0946: “Family Decals”

[panthersnbraves]

These decals are quite popular in NC. They also show what people are into - Dad might have floppy hat and fishing pole, Mom with shopping bags, Johnny with baseball bat and cap, Susie with cheerleader outfit, etc

My favorite was the one with two "mom's" and 5 cats.....

[bfollinprm]

I have a Honda Fit, though I made sure I got it in black. There was a brown/red one, that looked like a massive oversized turd. Definitely not the sexiest car ever, but Fit is an apt moniker--I travelled across the country with the contents of my apartment in the back, and averaged 40 (if you get less than 40, splurge for the K&N filter).

[thevicente]

I would think that having a single "adult" sticker (advertising that you don't live with a second adult) would only increase your risk of falling victim to an attack (home invasion or otherwise). No?

It does, and not only the "single" one. In my crime-ridden city, authorities discourage all information-containing stickers.

These family decals contain info about the size of the family and genders and age range of family members, other stickers tell which schools and universities are attended by them (since some are more expensive than others, this not only gives the person's weekly whereabouts but also translates to wealth), etc. and the car itself is also a measure of wealth.

Brrr.

[NeverendingDream]

Now I'm surprised I've never seen Calvin pissing on a stick-figure family

[cujomcfly]

I had to join the forums to share this with you all. I saw this decal in the parking lot of a business i used to work at.

First post, so i can't post the pic, but here is the link.

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y46/cujomcfly/?action=view&current=2011-08-05140245.jpg

[Random832]

These family decals contain info about the size of the family and genders and age range of family members, other stickers tell which schools and universities are attended by them (since some are more expensive than others, this not only gives the person's weekly whereabouts but also translates to wealth), etc. and the car itself is also a measure of wealth.

What's the effect of a Type R sticker or similar?

[sarysa]

Title: “My decal set has no adults, just a sea of hundreds of the little girl figures closing in around a single cat.”

Mine would be hundreds of cat figures surrounding me.

Though seriously, they're all over northern California as well. I've also seen a few parody versions...with aliens, robots, and I think one had a kid who was a ninja.

[drazen]

I would think that having a single "adult" sticker (advertising that you don't live with a second adult) would only increase your risk of falling victim to an attack (home invasion or otherwise). No?

I was being sarcastic about that, since I think the fora have lots of single people who live alone. Or you could just put a gun next to it, that could be a deterrent.

Someone else said something about there being a presumption of family being "man, woman, kids." I don't think that's true; I think something like the stickers is just a fun dorky suburban thing for families to do. It's not like we're talking about the people who ignore their screaming toddler running loose in a mall throwing his sippy cup at strangers and somehow still think their perfect little angel is adorable and demand that you should too. In THIS case (the one in today's comic), I think the people being arrogant are the ones who want to attack a family doing something cute/lovey because apparently nobody hugged them when they were a child (disclaimer: nobody really hugged me as a child either). While I personally grew up with the mom-dad-kids paradigm, I think the important things are love, support, and good role models, and whether those things come from a man and a woman, grandma and cousin Billy, two men, two women, three men and a baby, two guys a girl and a pizza place, or a magic talking space octopus is really sort of secondary. My only objection is people who attack the man-woman-kids family structure just because they don't like it.

[StClair]

Also, re the title text: "You're a kitty!"

That's all I had to say about this one.

[djlowballer]

oh wow, this is a total GOOMHR moment!
I live in Australia, these damn awful decals are ubiquitous. And annoying. Seems like just about every family car has a set depicting all family members. But I was recently driving and saw this:

This one sort of kills the joke. So much for the stereotype that all parents are cash strapped breeders.

[djlowballer]

...

Anyone who is moved by that sort of thinking to have children is the sort of person who shoud be prevented from having children at all costs.
(by the way, you do realize that of the groups you've listed only the Hasidic Jews are even potentially an ethnic group, right?)

The people who place a high value on family should be prevented from having children? So children should be left to accidental teen moms and young adults too lazy to spring for a rubber? I don't know if that will work out

[Randomness]

Did everyone post that the right side car was of a childless couple?(sorry if I missed a contrary post)
I looked at it as parents who calculated the cost of the children and represented the cost on the car instead of the being.

[Bob Dole]

Here's an actual picture of the decals in the wild (and a joke from my sorta defunct comic):

http://pegasusfortnight.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/stickpeople2.png

[reckoning6]

Randall has a brilliant sense of humor, and his jokes are typically multi-layered.

So far, I have not heard a sound hypothesis as to what the ALT text is referring.

