On the long (long, long, long) list of things I hate, political and campaign bumper stickers feature prominently. I have been known to mock them with my own aggressively divisive stickers, before realising the irony was totally lost on everyone but me. Maybe I just don't understand them, or my brain takes me out of the target demographic. I've only ever seen one that spoke to me ("Bernie Sanders 2016: because fuck this shit." Whether or not I support Sanders, that's just a funny sticker). My braining about the matter goes something like this:
Are they an advertisement? Is it just to show me how many people like a specific candidate so that I can know if I'm part of a minority? Is it just so that people know each other and can recognise anyone without the same sticker is part of the Enemy? Isn't that what armies do? Are we sneetches?
Is it an attempt at conversion? I mean, seeing a colourful sticker IS pretty persuasive to me, but it has never, ever made me want to take a particular political action. I suppose on the bright side, it has never made me want to bully an honor student either. Are all candidates looking for people who are dumb enough to be converted just on the basis of having seen a sticker? The amount of mega-sheepdom it would take for someone to be won over by a name, a year, and some stars boggles me, are those people worth the cost of printing? Are you recruiting them just so they can help the stickers proliferate? Is this some sort of vinyl-based virus?
I feel pretty much the same way about facebook posts after A Tragedy. Political rhetoric, gun control arguments, and bible verses don't convert, comfort, or help anyone, no matter what pretty pictures you post them over. All they do is clearly mark battle lines and show that you're willing to use another human's pain as propaganda, and make you look like an asshole. The willingness to use death and destruction to get across a political statement is what causes this crap in the first place, don't be part of that. Dividing people politically is about as useful to victims as the token thoughts and prayers that pop up during these situations. Stop recruiting, and take a minute to be a human for a minute, instead of being a political party or a religion.
Because: fuck this shit.
