Reclaiming Jumbo

[snurri]

My mom saw the sticker on my laptop, of a pink elephant wearing sunglasses, and asked why I had it. "I like elephants," I said. "It makes me think you're a Republican," she said. Now, my mom knows that I am not a Republican. We talk politics all the time, in the half-hysterical way of people who agree with each other and can't believe that EVERYONE doesn't. (On the few topics where we do disagree, we generally say very little. I can't figure out if this is a Norwegian thing, a German thing, an Irish thing, or just a Thing That Is Done In My Family.)

Anyway, I wonder if this is the message I am sending to people when I take my laptop to a coffee shop to try to fool everyone. "I support the president! Ask me how!" That would explain some of the looks.

What upsets me most is that the elephants do not deserve this. They have always had female presidents, they have socialized medicine, childcare, and education, and they hold all property in common. In political terms they are radical matriarchal socialists, which makes them pretty much too far left to be Democrats, let alone Republicans.

I don't know what the sunglasses mean, though.

Comments

[snurri.livejournal.com]

The Poster Children, one of my fave indie bands, had a song on their (most?) recent album called "Flag," as in, "It's my flag too."

We don't agree
That's fine with me
But you seem to think it means
That I'm the enemy

I've got some news
It's my flag too
It belongs to me as much as
It belongs to you

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

And for that matter, it's a tool that only particular outlook has figured out how to use. Because yeah, it represents that alternative viewpoint just as much, but there's an outsider mentality at work that makes a lot of people unwilling to try.