As someone who received those honor roll stickers in middle school (my high school didn’t give them out as far as I can remember), I can tell you my parents didn’t put them on their cars, I did. And I probably would have been upset if they didn’t want them on their cars. I would guess this is the case with many if not most of the vehicles displaying these stickers; it’s not about the parents “using your kid as an accessory to desperately build you self-esteem.” It’s about the kids being proud of their accomplishments and wanting to display the sticker that they earned.
My middle school had the “terrific kid” stickers as well, but they weren’t “handed out to kids who couldn’t make any honor roll”. Every month home room teachers would nominate a “terrific kid”, and there were criteria for receiving one, but those criteria weren’t necessarily academic. It was based more on behavior, staying out of trouble, and things like that.
Now I’m going to flip the script and talk about a modification that I thought was stupid at first, but after I thought about it more I realized it was actually an improvement. The landscapers who maintain my neighbor’s lawn use a lowrider pickup truck as their work truck. When I saw it at first I thought it was a silly thing to do, after all they likely reduced the truck’s payload capacity by messing with the suspension. But then I noticed other landscapers driving around in trucks with the beds completely empty, hauling their equipment around on trailers. Now that’s silly, buying a truck and not using the bed for its intended purpose, but rather substituting a trailer. But I understand why they do it – the beds of modern full sized pickups are so high off the ground it’s difficult to actually load things into them. Meanwhile my neighbor’s guys, with their truck’s bed much lower to the ground, can easily lift their equipment in and out of their truck and have no need for a trailer. However they may have affected its payload capacity it’s still more than able to handle a couple of mowers, leaf blowers, and trimmers. I now have to conclude that for their purpose, lowering their truck actually improved it.
Back in the day there were loads of bumperstickers in the form “I HEART MY Something”. (DOG, CAT, SPOUSE, etc). Someone started selling small stickers showing a picture of a screw, so that one could put it over the heart on an offending bumper sticker. Saw lots of “I SCREW MY DOG” after that.
I’d think that one were funny if the woman looked like she’s actively participating. The particular combination of body language and expressions makes it look disturbing to me. – come to think of it, the “my” instead of “our” is probably contributing to my reaction; not that it would do so in all contexts, but in combination with the rest of it.
Doubt it’s the “most” bothersome, but one of my less favorite ones is the “If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read it in English, thank a soldier.” I’m okay with the first part but the second part is kind of annoying.
It has after all been quite some time since the US has fought a war that might have ended in the conquest of this country. We didn’t exactly win in Vietnam but didn;t wind up speaking Vietnamese. We had no chance of speaking Korean after the Korean Conflict or Arabic following either of the Gulf wars. And even if Germany or Japan had managed to defeat the US in WWII, it seems doubtful in the extreme that they would have managed to convert us to speaking their language, or that they would have spent much time and effort trying. Same with Russia in the Cold War.
I’m fine with appreciating the work the troops have done, but this is a weird and rather counterfactual way of going about doing it.
You’ll note a salient detail regarding the examples you provided : none of them feature “entire freaking oceans between cultural oppressors and their victims”. Germany, Japan nor Russia had any plans whatsoever to invade the US ; nor would they have had the means to do so.
Yes, but those were all people in their country, or right next to it, and they were all minorities. Much harder to convert a people more numerous than your own, and on the other side of the world.
I had one of those. Here’s the thing though. Originally, it came with lettering that said, “Your stick figure family was delicious”. I took that off. One shouldn’t explain a joke. Ruins it.
How do you get that the “Coexist” bumper stickers are directed at a specific subset of Christians? Do the Christians you know who have them say so? Which ones are they aimed at?
I always saw the stickers as a call to ecumenical peace and a reproof of trouble-makers and intolerance of all stripes. I got the impression that folks like Bill Maher disliked these, in fact, because they were so general and non-committal.
I personally think the sentiment is laudable, if bland. I don’t see why there’s all the hate for it.
This isn’t an automotive accessory at all, but that just reminded me of the time I was riding a light rail train and saw a guy being written a ticket presumably for fare evasion. His tshirt said “Defy authority”. I guess he practices what his shirt says.
I need to replace the air filter on my lawn mower. Anybody got a KJV around to help look up the part number?
I mean, sheesh. Sure, have your religion, if you want. But why does your holy book have to be an exhaustive reference on all things under the sun? Can’t it just be sort of a do-no-evil manual?
My Dog” as part of his act.