Please god, please. Someone who gets it should post here

P.S. I know that people are absolutely elated that there is a comic about something they have always noticed, but if people could shut up about the stupid stickers they see, it would take far less time for me to comb for a response.

[ferrettt55]

I'm bothered that any crazed murderer can see a car with a single mom sticker and choose them as their next target. It's like having a bumper sticker saying: "I'm alone and defenseless, you can follow me and kill my kids." But I like Randall's sticker.

[jpk]

I would think that having a single "adult" sticker (advertising that you don't live with a second adult) would only increase your risk of falling victim to an attack (home invasion or otherwise). No?

I was being sarcastic about that, since I think the fora have lots of single people who live alone. Or you could just put a gun next to it, that could be a deterrent invitation.

FTFY. (if you're a burglar, you're looking for highly portable, highly concentrated value in easily-resellable form. handgun is all three, and is likely to be about the only consumer durable in your house that's worth stealing, unless you have good tools. advertising the presence of a handgun is just asking for someone to come in and try to find it when they think you're not in.)

[jpk]

The van the right is the reason that the Mormons, Amish, Hasidic Jews, and conservative Catholics will inherit America [with some other ethnic groups thrown in].

Anyone who is moved by that sort of thinking to have children is the sort of person who should be prevented from having children at all costs.
(by the way, you do realize that of the groups you've listed only the Hasidic Jews are even potentially an ethnic group, right?)

The people who place a high value on family should be prevented from having children? So children should be left to accidental teen moms and young adults too lazy to spring for a rubber? I don't know if that will work out

Yes, people who see the specter of an America inherited by Mormons, Amish (Amish? inheriting America? really?) and such like as a reason to pop out another vanity-project should be prevented from breeding. Absolutely. It's a shame there's no way to actually do this, but it would be best all around, don't you think?
Now it's possible that "Meng Bomin" was simply stating a putative fact, that highly-reproductive populations will crowd out populations which reproduce with less abandon. I think this is unlikely. Rising populations of hispanics in US cities, last I checked, were driven more by immigration than by anything else, and all populations seem to obey the rule that rising wealth limits reproduction, so I think it's unlikely that you'll see an America any more dominated by weird religious cults fifty or a hundred years from now than you do today.
I'd put a bet on it, but I wouldn't be likely to collect on the century, and I probably wouldn't care too much about the half-century.

[Tahoe]

Here ya go.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5009/5373049465_4cbf4b25bf_o.jpg

(sorry, I can't link)

[Chris Dude70]

I see these all over the place. They sell for about $10 a sticker. Ive seen one with about 10 stickers and all I could think was, wow, you wasted $100 on stickers...

I was about to make a joke about spending money on other things so they wouldent have to buy so many stickers... But thats not the sort of humour us respectable types do, right?

[RAGBRAIvet]

Now I'm surprised I've never seen Calvin pissing on a stick-figure family

Give it time.

[Zakator]

Well, today I have learned about the Darwin fish, who Elmyra Duff is and that these stickers are apparently so common (even in places like Brazil and Lima) that everyone seems to think they're completely natural, whereas I've never seen one in my life (and I live outside Sweden's capital city...). Interesting. Here, all we get are mock-licence plates (complete with EU symbol and the country code, S) with baby names that people attach to their strollers when out walking. They even have the baby's birthdate on them, and extra flags if the parents are of different nationalities. Link here. http://www.swedishplate.se/se/grp/barnvagnsskylt/

However, I've still not gotten any sort of satisfying answer as to what exactly the alt-text refers to. My only thought was Dwarf Fortress and that the cat had somehow mind-controlled all the girls into thinking it was their pet, shortly followed by weird thoughts of hundreds of Alice in Wonderland-clones converging on an evilly smiling Cheshire Cat. Other than that, no idea.

[Pangolin]

Having just read through the comments, I'm surprised that I've managed to miss this entire culture. This xkcd has introduced me to "family decals". I have never seen one in my life, and I'm sure it's not because of the whole, "blind to it until it's pointed out to you" thing, because I do scan cars all the time for interesting personalised plates and bumper stickers which might liven up some long walks to uni or work and back (I am one of the carless ones). Then again I don't live in America so that might have something to do with it. Apparently in New Zealand it's just not a thing, although I read that it is in Australia. Bizarre. That said, Baby on Board stickers are EVERYWHERE and they're usually the same yellow as the "L" plates for learner drivers. Maybe they're not asking other drivers to be safer for their sake, but to instead be wary, because they're too distracted by their screaming spawn to concentrate properly on the road.

