Sep 24, 10 07:57 pm — I have been doing some quality windshield time recently and came across a couple of bumper stickers that made me think.
First off, I must confess that I am not a bumper sticker guy, have never and would never slap one on any car I was driving.
But I have a kind of fondness for reading what other people think is the most important handful of words to express their point of view to the world.
My all time favorites are;
"Love means nothing to a tennis player"
and one I saw myself on a beat up old car parked in front of a 7-Eleven that looked like it came directly from the set of a Cheech & Chong movie;
"I'm not as think as you stoned I am"
I am pretty sure any random cop stopping by for donuts would consider that bumper sticker probable cause for a search.
In any case, the two I saw this week sort of ran together in my mind to blend into one point of view.
The first one simply said in large letters;
"I DON'T BELIEVE THE LIBERAL MEDIA"
The second was more clever but had a similar tone;
"I will keep my guns, my Bible, my freedom, and my money. You can keep THE CHANGE."

Here is what I think the connection is between these two messages. The first guy doesn't buy the mainstream media due to bias. But of course everything that involves people has some level of bias in one direction or another. It isn't a stretch to think this guy DOES believe the more conservative oriented media. Even though it also has bias, and for my money far more of it.
The second guy's message, while clever, is just as angry as the the first guy's. I am guessing that if you were to have a conversation with him, calmly pointing out that no one has taken either your guns or your freedom and even your taxes haven't really gone up, you wouldn't get a calmly worded answer from him. He would probably not believe this factual information even if you did bother to tell him.
I wondered further if these two guys were among the 20% or so of Americans that believe the president of the US to be; a Muslim, a secret Muslim, foreign born, one who has already raised his taxes, and so on.
It all makes me very concerned that so many people are getting entertainment content and confusing it with reality to the point where their outlook on life is soured by the disconnect between what they think is objective reporting and what is actually happening in the world around them.
I think this is the way that terrorism gets started, when people get so worked up with anger over a convincing line of bullshit.