I found this interesting. As I walk in Sammi’s neighborhood in NJ I am amazed by the amount of lawn signs. In some ways I find them comforting, just knowing so many feel what I feel.
That’s a good point that lawn signs can often be very comforting— to me too— and that that matters! My critique is not of putting up lawn signs in general, but with the bad habit some people fall into of replacing action with lawn signs, rather than supplementing action with signs.
As in, do the people with signs also vote and donate their time, energy, money, and/or attention to helping the vulnerable. Or do they just put up a sign and call it a day? In this sense, I view it more of an internal question to ask oneself— in my case, myself— am I living my values or just signaling them, if that makes sense!
Your comment also makes me think about who the audience for the sign is and what message it’s trying to convey. Is it conveying solidarity, which as you said is comforting because it reminds us their are many other people who feel as we do, or is it conveying moral superiority, which I fear a lot of people (who I’d deem lawn-sign liberals) try to do nowadays.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I hope Sammi and the fam are well😊
So where do you think this stems from? Also, why put out a lawn sign at all if that's all some people will do? To me it seems like a lack of commitment to whatever the cause may be. Or even worse, it often feels insincere like with NIMBY-ism, which is I'd argue counterproductive. I could be wrong and as you say it's besides the point, but it also feels like during the Civil Rights movement there was a greater commitment for those involved to act not just non-violently but just to represent the movement well overall. And of course, civil rights and racial equality are particularly potent, and progress has been made, so maybe there is genuinely less to protest over - not nothing, but I think it's telling when people do decide to go out and protest, like with Trump's immigration policy. Would love to know your thoughts!
I think it stems from a disconnection with the issues. To your point, during the Civil Rights Movement, most of the protesters were African Americans who had a vested interest in an end to segregation and Jim Crow laws in real material terms. Today, the people who one may call “lawn-sign liberals” often may not themselves be on the front lines of the issues, which is not to say they don’t care. But it is to say that, in some sense, they don’t have to care.
IMO, often, they can afford to put up signs and then sit back and relax, if that makes sense.
Yes, that makes sense, and I agree! I also think this issue in our society extends far beyond politics. For instance, some people call themselves Christians, put up religious symbols, stream church online, or virtue signal their "Christian values" without actually being a part of a Church community IRL or living by the Gospel. And there are plenty of other examples imo.
As someone who doesn't enjoy coming across political content online, I think it's going too far to call posting about politics automatically engaging in lawn-sign liberalism. If someone is otherwise politically active and putting their money where their mouth is, then they've earned the right to post. But yeah beyond that, many without lawns to put signs on use their social media pages instead
Yes I agree putting up a sign IRL or a post online isn’t automatically “lawn sign liberalism” if people are, as you say, “putting their money where their mouth is” and backing up their words with actions.
So, fair point, I may have overstated the case haha
A big problem is definitely that people have no patience now, and as you say true change takes a long time - probably a generation depending on the issue. Without patience, people get discouraged and just virtue signal what they want to happen but give up on actually seeing it through imo.
I like how you did the audio for this one.
For your second footnote, to what extent do you think you're removing sarcastic or dismissive rhetoric from your pieces versus reflecting further and changing those feelings towards an issue or political figure? I wasn't offended by the footnote personally, though I would disagree with calling Biden a moderate Dem.
Yeah that’s a good point that we need more patience as a people. As for people saying what they want without seeing it through, I think that also happens because people don’t know how to make things happen and lack political efficacy, which is ofc not their faults. I think we as a country need to do a better job of engendering efficacy, whether that’s in a civics class in school or in the way we hold elections and debates about matters of public policy.
Oh awesome, can you tell what about the audio you enjoyed so I can do that in the future?😊
And thanks for letting me know about the comment in footnote 2! Yes, I totally think that as a do edits/more drafts of my writing I’m able to reflect and therefore end up removing the dismissive comments due to that, good point!
Yeah our public schools definitely don't help Americans to have political efficacy, nor does the unresponsiveness of our government and political parties to public sentiment.
I like that you recorded the audio twice, once with and once without the footnotes. Also, I think the sound quality and dictation have generally improved since your first post!
Yeah I think engendering political efficacy in the people is hard to do! In terms of solutions, I do think having a more robust civics education in public schools would help. I also think, in terms of making the gov't and political parties more responsive, that getting money out of politics would be one big way to do it.
The nationalization of our politics, largely due to our current media environment, has likely made politicians less responsive to the kitchen-table issues of their constituents as well. I think this is a harder problem to solve.
Ok awesome, thank you for letting me know, and I'll bear that in mind for future posts!
As far as why I'm not offended, so don't think it's a good example of snark: I think it's a fair, not uncharitable critique, and I like the play on words!
