http://theaspenbeat.com/2021/04/27/do-those-yard-signs-signal-virtue-or-stupidity/
By Glenn K. Beaton
The Aspen Beat
April 27, 2021
On a recent walk, I came across a neighborhood littered with the yard sign in this photo. It seems the provocative platitudes we’ve seen on bumper stickers for a century have now taken root in our yards.
And for the same reason: To tell the world that the sign-planter holds wonderful beliefs that he’s willing to impose upon and attribute to the rest of his family. It’s surely not because the sign-planter thinks he’s persuading anyone of the rightness of his position, as if the neighbors reading the sign will say to themselves, “Gee, ‘Democracy dies in darkness’ is a great point. I’d never thought of it that way.”
OK, people preen. And leftists impose their beliefs on others. It’s what they do. But this one is stupid.
First, “Science is Real” is gibberish. The issue is not whether science is real or fake. The issue is whether enough data has been collected, sorted and analyzed correctly to arrive at a factual explanation for the particular subject under investigation. Science is not a thing, but a methodology. Science is the process of collecting data and rigorously analyzing it to understand a natural phenomenon.
To say “Science is Real” shows a fundamental lack of understanding about science. It’s like saying, “anthropology is real” or “chemistry is real.” I’ve known many scientists and not one has ever said, “Science is Real.”
Bear in mind too that this “Science is Real” tripe comes from the people who think a fetus is not alive until the mother decides it is, and only for so long as she doesn’t change her mind.
As for “Democracy dies in Darkness,” that’s a slogan adopted recently by the Washington Post. You know, the newspaper bought by Jeff Bezos with a sliver of his Amazon fortune for propaganda propagation. For illuminating such “stories” as the Russian collusion hoax and burying such stories as the incriminating Hunter Biden laptop where he promised to share 10% of foreign government payola with his dad.
I agree that democracy dies in darkness, but it takes a lot more gumption than a yard sign to keep it alive.
Then there’s “Black Lives Do Matter.” The addition of “Do” pretends to be an effort to persuade people who think black lives don’t matter that in fact they do. Unless, it’s understood, those black lives are unborn ones, which account for a highly disproportionate number of American abortions or those black lives are those of young black men who are murdered by other young black men, which is the main cause of death among young black men.
But there are no such people. Nobody – not a single person – thinks black lives don’t matter. I think black lives matter, just as I think brown, yellow, white and red lives matter. I think all lives matter. That’s where all decent people come out.
But it’s impermissible to say so. We’re scolded that “all lives matter” is racist. And so, people don’t say it for fear of being name-called.
Think about that for a second. Non-black Americans – 87% of America – have been bullied into denying that their own lives matter.
“Affordable Health Care is a Right” sounds nice. But what’s “affordable” mean? Does “affordable” mean it’s free? And what’s “health care”? Does that include wart removal? Eyeglasses? Hearing aids? Dentistry? Tummy tucks and wrinkle smoothing?
And since we’re talking about things that should be affordable as a matter of right, what about food and shelter? And where’s the source of this “right”? Is this another one of those unwritten rights in the penumbra of the Constitution alongside the right to kill those unalive/alive/unalive fetuses?
Does the fetus have the right to affordable health care too? That could get interesting.
“No Human is Illegal” deliberately mischaracterizes the debate over illegal immigration. No one contends that a person entering the country illegally is an illegal human. Rather, they contend that such a person has committed an illegal act.
Note that Americans opposed to this law-breaking at the border do not call the law-breakers “illegal humans.” They call them “illegal immigrants.” Because they have immigrated illegally.
If I author a yard sign like this, maybe I should include, “Sophistry and Demagoguery are no Substitute for Good Faith Discussion.”
“Water is Life” is simply false. Water is not life. Water is a simple molecule with the chemical name “dihydrogen monoxide.” It’s not alive.
The contention that water is alive reminds me of the theory of spontaneous generation which was widely accepted up until the 17th century. The theory was that life arose spontaneously out of suitable habitats. Mudpuddles generated frogs and nighttime generated bats. The theory was simple, elegant and wrong.
How ironic that a sign that begins by blaring sanctimoniously that “Science is Real” goes on to make statements that the scientific method irrefutably proved false three hundred years ago. No, water is not alive.
But a fetus irrefutably is. Notice that the sign conspicuously fails to state “A fetus is alive.”
“And Kindness is Everything” is inconsistent with the preceding six proclamations. If kindness is everything, then the other six are redundant to that.
And speaking of kindness and the “everything” nature of it, how does the sign-planter come out on kindness to those unborn fetuses? And how do they come out on kindness to Republicans? And kindness to young black men murdered by other young black men? Seems “kindness is everything” but only kindness to the correct persons under the correct circumstances. In other words, to them, it’s not everything at all. It’s just a slogan.
What are we left with? We’re left with an embarrassingly stupid attempt at virtue signaling by embarrassingly stupid people.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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