Social justice doesn’t come easy.
Imagine the amount of courageous, unbridled goodness it requires to slap a sticker on the trunk of your car.
Now, double it.
That’s how this happened:
Not just one expression of culturally relevant consciousness but TWO!
RESIST – Such an important sentiment.
I want to say more.
But I will resist.
FIGHTING HATE – Yes! This!
Hate sucks!
We need more stickers denouncing it.
If you are a fan of hate, consider this your wake-up call.
Bumper stickers are just the beginning.
There will be T-shirts.
Coffee mugs.
And, if necessary, ball caps.
The war on hate has begun.
TEACHING TOLERANCE – Yes! Yes! Yes!
Learn to be tolerant of everything.
…except hate.
Don’t even think about tolerating hate!
But tolerate everything else.
This beautiful person will teach you.
Lesson one: RESIST
Resist everything but tolerance.
And finally…
SEEKING JUSTICE – So. Much. Yes!
Justice rocks!
Torch those hateful, intolerant folks.
We’re not putting up with injustice for another micro-second.
We will do whatever it takes to signal our virtues.
As long as we don’t need more than 2 stickers.
8 Responses
I completely agree with everything stated in this article.
Voldemort is correct. But you didn’t hear it from me.
Hello JB, I’m with Jeff here. I read this as a list of things to resist. Like, resist fighting! After all we pay our military to do our fighting for us. Resist hate, because that’s something only Trump voters would do. Resist teaching! Because the pay is lousy although you get Summers off.
I’m suspecting that social justice and proper grammar may not go hand-in-hand the way that all of my high school English teacher thought it did.
On the other hand, the important thing is this person is signaling their virtue and not necessarily communicating what their virtue is.
😎
You kind of have to live in the land of Coexist bumper stickers with the little cross scratched out to understand what is truly being resisted. Or the giant Darwin fish with legs actually eating the little family of Jesus people. I’m often walking a fine line spiritually, because yep, you betcha, there really are some Jesus people who should probably be eaten by a giant Darwin fish. In some ways, the fact that people are looking elsewhere for things like justice,tolerance, and the eradication of hate, really is the fault of the church. Far too often we have been encased in the safety of our social clubs and neglected the needs of real people and the challenges they face. Nobody likes me to say it, but virtue signaling is actually a skill learned from sanctimonious religious people, more interested in building a tribe then in actually reflecting Christ.
Virtue signalling is important for people who’s source of morality is simply opinion. By signaling, they can identify each other, form a group, and attempt to shame others within and outside the group to conform to their opinions. It’s unfortunately an effective method of hacking our brains and manipulating people.
Of course, virtue signaling for vague/non-controversial values (as was pointed out in the OP) is really odd… I’m not sure what is really going on with that. It’s even less meaningful than the icthus fish that Christians often plaster to their cars. I think the OP is right that such passive signaling makes us feel good that we can be seen as passionate about things that most people see as at least good.
And yard signs, too! We have “stop the bully” yard signs posts all around our area. It’s very effective. Bullying has virtually been eradicated (except in neighborhoods where the bullies can’t read, of course). Car accidents are up, however.
Maybe you should put up some “stop illiteracy” signs.
They may also want to have a class on how to place their socially conscious stickers so as not to confuse the readers. I read resist fighting hate, resist seeking tolerance, and resist seeking justice. Where is the coexist sticker?