A Ridiculous Yard Sign

 

Of all the ridiculous yard signs that you see when driving anywhere these days, this is the most ridiculous of them all. What makes it so ridiculous is the supposed viewpoint to which this sign is 'opposite' of. Hear me out. The maker of this sign (and by association, anyone who then puts this sign in their yard), is arguing that there are people out there who:

a) don't believe black lives matter, which OK, I will give you that there are definitely racist people out there

b) don't believe women's rights are equal to the rights of others; or this is a statement on abortion rights. If the former, I don't understand who it is that would argue that women's right differ, or should differ from anyone else's. If the ladder, then you're right, there are those of us out here who do not view a fetus as an extension of a women's body and who are vehemently opposed to abortion

c) believe that actual human beings are illegal; I'll talk more about this in a second

d) believe that science is false (?); again, more on this later

e) believe that love is not love (?), or this is a statement that people should be able to marry whomever they want. Here's the thing though - this statement is so oversimplified, it could be taken to condone pedophilia, bestiality, etc. The statement is far to vague to be helpful or descriptive.

f) Kindness is everything. Perhaps the most logical statement on the whole thing - another more colloquial way of saying this would be, "Be kind." Even this though - is so vague it's unhelpful. Kindness looks very different depending on the situation you're in.

One quick thing and then I'll get to the one that irks me the most. "No human is illegal". No one is arguing that human beings are illegal. Literally, no one. Some people are arguing that unlawful immigration is illegal (which it is, by definition). People argue that what humans DO is illegal, but no one is arguing that humans themselves are illegal. When someone is labeled an 'illegal immigrant' or 'illegal alien', what is actually being said is that their action of unlawfully moving to this country, not paying taxes, etc is, by the law of our country, illegal. Countries around the globe have these same laws. You, as a United States citizen, could not just up and decide to permanently move to Germany. There would be a long process of doing that legally - and if you skirted that process, you would be considered an illegal immigrant by the German government and if you were caught, you would likely be deported back to the US. Most countries in the world would do this. Anyway - I digress.

The most asinine thing on this poster has got to be the line, "Science is Real". What does this even mean? First, 'science' is not a noun. It can't be described as real or not real. Second, "Science" is about as fallible as it gets and if you don't think that's true, simply look at the scientists who have been wrong time after time after time after time on COVID. Read the dozens of great books out there on how 'science' has gotten it wrong time after time, across the centuries. Two I would recommend are "The Emperor of Maladies" by Siddhartha Mukherjee and Stuart Richie's new book entitled, "Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth". Does 'science' get a lot right? Sure - but saying "science is real" has absolutely no meaning whatsoever. The statement is utter nonsense! Are they saying science is infallible? If so, that's laughable. Are they saying we shouldn't question or challenge science? If so, that goes against the very foundation of science - science invites challenge and skepticism. When a scientist in almost any field produces a significant result, you often see 'replication studies' done as a follow-up, where other scientists try and and replicate the results achieved as a means of verifying the result of the original study. Are they simply saying that science is a thing? If so, who denies this? Why the need to state that?

When I see this kind of thing, its maddening. I try hard not to let it get to me, but my mind is too logical for that. What I see here is a sheep credo. It is a list of talking points that have nothing to do with one another which is then disseminated by people who seem to have little to no ability to think for themselves. At best, it is virtue signaling at its worst. Sorry, I just had to get this off my chest today.