As I was driving to work today, I was passed by a rather large truck for whom safety did not appear to be a concern. As the truck went by, I discovered that the reason for the unsafe passing maneuver what that he was from out state. Our Georgia drivers are of course excellent.
What caught my eye was the bumper sticker on the truck which read as follows:
"Life's a B*tch: Don't Vote for One!" This quote was followed by a picture of Hillary Clinton.
Regardless of whom you support, I find the sentiment expressed on the bumper sticker to be utterly offensive. Imagine a commensurate display referring to the ethnic backgrounds of candidates such as Obama or Richardson or the religious background of other candidates.
One of the worst developments of the Bush-Cheney-Rove regime has been the legitimation as a political tactic of attacks based on personal characteristics of candidates or individuals. As a result, private citizens who previously had been driven underground by public condemnation of racism, sexism or homophobia have been given a voice once again.
I just wonder how the significant other or mother of the person driving the truck today feels when she sees such a hateful term for women proudly on display on this man's vehicle. It just makes you wonder what other attitudes the driver of that truck has.
I would be curious if any of you have seen similar types of expressed ignorance. Please let me know by your comments with appropriate editorial changes.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Ignorance on Display
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14 comments:
Ignorance about the Ramadan event can be dispelled here:
http://flickr.com/ photos/georgiaimproper
We have a Democratic booth at the Georgia National Fair. Have had a LOT of interest in all the Democratic candidates. A guy came by and asked if we had any more Hillary bumper stickers. We have given out all that we had. He said something like "Too bad, I wanted to use it for toilet paper." There is really something perverse going on psychologically here. On the plus side, we have had more visitors say they are going to vote Democratic than we expected.
It has been a great experience talking with most of the visitors to the Democratic booth.
I have seen many stickers that has a character that looks like "Calvin" from Calvin and Hobbes urinating on something. I saw one a couple of months ago where "Calvin" was urinating on the word "Liberals".
My fearsomely intelligent grandmother would have peered over her pince-nez glasses and said, "Consider the source."
That's how she dismissed unseemly words and images. The advice remains appropriate.
I know that there are bumper stickers about Bush and Cheney that must be just as offensive to their supporters. I am not sure our political manners are that much worse than what went on back in the 19th century, either. Fortunately, despite what Chris Matthews has been saying of late, life is not a campaign.
I have long suspected that a lot of the internet innuendo messages that get launched during campaigns are professional PR creations targeting certain audiences, like those who believe that WD-40 relieves arthritis and deadly spiders are lurking in airport restrooms. Whoever the ultimate Democratic nominee may be, we can expect a flood of internet misinformation, very little of which will be issues-oriented.
oh I thought Ken Starr had bragging rights to starting the politics of personal destruction
ps people suck
pps no offense intended :p
all i know is that all this conservative liberal junk is going to end up in a civil war.
Or an un-civil war. Like old age, politics is not for sissies.
As for the terms "liberal" and "conservative," the distinction is getting blurred at times. These days it is hard to tell exactly what it is that the conservatives are conserving...it surely isn't tax money and it surely isn't the environment and it surely isn't world peace. The conservatives are mainly trying to conserve their personal power, pocketbooks, and prerogatives. The liberals are mainly trying to liberate the country from the conservatives so we can return to that good old American value, COMMON SENSE, and seek ways to strengthen our standing in the world with more diplomacy and less bloodshed. Perhaps "liberal" and "conservative" have become shopworn terms and should be replaced with "progressive" and "agressive" (or regressive?)
or maybe just replace them with sunni & shiite or yanks & rebs...
Different set of issues...
This comment is from Lauren Benedict, who is the technology partner in her firm, and otherwise quite competent, but who cannot manage the sign-in process:
I have seen a bumper sticker in Macon that while not as graphic is equally disturbing. Once again, Senator Clinton was the target. It has a charicature of a woman with blond hair and says, "Do we really want a blonde as president?" At first blush this may seem cute or funny, but this is really insulting to women, even those of us that are not blonde.
Winning is the best revenge
(to paraphrase the original comment, "Living well is the best revenge" most often attributed to George Herbert, English clergyman & metaphysical poet.)
As multimillionaire entrepreneur and performer Dolly Parton once said, "I'm not dumb...and I'm not blonde either!" :-)
So let's all turn our energies toward Democratic victories and refused to be belittled or stereotyped.
tell that to the scandinavian librarian at oglethorpe.
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