{"id":36983,"date":"2018-11-23T01:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T06:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=36983"},"modified":"2018-11-03T10:55:03","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T14:55:03","slug":"qotd-inactivist-bumper-stickers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2018\/11\/23\/qotd-inactivist-bumper-stickers\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: Inactivist bumper stickers"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>I\u2019ve received several hundred suggestions for inactivist bumper-sticker slogans and, as befits the situation, I\u2019ve been slow to read them. Still, I like some of them quite a bit: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<p>Visualize me ignoring you.<br \/>\nHow about \u201clet\u2019s not.\u201d <br \/>\nDon\u2019t honk if you can\u2019t be bothered. <br \/>\nDon\u2019t Act, NOW! <br \/>\nIf not now, whenever. <br \/>\nLeave well enough alone <br \/>\nSlacking: It\u2019s not just for kids. <br \/>\n<em>YOU<\/em> Save the Whales! <br \/>\nPractice Random Acts of Self-Restraint. <br \/>\nAsk Not. <br \/>\nFuture Site of Political Statement. <\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And so on.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s a problem. Many readers segued too easily from celebrating inactivism to championing outright sloth. For example, \u201cPractice Random Acts of Self-Restraint\u201d is a fine inactive motto. But \u201cThey can have my channel changer when they pry it out of my cold, dead hand,\u201d while very funny is off point. \u201cDon\u2019t Mess With Stasis,\u201d doesn\u2019t quite rhyme but it\u2019s got the right idea. \u201cThink globally, act loafally,\u201d meanwhile, has the wrong idea \u2014 except insofar as it mocks people with stupid bumper stickers. <\/p>\n<p>The funny thing is that inactivists are actually very active people. I would bet that \u2014 this is a broad generalization-the folks who find inactivism politically appealing probably work harder and are more successful then people who find conventional activism attractive. Inactivists didn\u2019t boycott the Million Mom March simply because they had better things to do. They stayed home because they believe the Million Mom March was a vast, peripatetic parade of propaganda. Inactivists don\u2019t fail to mobilize solely because we\u2019d rather watch a rerun of <em>Matlock<\/em> than chant for vegetable rights and peace at city hall. We actually don\u2019t believe in vegetable rights. We want our carrots to remain as chattel. <\/p>\n<p>I agree that sloth is funny. And I suppose that\u2019s why so many people want Homer Simpson to become the inactivist spokesperson. I laugh whenever I hear Homer Simpson speak admiringly of Teamsters: \u201cOh, I always wanted to be a Teamster. So lazy and surly\u2026 mind if I relax next to you?\u201d And his campaign slogan when he ran for garbage commissioner was pretty good. \u201cCan\u2019t someone else do it?\u201d The best line from that episode was when he told Springfield voters \u201cAnimals are crapping in our houses and we\u2019re picking it up! Did we lose a war?\u201d But still, Homer\u2019s wrong when he tells his kids \u201cYou tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jonah Goldberg, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/205253\/let-history-come-you-jonah-goldberg\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Let History Come To You&#8221;, <em>National Review<\/em><\/a>, 2002-07-24.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve received several hundred suggestions for inactivist bumper-sticker slogans and, as befits the situation, I\u2019ve been slow to read them. Still, I like some of them quite a bit: Visualize me ignoring you. How about \u201clet\u2019s not.\u201d Don\u2019t honk if you can\u2019t be bothered. Don\u2019t Act, NOW! If not now, whenever. Leave well enough alone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,53,41,13],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-36983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humour","category-politics","category-quotations","category-usa","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-9Cv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36983"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45567,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36983\/revisions\/45567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}