I found this interesting. As I walk in Sammi’s neighborhood in NJ I am amazed by the amount of lawn signs. In some ways I find them comforting, just knowing so many feel what I feel.
That’s a good point that lawn signs can often be very comforting— to me too— and that that matters! My critique is not of putting up lawn signs in general, but with the bad habit some people fall into of replacing action with lawn signs, rather than supplementing action with signs.
As in, do the people with signs also vote and donate their time, energy, money, and/or attention to helping the vulnerable. Or do they just put up a sign and call it a day? In this sense, I view it more of an internal question to ask oneself— in my case, myself— am I living my values or just signaling them, if that makes sense!
Your comment also makes me think about who the audience for the sign is and what message it’s trying to convey. Is it conveying solidarity, which as you said is comforting because it reminds us their are many other people who feel as we do, or is it conveying moral superiority, which I fear a lot of people (who I’d deem lawn-sign liberals) try to do nowadays.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I hope Sammi and the fam are well😊
So where do you think this stems from? Also, why put out a lawn sign at all if that's all some people will do? To me it seems like a lack of commitment to whatever the cause may be. Or even worse, it often feels insincere like with NIMBY-ism, which is I'd argue counterproductive. I could be wrong and as you say it's besides the point, but it also feels like during the Civil Rights movement there was a greater commitment for those involved to act not just non-violently but just to represent the movement well overall. And of course, civil rights and racial equality are particularly potent, and progress has been made, so maybe there is genuinely less to protest over - not nothing, but I think it's telling when people do decide to go out and protest, like with Trump's immigration policy. Would love to know your thoughts!
I think it stems from a disconnection with the issues. To your point, during the Civil Rights Movement, most of the protesters were African Americans who had a vested interest in an end to segregation and Jim Crow laws in real material terms. Today, the people who one may call “lawn-sign liberals” often may not themselves be on the front lines of the issues, which is not to say they don’t care. But it is to say that, in some sense, they don’t have to care.
IMO, often, they can afford to put up signs and then sit back and relax, if that makes sense.
Yes, that makes sense, and I agree! I also think this issue in our society extends far beyond politics. For instance, some people call themselves Christians, put up religious symbols, stream church online, or virtue signal their "Christian values" without actually being a part of a Church community IRL or living by the Gospel. And there are plenty of other examples imo.
As someone who doesn't enjoy coming across political content online, I think it's going too far to call posting about politics automatically engaging in lawn-sign liberalism. If someone is otherwise politically active and putting their money where their mouth is, then they've earned the right to post. But yeah beyond that, many without lawns to put signs on use their social media pages instead
Yes I agree putting up a sign IRL or a post online isn’t automatically “lawn sign liberalism” if people are, as you say, “putting their money where their mouth is” and backing up their words with actions.
So, fair point, I may have overstated the case haha
A big problem is definitely that people have no patience now, and as you say true change takes a long time - probably a generation depending on the issue. Without patience, people get discouraged and just virtue signal what they want to happen but give up on actually seeing it through imo.
I like how you did the audio for this one.
For your second footnote, to what extent do you think you're removing sarcastic or dismissive rhetoric from your pieces versus reflecting further and changing those feelings towards an issue or political figure? I wasn't offended by the footnote personally, though I would disagree with calling Biden a moderate Dem.
Yeah that’s a good point that we need more patience as a people. As for people saying what they want without seeing it through, I think that also happens because people don’t know how to make things happen and lack political efficacy, which is ofc not their faults. I think we as a country need to do a better job of engendering efficacy, whether that’s in a civics class in school or in the way we hold elections and debates about matters of public policy.
Oh awesome, can you tell what about the audio you enjoyed so I can do that in the future?😊
And thanks for letting me know about the comment in footnote 2! Yes, I totally think that as a do edits/more drafts of my writing I’m able to reflect and therefore end up removing the dismissive comments due to that, good point!
Yeah our public schools definitely don't help Americans to have political efficacy, nor does the unresponsiveness of our government and political parties to public sentiment.
I like that you recorded the audio twice, once with and once without the footnotes. Also, I think the sound quality and dictation have generally improved since your first post!
Yeah I think engendering political efficacy in the people is hard to do! In terms of solutions, I do think having a more robust civics education in public schools would help. I also think, in terms of making the gov't and political parties more responsive, that getting money out of politics would be one big way to do it.
The nationalization of our politics, largely due to our current media environment, has likely made politicians less responsive to the kitchen-table issues of their constituents as well. I think this is a harder problem to solve.
Ok awesome, thank you for letting me know, and I'll bear that in mind for future posts!
As far as why I'm not offended, so don't think it's a good example of snark: I think it's a fair, not uncharitable critique, and I like the play on words!
Thank you :)