, it served as a veritable island for wildlife in a vast, biodiversity-poor sea of lawns.”

To further elaborate his point, he spoke about the owl that was discovered by workers after it was transported. He also mentioned that Today host Craig Melvin noted the owl “picked the right tree.” Referring to that point he claimed, “This poor owl was transported on a harrowing 170-mile (274-kilometer) journey on a flatbed and miraculously wasn’t crushed. Sure, it’s great the owl survived and will be released back into the wild. But that’s a pretty piss-poor definition of “right”.”

While concluding, he said, “I know I’ll likely receive many a furious email cussing me out for being a tree hugger perpetrating the war on Christmas and a total killjoy. But my point isn’t that we should end joy and pi** on Santa. It’s that now is the perfect moment to consider what we truly value.”

He added, “When I saw the Rockefeller Center tree propped up as it shed entire boughs to the cold plaza ground this year, I felt no elation. I just felt sad that we venerate the continued subjugation of nature at the expense of unfettered growth and consumption—or even simply because we, like those who suffered through the Great Depression, want to feel something like normal again.”

On Twitter, a user wrote: “Cancel the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree for Good. Why don’t we just cancel everything? I think we all may be better off. This is just mind-boggling to me ,very sad & scary. Screw the cancel culture.” Another said, “ANOTHER SNOBBISH  IDIOT!  BOOHOO; HE'S AFRAID OF CAPITAKISM!  HE SHOULD GET A REAL JOB!”

One shared, “Cancel culture is out of control. Enough of this sh!t already! Time to cancel cancel culture!” Another said, “Cancel The Rockefeller Christmas Tree. Says a Columbia Professor anyway. So we replant it? At this point that would make the tree as useful as the pinheaded Professor. No, he’s more useless as the tree can be used for firewood.”

These remarks were made by the Internet and individual organizations, MEAWW cannot confirm them independently nor does it support these claims being made on the Internet.