Bumper Sticker Logic, Isn't

“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention!” I am outraged, because I am paying attention, so I went to the rally. …and since I’m paying attention, I saw all the patches—the bumper stickers of the bike crowd. …and they told me to Smash Patriarchy! Smash Capitalism! Smash Racism! Smash the State! …and I was outraged, and I got a hammer, and I got on my bike and I rode and I was set to Smash Patriarchy! Smash Capitalism! Smash Racism! Smash the State! …and I went to kill my television and when I saw it I realized it was never alive, and even if it was, it never did anything to me, it’s the people who make the shows I choose to watch. …and I went to smash capitalism, but all I could find was the products of it, because capitalism is about products, and all I could find to smash were the windows, and those just got replaced by insurance money and the photo of me smashing them did make the papers which impressed me until I realized I was now a poster boy for more cops on the streets to defend capitalism. …and I went to smash the state but all I could find were state workers who grumbled about their jobs but at least they had some benefits and job security which is more than could be said for the rest of the people working for capitalists…and even if I could find a state to smash I started wondering what all these individuals would do without a state and if smashing the state was like smashing an anthill—the ants just rebuild it because they don’t know anything else. …and I went to smash patriarchy, and while I found evidence of it everywhere, I just couldn’t find the headquarters. So I just started talking to people about sex and gender and explaining that all those angry feminists aren’t wrong so much as they are starting conversations with people that are too advanced for them, like trying to teach a kid to read and starting with War and Peace. …and I went to smash racism. But except for the Klan and others who do a better job at overt racism, I realized that a lot of racism is hatred caused by ignorance. And getting mad at the ignorant is like getting mad at that kid who can’t read War and Peace because nobody taught him what A, B, and C meant. And the cure for ignorance isn’t smashing, but information. …and…and …and now I want to end capitalism, end racism, end sexism, end the state as we know it, but I want to build. I’m opening up my mouth, opening up my ears, opening up my arms for a hug and opening up my mind. …and now I’m thinking. …and now I’m outraged. …and now I’m really paying attention.