Also, undercover cops here drive Commodores, but so does half of the middle/upper middle class. So they're everywhere. Since the way to distinguish a cop from a regular citizen is by those dashboard lights inside the car visible in the lower front windscreen, my friends father put a similar sized piece of black plastic, so from outside the vehicle if it's driving, it looks like he is one also. He reckons it makes people drive more safely around him.

ALSO I want to know if there is some kind of bigger joke in the alt-text also. I quite like the replacement theory - representing the cost of kids, but I can't help feeling that Randall would have something more.. Although, maybe he's just sitting back watching us lower humans trying to figure him out, knowing all the while that there is no more joke. What we see is what we get. Damn you xkcd, I'm second-guessing myself now.

[rcox1]

Yet the assumption is that a man, a woman, and kids is the only acceptable situation, and by putting a sticker depicting this one is asserting that status quo.

....
It's others who - usually guided by their own insecurities and/or egos - assert any meaning beyond what the originator intended. To give a simplistic example: I put a Packers SB XLV sticker on my car to celebrate their victory; I did not put it on my car to harass fans of the Steelers for their loss. However, I am sure there are Steelers fans who see that sticker and get upset and probably think I did it to annoy them.

Yes, it's a little egotistical to think that anyone cares you have a family or an honor student. But I don't believe the large majority are doing it to brag or be arrogant or to think they're better than the guy driving behind them. They're expressing a source of happiness or loyalty in their life, and that is all.

***

Of course, you then have the "responses", like the Darwin fish* or the "My Kid Can Beat Up Your Honor Student" or even this cartoon. In this case the motivation likelihood has been flipped; yes, there are probably a few who genuinely care enough about evolution to declare it on their fender and I'm sure a couple people with the "My Kid can beat up..." just thought it was funny...

The 'other' is certainly the issue here. All of us have basic insecurities and one of the basic insecurities of a certain group of people is that the family is under attack. Suggesting that the purpose of these stickers is anything other that creating an 'other' non-family group is to deny the real and present state of politics in the US.

In this sense responses is to create a competing group so that those not in the original group do not feel so much like others. This is insecurity only in the sense that one is often less secure outside of a group of comparable size to other groups. In fact game theory suggested this reality many years ago. It simulations, tit for tat was suggested as the most profitable role of play between equal parties. Basically, you don't cheat anyone, but if someone cheats you, then you send them to Coventry for a few rounds, but attempt to deal with them eventually. The exception to this is if there is an identifiable small group of players, in which case the best strategy for the larger group is to cheat them relentlessly. We see examples of this with Jews in Nazi Germany, Blacks in America after reconstruction, and Muslims in America now.

This is why such family stickers can either be construed as the attempt of an insecure small group to build power, or a already powerful group trying to build enough power to oppress those different from themselves. As I mentioned, the reality is probably the later, as for some reason families feel under pressure right now, even though they are given disproportionate levels of resources. School alone requires many thousands of dollars per year, not to mention the child tax credit above and beyond other write offs. It leads me to believe that families do not believe they have any personal responsibility for the children they brought into the world.

A couple funny things on the last point. The fish, as a Christian symbol, was most certainly an attempt to solidify a small but growing community. It used existing imagery. Many so-called pagan religions use the fish symbol. The yin-yang symbols is often considered to be two fishes. The fish symbol was, in effect, borrowed by christianity to respond to the predominate culture, which was not christian.

The bumper sticker about the honor student always made me laugh. When I was in school, essentially spending my time as an honor student though entry to college, my friends and I were geeks in rough neighborhoods. My high school was in a area riddled with drug houses. My bus got shot at. One was sure get jumpped more than once growing up. One did not survive if one was not tough. And we beat other schools in academic competition, as well as could have beat them in physical combat if that was our way, which it wasn't.

On a serious side, it does represent the difference between the family sticker, and, say a college sticker. While is does take an effort to find a mate, at least perhaps more than to have sex and produce a child, it is not something that is unusual. OTOH, being an honor students getting into college, and graduating is still an unusual situation, at lest in the US. So while the only response to a indication that one has graduated from college to also indicate that one has graduated from a college, I find it funny that the response to any honor student sticker is to claim that one can beat up the honors student. As if these two things are equal. This may be a real sense of insecurity, as if one's child is not inherently smart and you as parents do not know how to navigate the school system, then there could be long term competitive disadvantage in the sense of potential wealth accumulation.

But still the I would say that a family sticker, and dink sticker with gobs of cash, is not the case of the honor student sticker. It is more of a statement of an alternative lifestyle, and people who have problems with one of the two stickers probably are people who do not see one state as naturally and inherently preferable to the other.

