Dumb Bumper Sticker Watch

Davis Square, Somerville, MA: A center of hogwash production second only to Cambridge, around these here parts.

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

Hog. Wash. If there is any "highest form" of patriotism, that'd be signing up to get your ass shot off for your country. It would not be sitting around fat dumb and happy in a coffeehouse in Somerville, telling yourself how much better than everybody else you are because you don't like George Bush. Passive self-congratulation is not the highest form of anything worth mentioning, Beavis. But that's the left: It's all about striking dramatic poses in front of the mirror. Narcissism elevated to a form of theology.

Well, this time around, the fool probably at least bothered to vote. So he's got that going for him.

I've only seen that one once. You see "Dissent is patriotic" stickers around here regularly, and that's a less aggressively absurd form of the same sentiment, though still risible. Say for example you "dissent" from the notion that the US should continue to exist, or from the Bill of Rights. How about the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments? Some "dissenters" don't like them one damn bit. How about if your "dissent" takes the form of passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union? What about the German American Bund, who "dissented" in favor of Hitler during World War II? I'm sorry, but that's not "patriotism". It may be a lot of things, but "patriotism" is not among 'em.

Instances of dissent may be patriotic, but they are not necessarily patriotic. Dissent and patriotism correlate¹ arbitrarily² at best.

Catskills Dept.: Oh, hey, and isn't patriotism "the last refuge of scoundrels", therefore making dissent the highest form of scoundrel-refuge, or something? Rimshot! I seem to have heard that one recently from some folks off to my left. Well, you know, hardy har har and all that.

¹ Look it up.

² Look. It. Up.