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On Bumper Stickers...

“If you have a problem, blame it on your fellow countrymen sneaking into Europe and requiring officials to be so suspicious.”
        Some people carry bumper stickers around, sticking them whenever they find the opportunity. Upon my story about visas a couple of people came up with "Blame your fellow countrymen" - "Blame your compatriots." I answered: "I don't have countrymen, I have fellow hearts and minds."
        Seeing that the bumper sticker they used did not hold on me, they came up with another. Another but just a modified version of the same sticker. "Blame the bad guys."
        "Which bad guys? The American ones going around mass shooting every day in America? Ah no, those are from you, you are fine with the bad guys that were born within your own imaginary line; you are talking about the bad guys over here. The ones that happened to be born within the same imaginary boundry I was born. That imaginary boundry that was drawn literally by bloody war and metaphorically by bloody politics."
        Ah, they feel sorry... But what can they do? You were born within the same imaginary lines as the bad guys and you are part of that barbaric ignorant intolerant group.

These people are generally also the ones who have horse vision. They are quite proficient in seeing things the way they'd like to see, avoiding all other examples. Even the example they choose is one case among the thousands of mass shootings, San Bernardino. "That's what happens when somebody lies to get in. What a demented soul she must have been."
        Okay but what about all the demented souls you have over there in America? Some people cannot accept the slightest stain on their self-image. It hurts their ego.
        "Ah, we are working on those, we've progressed."
        Okay. Why don't you work on the bad guys over here too? Why don't the "good" people of the world work on getting rid of the bad guys? Why do you have to categorize people according to which imaginary line they happened to be born in... Something out of our control. (Of course, it may very well be that we choose our parents and our lives... If we believe in a deterministic world, then there is nothing to discuss here. Or that explains why we are discussing these here ;)

“Jails in my state contain thousands of illegal aliens which have murdered, raped, sold drugs, and stolen property. To say there is no threat is to suspend one's intellect.”
        Another case of horse-vision, this being done on purpose for propaganda. So I suppose jails in this person's state do not contain any American citizens which have murdered, raped, sold drugs, and stolen property? To say there is no threat from “legal citizens” is to suspend one's intellect. But it's easy to suspend your intellect when you have an agenda that is dictated by your “lizard” brain.

Most often times, people don't know what they're saying. This is so common even among the “educated” that you'd be surprised. They parrot things they have heard, without thinking. As people like going around with bumper stickers, I suggest we change them a bit. Here is my suggestion:
        “It is WRONG to categorize people according to the imaginary line they were born in. That imaginary line drawn by a literally bloody war or by metaphorically bloody politics. The Earth is not a place to be parceled into countries and forbidden to people who themselves, their parents or spouses have not been born there or let in on conditions. It is a land as a whole, to be lived and traveled on for some time and then buried under.”
        So let's change our bumper stickers. Of course, replace yours with mine :)