Bumper Sticker Stupidity

[SoutherDem]

Today in the McDonalds' drive-thru I saw a van with the following bumper sticker "Don't share my wealth, Share my work ethic". I don't mean to judge or stereotype, I realize it may have been a work van, but the van was well over 10 years old and had a few dents and scratches, hardly the van of a wealthy person.
Two questions;
1. How has the Republicans convinced so many middle and lower class people here in Alabama that the Democrats want to take from them and give to others? I know of no "share the wealth" program which would take from some one like this, but may actually give to them.
2. How has the Republicans convinced so many people that it is a lack of work ethic which is causing under/unemployment?
Has my state had so much inbreeding that many have lost all common sense to the point that if it is said by a right-wing conservative Republican talking head it is believed? :banghead:

[treestar]

1. It ain't his wealth anyone wants to share

Moron. And the "work ethic" thing - that's where they have us all by the neck. We're so proud of our hard working-ness. Who does that benefit? Because it's not the harder the work the more money. Not at all.

[valerief]

2. Fox Fox Fox Fox Fox Fox Fox Fox Fox Fox Fox Fox Fox Fox

Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition
MSM echo chamber MSM echo chamber MSM echo chamber MSM echo chamber MSM echo chamber MSM echo chamber

[Lunabelle]

3. too bad I can't "rec" your reply.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. My ex gets all his news from Fox and you can tell it when there is any discussion

of the issues. The RW talking points just roll off his tongue with no thought whatsoever behind the statements. He'sreally not a bad person, but he has drunk the koolaid.

[valerief]

8. Same with my brother. But I hold out some hope for him yet. nt

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

11. Yup! that, no critical thinking skills whatsoever.

[Initech]

13. Fox News = death of critical thinking

I like this one car I saw parked outside my work a while back - it a homemade one that took up the whole back of this guy's tailgate and said "Tired of (pictures of Obama/Hillary/Pelosi/etc yet? Then you're watching too much (logos of CBS/NBC/CNN/MSNBC/whatever the fuck passes for "liberal media" these days :eyes: ), and not enough (Fox logo :eyes: :eyes: )."

Oh and it also proudly displayed Tea Party crap everywhere. :puke:

[Jackpine Radical]

4. There are some very interesting psychological factors at play here.

Turns out that the people next to the bottom on the economic ladder have a strong desire to make sure that there are people in the slot below them, so they can see that they aren't on the ABSOLUTE bottom. If you offered to double the incomes of the next-to-bottomers (NTB's) while giving those below them enough to bring them up to the same level as the NTB's, most NTB's will turn the deal down because the objective advance in their fortunes is not as important to them as having someone to look down on.

[MedleyMisty]

14. My husband told me about a study showing that

I believe my response was "Well then, fuck the human species." If we're willing to destroy the world just because we like having someone "lower" than us, we deserve to die off.

[Maccagirl]

5. All great responses. I would also add I would bet that the man

in the van listens to Rush and idolizes Ronnie "They're welfare Queens" Reagan. He's been brainwashed for almost 30 yeras.

[LiberalFighter]

6. Be ready when you have a chance to talk to them.

And ask them where do they think the rich get their $64,000+ in itemized tax deductions? It comes from idiots like him.

[provis99]

9. It's a Southern thing: it's really all about race.

You can't understand the poor whites in the South unless you know everything is about race.

In the dude's mind, the government is taking (white) people's hard earned money and giving it to lazy black people (you know, they lack the work ethic).

I used to get confused about these people too in Mississippi until I realized they saw everything through the prism of race.

[Zanzoobar]

15. Dude, I've been around a bit

Some of the places: Miami 2yrs, Detroit City 2yrs, Philly 5yrs, Huntsville Alabama 4yrs, West Virginia 6 yrs.

The worst, blatant, racist dungpiles I've met were in the North. By far.

[provis99]

16. yeah whatever, Dude.

Your vague feelings are more important than a hundred years of confirmed sociological research. Ok, far out Dude.

[Zanzoobar]

22. Nothing vague about it.

The day I move to Philly I asked my neighbor if the trash guys would take the old rickety stove I wanted to get rid of.

He told me to put it on the curb and a nigger would come by and pick it up and sell it to another nigger.

I've spent a lot of time in the south. I don't think I ever heard the word. Ever.

All of your sociological research might be institutionalized, as I have suspected since that day.

[Boojatta]

10. Aren't you reading into it?

In saying "don't share my wealth", maybe the owner of the van is expressing the opinion that the government should have given the Lehman Brothers treatment to all of the financial institutions that were in trouble.

Note that "share my work ethic" doesn't give any indication that the work in question is the unpaid work required to get hired. Given the reference to "wealth" in the first part, the "work" in the second part of the bumper sticker message likely refers to paid work. The idea could be that the economic crisis wasn't caused by the way people pursue their hobbies, but was caused by the way that some people in influential positions have been doing their work. Specifically, the idea may be that many people, although able to work competently, have chosen to do morally wrong things. After all, if the problems faced by the nation were primarily technical, then there would likely be a technical solution, and you yourself might not consider political or moral issues to be of urgent, practical significance. After all, you are posting on a political message board.

[SoutherDem]

19. No not really.

Granted I do not know the one man in the van. However, I do know or are around many people who based on there conversations the bumper sticker means "don't tax me and give it to people who are too lazy to work". By the way, these people feel anyone who is getting ANY government assistance, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Housing assistance and any other form of welfare are getting because they don't want to work. I have live in the area for 44 years and since I was a small child I have heard people question anyone who gets assistance from the government. People in my area thought Ronald Reagan was a saint for talking about his "welfare queens" and I have heard many say "why should I pay for someone else's healthcare"
While it is certainly possible you are correct, and I didn't get out and ask the man what was meant by the bumper sticker, so I really don't know. I think I most likely interpreted the drivers intentions correctly.

[Initech]

12. It's greed that's causing unemployment.

Greed plain and simple - and the only way the greediest of the greedy get greedier, is to rob us of what little we have left. God, I hate the greedy so fucking much.

[emilyg]

17. A 10 year old van with

scratches - hardly seems like a greedy person.

[Initech]

18. No but the Fox News crowd are the enablers of the greedy.

[gratuitous]

20. Puts me in mind of Granny D's story

Granny D walked the country for peace for many years. She would talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime, and her message was about peace and social justice. One day in her travels, she struck up a conversation with a guy who rode or drove a garbage truck in some little Alabama town. In the course of their talk, the guy mentioned that he made $16,000 a year (probably translates to less than $22,000 nowadays, in other words not a king's ransom). Granny D asked him what the biggest problem facing the country was, and he got quite exercised talking about the "death tax," and how it was a scandal that the government took so much money from people when they died. Why, there was nothing left for a person's heirs! You couldn't leave anything to your children.

In those days, the estate tax didn't kick in until after the $2 million threshold was reached. This guy would have to work for more than a century before he'd have to worry about paying any estate taxes, but in his mind, it was the ruination of the Republic. Why was he so worked up about it? He'd heard it on Rush. Day after day after day.

[FarLeftFist]

21. How the hell can you share a work ethic with people who are elderly, disabled, unable to work, etc?

Duh! The unemployed are unemployed because they lost their JOBS.