I saw a big, gas-guzzling truck covered with NRA and other pro-gun stickers next to one that had they recycling symbol and the words “powered by liberal tears”. Made me laugh out loud but the whole truck was really offensive.
This goes back about 30 years. In San Diego there was an anti-east asian sentiment in certain moronic circles, probably the “moving here and taking all our jobs” crap (I don’t remember). A popular bumper sticker of the day was
Welcome to California!
Now go home.
Fair enough I suppose. But then I saw this variant, which made me cringe:
Welcome to California! Now go home
and take a Jap with you
Note that it never specifies from Whom we should take it back. Nor why we should be all alarmed at Whoever has done the original “taking” (vs. not being alarmed at some other group who threatens to do the same thing), and why we should (indeed) feel the need to split the country into two disparate warring halves like this (or presume that it is already a fait accompli).
A hyper-religious convention was being held in a hotel I was staying at. Vendor booths and the parking lot was full of what you’d expect. After a day of being visually assaulted by stickers, t-shirts and attitude that fit in this thread, one car gave me pause. I’m agnostic as all get-out, but it really made me smile: God Bless Everyone. No exceptions.
A cow-orker of mine parked his car in the company lot with a sticker “Piss of a Liberal - Buy a Gun.” I reported him to HR and they told him he couldn’t park in the company lot unless he removed it. (Hostile workplace laws.)
Every now and then, we can strike back.
I know the guy who used to run the “San Diego Hell on Earth Society.” The running joke was to deter people from moving here by presenting the place as unlivable. He published a newsletter that harped on the crime rate, the cost of living (San Diego is expensive!) the hot summers, the lack of a cultural life (in the 70’s that was kinda true!) But at least he did it all with clever wit, and no overt racism.
“If you can’t stand behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them.”
Actually…I do! I feel very safe with the U.S. military, and have stood in protest lines in front of them upon occasion, with never a single qualm for my safety.
The idea that we must either unquestioningly support the troops, or else fear them, is a false dilemma.
(Okay, yeah, Kent State happened… But I think we all hold that, like My Lai, to be aberrational.)
I lived in a small one-church town where everybody knew everybody, including the local pastor. He had a bumper sticker that said: “Be different! Go to Heaven!”