On the way out to Shady Pines today with Tom and the in-laws, we saw a bumper sticker that provoked a bit of discussion.
Annoy a liberal. Work hard and be happy.
Because you know, I’M a liberal, and I had no idea that I didn’t respect hard work or that I didn’t want people to be happy. In fact, I thought I respected hard work and valued happiness (yes, even the happiness that comes from hard work!) tremendously, for myself and anyone else.
So… This whole glut of anti-liberal slogans and billboards and bumper stickers I’ve been seeing lately. When people get so hateful and snide and condescending toward a group, does that mean they feel like they’re IN control, or does that mean they’re afraid that they’ve LOST control?
I don’t get that one either.
I don’t know what a liberal is in US politics (the sum total of my knowledge is that there are republicans and democrats and that Bush is the former – I think!), but I believe anyone who puts a bumper sticker like that on their car is frightened and having their cage rattled.
Why else would they be so rude and trite?
(What is a liberal in US politics, and why is there a glut of anti-liberal slogans and billboards around?)
I think it is a welfare crack.
I want to know when helping poor people, cleaning up the enviroment, etc … became bad things
I want a bumper sticker that says:
ANNOY A CONSERVATIVE AND ENJOY THE 21ST CENTURY.
Then again, I do have the NRA bumper sticker on mine: CHARLTON HESTON IS MY PRESIDENT.
The billboard that gets to me is the one for one of our conservative talk radio station. Their slogan is, “Liberals Hate Us!”
I had to think about that for a minute, because what they’re really saying is “Listen to us, because liberals hate us.” What I get from that is, “Don’t worry whether or not we say anything of substance. Liberals hate us, and that’s all you need to know.” Now then, conservatives claim they think, yet this radio station expects them to act like sheep. If I was a conservative, I’d be insulted.
The bumper stickers come from their having won. They believe they are in the mahority, so they can say what they want how they want. The backlash I fear is that when the pendulum swings in the other direction, we liberals (in general) will start to be just as hateful in the intellectual war of bumper stickers.
The worst bumper sticker I’ve seen to date has been, How to get to heaven: Turn right and go straight.
Bad Writer! No Donut!
The word, of course, is “majority,” not “mahority.” Need. Coffee. Stat.
Wow. I have not noticed these bumper stickers at all. Maybe I just put blinders on when driving. I thought the definition of liberal was someone who is 1. generous, 2. ample and abundant, 3. not literal or strict, 4 tolerant, broad minded 5. favoring reform and progress. I don’t see “hate” or “lazy” in that anywhere.
Webster dictionary.
That just makes me sad. I am sorry you had to put up with it.
I am lucky, those kind of bumper stickers do not seem to have popped up in Wisconsin yet. I do hope they do not catch on here.
Small minded ignorance is so depressing.