Not Under the Radar
by Gila Hayes
Members of unpopular minorities have long struggled with the need to show others that people of their persuasion are mainstream, are contributing citizens, and are regular working guys and gals just like everyone else. The older among our readers will remember that in its heyday, the National Rifle Association urged their members to display NRA bumper stickers, suggesting that hoplophobes would give up their hatred of gun owners and their irrational fear of firearms if their neighbors self-identified as gunowners.
Stickers and signs also identify the “tribe” to which we belong, or as they say in the Westerns, “the brand you ride for.” Having just survived a hotly contested general election, we still see plenty of examples of signs and stickers expressing allegiance to one party and its candidate or to the other.
Favorite sports teams, one’s religious practices (ranging from Christianity to paganism), and even tourist attractions show up on stickers, sometimes seasoned with humor ranging from self-deprecating to insulting. We humans have strong needs to belong, as Maslow taught and as has been carried forward in later years by Baumeister and Leary who identified the need for affiliation as a facet of this fundamental human motivation.
From these and likely from other causes, many people today still fall prey to the temptation to plaster on bumper stickers or display yard signs or stickers in their front window. These range from warning tailgaters that the driver is reloading or displaying yard signs or stickers in their front window threatening to shoot trespassers once and survivors again.
When the Network was getting started, requests for bumper stickers and window stickers came frequently. We never went that route, since part of our advice to Network members, credited to our mentor and advisory board member John Farnam, is to adopt the stealth lifestyle, not drawing attention to oneself through ostentatious behavior or appearance, and not displaying gun company logos or other signs pledging affiliation to one cause or another. Bumper stickers and window stickers epitomize that kind of signaling.
For the Network, once the sticker is out in public, control of where and how our name is displayed is lost, so we avoid the whole risk. I was reminded of that decision recently when I saw a competitors’ logo displayed in association with the flag of the sovereign citizen movement, a matched set of frowning skulls, several Gadsden flags, part of a gun manufacturers’ logo, and a sticker warning, “I Hate Stupid People.” The individual right to self-expression is held in high regard and, for that matter, Americans revere our freedom to express allegiances and emotions of all sorts, even those that raise concerns about one’s peaceful nature.
Personal decisions about public displays like this have nothing to do with free speech. At question is whether the attention attracted is, to quote Farnam, “in your best interest.” Is it in your best interest to make others wonder if your actions express your hatred toward them because you believe they’re stupid?
Is it in your best interest to create concern in the mind of the highway patrol officer who stops to warn you that a mechanical problem of which you were unaware has made your taillights go dark? Walk a mile in those uniform boots and imagine contacting a stranger without knowing which anti-government faction that sovereign flag sticker promotes.
If freeway traffic is bumper to bumper and some ultra-sensitive driver thinks you unfairly cut him off, will the snarling skull stickers communicate you behave angrily in general when really, you’re just another harried guy trying to merge into heavy traffic during rush hour?
In conjunction with all those questions, what does your gun insurance sticker suggest if things go wrong and the driver of the car you hit in an unavoidable fender-bender wants to teach you a lesson? As Farnam teaches, “What is in YOUR best interests?”
Unfinished Business
Feedback from members about my interview with John Farnam in the December journal included a reminder that not all the old familiar phrases are entirely accurate. I had asked Farnam about trouble communicating with immigrants who hadn’t mastered English yet, with the observation that we live in “a nation of immigrants.” Our member in the heartland state of Oklahoma countered with, “I contend that America is not a nation of immigrants, rather we are a nation of settlers.
“Our forefathers were settlers who came to this land and founded this nation. They did so by declaring our independence and drafting a constitution that made us a unique nation. Those who arrived after we became a nation are immigrants. The majority of Americans are the descendants of those original settlers.”
Forward into 2025
Optimism is breaking out all over, even in the columns of several dour opinion writers I read at the Wall Street Journal. For peaceable, middle-class men and women, however, reality is a bit different. The professional victim class is rallying the troops, stirring the pot, and preparing every tool imaginable to tear down America. To cite only one example, Black Lives Matters has asked Biden to “issue proactive pardons for all peaceful protesters who may face federal charges while resisting the incoming administration’s attacks on racial justice, democracy, climate action and other critical issues.” Proactive, really?
Concurrently, we’re hearing warnings about international terror attacks on American soil. Sadly, the foreign powers will have no trouble recruiting local help since home-grown anarchists have had four years to recharge and grow stronger with little fear of prosecution. Whether the flash point turns out to be deportations of people illegally in the United States, or if resisting a return to law and order ends in police shootings to enforce the law, groups that benefit from anarchy are poised to use any excuse to reignite their violence.
Then there’s local politics. Despite all the crowing about the president-elect’s “landslide” victory and Republican control of the House and Senate, the margins are in reality, very thin. In “blue” states, almost two dozen governors have aggressively pledged to work without ceasing against the reforms Trump promises. Whether your concern is better health care, environmental law, self-defense rights, or enforcing immigration law, you can bet there will be people who strongly oppose your viewpoint and some of those opposing voices will actively incite violence and destruction.
I think we would be wise to study where we go and identify where our needs take us and whether that overlaps with likely protest areas. For example, during the worst of the Portland, Oregon antifa violence four or five years ago, I stopped going to an art glass company I patronize until a back route opened up that didn’t require going through the city’s congested downtown core. We have a little time now to study ways to avoid or escape situations that expose us to renewed violence. Now is also a good time to check our back up supplies of water, stored emergency food, and ways to keep our homes habitable if terrorism takes down the power grid or destroys the water system.