Is it “prejudice” to dislike someone you’ve never met, based on the stuff he puts on his car?
My working definition of prejudice involves judging someone based on insufficient or irrelevant information. Inferring things about someone’s intelligence, for instance, from his ethnic background, religion, or skin colour, qualifies — these are irrelevant to a person’s intelligence. On the other hand, inferring things about someone’s intelligence from the things he says and writes about, well, that’s perfectly relevant, and doesn’t constitute prejudice at all.
But what about a middle ground? Can I validly infer things about someone’s intelligence based on stuff that other people wrote, and which he chooses to display? It’s his choice, of course, so it’s information that’s relevant to something. If a guy likes to display stupid and offensive things... on his car, maybe... does that make him stupid and offensive?
Take the idiot who drives the vehicle to the right, which I saw on the road the other day.
I say “idiot” very freely, but see here:
- His license plate frame says, “HONDAS R LIKE TAMPONS / EVERY PUSSY HAS ONE”.
- On the upper left of his rear window is a sticker depicting some large utility vehicle, with the legend “Sorry About Your Tiny Penis”.
- In the upper middle of the window is a sticker that says, “Shut Up Hippy”
- The upper right sports one saying, “My Other Ride Is Your Girlfriend”.
But I suspect that if you look up “asshole” in the dictionary, they’ll have a picture of the driver.
7 comments:
I'm truly surprised there isn't a McCain/Palin sticker there, too.
A policeman once told me that police tend to profile drivers of vehicles that have offensive decals on them, stating that these are more likely to be found in violation of various laws, especially those concerning contraband items.
What I want to know is why he hates and puts down all that he does, and why we have such a visceral response to him. And I wonder if we got the actual answer to this question whether it would improve anything in this world. It's really not a rhetorical question.
I'm with lidija - he seems to hate himself as much as everything else. I mean, he's wildly inconsistent... obnoxiously so, though.
But to answer your question - no. Such judgements are valid. At least I hope so, since I find myself making them, too.
If people go out of their way to display that their sex/racist/in some way bigoted or ignorant assholes.. I think it's fair to deduce that they're bigoted ignorant assholes.. if they want to go out of their way to prove otherwise upon further meeting they can go for it, but that's unlikely, I reckon.
I think it's safe to assume that this man's character is less than desireable, IMHO. At least, *I* won't be chilin' with him. Visceral comments re: women via some of his stickers.
You should've left the license plate number visible. It's a public document publicly displayed, by choice. It's fair game.
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