Yard Sign Pollution
Is any one else as disgusted by the virtue-signalling lawn signs that pollute my neighborhood as I am? The self-righteousness that drips off these eyesores actually angers me. It makes me want to rub the noses of these bleeding-heart hypocrites into these signs like a puppy dog’s into the mess on the living room rug!
Sometimes others say it so well that it’s just best to bring their writing to the attention of our readers giving them full credit and applause. Such is the case with this topic and the work of Christopher Skeet, whose September 8th article in American Thinker entitled “Ascent of the Yard Sign Prophets” is spot on.
Here are, however, some choice excerpts:
“Shortly after Trump was elected president, “HATE HAS NO HOME HERE” (HHNHH) yard signs began adorning the minority-manicured lawns of white-collar, white-skinned liberals. You’ve seen the sign. Its message is translated into multiple languages, which is meant to broadcast a globalist diversity of sorts by those who speak not only just English, but that sniffy dialect molded within the narrow confines of a university pedigree loftier than junior college but conspicuously short of Ivy League. You can all but hear them finish their Starbucks order with that irritating raised inflection on the last syllable.”
“The underlying message of the HHNHH yard sign is two-fold. First, it’s virtue signaling in its most tawdry form. Yard signs announcing “POVERTY IS BAD” and “I SUPPORT CURING CANCER” would ring just as hollow. Sorry, but you don’t get a cookie for broadcasting to the world that you oppose hate. Most people do, and their daily actions are sufficient proof thereof. A lion doesn’t need to convince people it’s a lion.”
“Second, the HHNHH yard sign alludes that a home which opposes President Trump is axiomatically hate-free, and, by deductive logic, a home which supports President Trump categorically welcomes hate with open arms. The sign smugly implies, “I’m a good person, and it’s a shame that you’re not.” This insinuation might not rise to the level of hate, but it certainly sinks to the level of arrogance, condescension, and sweeping judgment.”
“But over time the HHNHH yard signs faded along with the “I’m With Her” bumper stickers. The yard sign prophets needed something new, something snarkier, with which to impress their woke comrades and irritate the handyman who lives on the street’s only single story home. So a new yard sign was handed out that reads like a manifesto.”
“They really upped the ante, didn’t they? The first thought conservatives have looking at this sign is that they agree with every statement on it. But the purpose of the sign is not to find common ground across the political spectrum, but to further drive a wedge. The purpose of the sign is to insist that these statements are true only within the narrow ideological limits of the sign owner’s worldview. If you disagree with the yard sign prophets on any policy point, then, in their minds, you disagree with the statements themselves.”
“Like its HHNHH predecessor, the WE BELIEVE yard sign isn’t an argument, an ideology, or a philosophy. It isn’t a set of principles or tenets of a faith. It has no depth, no complexity, and no animation. It’s a regurgitation of drive-by gotcha-isms, dutifully parroted with overconfident arrogance and unearned righteousness by those who haven’t thought to the next sentence.”
“The WE BELIEVE statements are easily dissectible, and should never be allowed to fester unchallenged for the sake of avoiding unpleasant conversation. The yard sign is designed to elicit shame in its opponents, but there is nothing shameful and everything noble in resisting what Solzhenitsyn called “the mechanical propaganda of dead ideas”. You won’t make a dent, but they should know that neither did they.”
Thank you Mr. Skeet…could not have said it better myself!
