Vehicles for moral preening

I'm sure that most people are familiar with the concept of conspicuous consumption and using one's wealth to flaunt their status. We've got plenty of that here in DC, but something else we also have in abundance is moral preening and trying to advertise oneself as more caring than the next. Apparently if you occupy a higher moral plateau it's your job to let the whole world know about it.

I spotted the following signed taped on to the side of a sedan on my walk to the grocery store this morning:

The message, in other words should be, "Detroit: Stop disagreeing with me!" Let's think about how silly this is. The car is in DC and has DC license plates. They are preaching to the choir. But the point, I suspect, is less to impact the public debate than to show off their green credentials and how socially conscious they are. Walking around the neighborhood with my camera I witnessed just how stiff the competition is.

Literally around the corner from the first car I found this automobile, which is a real study in cognitive dissonance. Among the slogans plastered on the back include such left wing fare as "Combat the Racist Infrastructure," "People Before Profits" and "Sustainability: The Final Frontier." That last one kind of cracked me up considering that the person who put it on there is driving an SUV. Perhaps however, aware of their own hypocrisy, it explains why they also placed the sticker that says "Follow Me to Certain Death."

In addition to the leftist sloganeering the vehicle also features more right-wing stuff such as "Don't Steal: The Government Hates Competition" and "A Patriot Must be Ready to Defend His Country Against His Government."

So, evidently this person is a low tax, free market type presumably armed with a sizable arsenal to defend against his own government that also believes the current infrastructure (that elected Barack Obama) is racist and that profits are bad. I dunno maybe you can figure it out.

Eh, then again leftism and logic are usually at odds with one another, as can be seen by the next bumper sticker I encountered:

What. An. Idiot. Of all the mindless messages on the back of cars this one had to have been the worst. How utterly delusional. I guess it is a lot easier to arrive at solutions when they don't have to comport with reality. "Make war crimes tribunals, not war." Jesus, why didn't anyone think of this before? I bet the Bush Administration has to be kicking themselves right now thinking, "How stupid of us! Instead of invading Iraq, why didn't we just go arrest Saddam Hussein and put him on trial?"

You see, the problem with bad guys, the kind that start wars, is that they tend to put up some resistance and don't go willingly to trials. You have to use some kind of force, and maybe even war, to obtain that outcome. But who knows, maybe you can achieve the same end if you just hold enough concerts dedicated to the cause, organize some demonstrations and -- of course -- plaster your car with bumper stickers.

Of course, I don't even own a car so I inhabit the highest moral plane of all.

Update: Thinking about the last bumper sticker more I am starting to think that in the addled mind of the person who owns the car the war tribunals should not be for America's enemies -- people like Radovan Karadzic or Saddam Hussein -- but American leaders. That would make marginally more sense, given that democracies tend to be better followers of the rule of law, but makes the message even more appalling.