[Anonymously Famous]

I had to join the forums to share this with you all. I saw this decal in the parking lot of a business i used to work at.

First post, so i can't post the pic, but here is the link.

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y46/cu ... 140245.jpg

That one is awesome.

[KrytenKoro]

The 'other' is certainly the issue here. All of us have basic insecurities and one of the basic insecurities of a certain group of people is that the family is under attack. Suggesting that the purpose of these stickers is anything other that creating an 'other' non-family group is to deny the real and present state of politics in the US.

In this sense responses is to create a competing group so that those not in the original group do not feel so much like others. This is insecurity only in the sense that one is often less secure outside of a group of comparable size to other groups. In fact game theory suggested this reality many years ago. It simulations, tit for tat was suggested as the most profitable role of play between equal parties. Basically, you don't cheat anyone, but if someone cheats you, then you send them to Coventry for a few rounds, but attempt to deal with them eventually. The exception to this is if there is an identifiable small group of players, in which case the best strategy for the larger group is to cheat them relentlessly. We see examples of this with Jews in Nazi Germany, Blacks in America after reconstruction, and Muslims in America now.

This is why such family stickers can either be construed as the attempt of an insecure small group to build power, or a already powerful group trying to build enough power to oppress those different from themselves. As I mentioned, the reality is probably the later, as for some reason families feel under pressure right now, even though they are given disproportionate levels of resources. School alone requires many thousands of dollars per year, not to mention the child tax credit above and beyond other write offs. It leads me to believe that families do not believe they have any personal responsibility for the children they brought into the world.

A couple funny things on the last point. The fish, as a Christian symbol, was most certainly an attempt to solidify a small but growing community. It used existing imagery. Many so-called pagan religions use the fish symbol. The yin-yang symbols is often considered to be two fishes. The fish symbol was, in effect, borrowed by christianity to respond to the predominate culture, which was not christian.

The bumper sticker about the honor student always made me laugh. When I was in school, essentially spending my time as an honor student though entry to college, my friends and I were geeks in rough neighborhoods. My high school was in a area riddled with drug houses. My bus got shot at. One was sure get jumpped more than once growing up. One did not survive if one was not tough. And we beat other schools in academic competition, as well as could have beat them in physical combat if that was our way, which it wasn't.

On a serious side, it does represent the difference between the family sticker, and, say a college sticker. While is does take an effort to find a mate, at least perhaps more than to have sex and produce a child, it is not something that is unusual. OTOH, being an honor students getting into college, and graduating is still an unusual situation, at lest in the US. So while the only response to a indication that one has graduated from college to also indicate that one has graduated from a college, I find it funny that the response to any honor student sticker is to claim that one can beat up the honors student. As if these two things are equal. This may be a real sense of insecurity, as if one's child is not inherently smart and you as parents do not know how to navigate the school system, then there could be long term competitive disadvantage in the sense of potential wealth accumulation.

But still the I would say that a family sticker, and dink sticker with gobs of cash, is not the case of the honor student sticker. It is more of a statement of an alternative lifestyle, and people who have problems with one of the two stickers probably are people who do not see one state as naturally and inherently preferable to the other.

Because raising children is so much easier than answering questions correctly on tests, right?

Please. Families feel under pressure today because they've felt under pressure, always. Childless couples may not get a whole ton of financial support, but...the simple fact is that they largely don't need the help, and are contributing less to society than equivalent couples with children.

And as to college -- having gone through college as an honors student getting a difficult degree, and also just helping to raise my younger siblings...I can definitely say that raising the children was a much more difficult and terrifying task. College doesn't last forever, for one.

Putting a university sticker or family sticker on your car is not saying "F*ck you if you're not like me." It is quite blatantly saying "I appreciate these things" or "I'm happy to be me." It may not be witty, but neither is it malicious. The fish as a Christian symbol is also not malicious, neither now nor in the past. It is a symbol of "This is what I belong to, I am grateful."

Now, if there were family decals like the ones mentioned, with two mothers orfathers for example, or a "belief symbol" like the atom for atheists, or the hexagram for jewish, those would also be simply statements of belonging, not malice. However, clear parody ones like the "I don't have a family, I still have my money hahaha" or "This is Calvin pissing on your fish who may or may not have legs", etc., are clearly malicious.

The yin-yang symbols is often considered to be two fishes. The fish symbol was, in effect, borrowed by christianity to respond to the predominate culture, which was not christian.

...what. The fish symbol is historically taken from the rampant symbolism of fishes within Jesus' teachings. Everything was about fish with that guy, and the word "Icthys" is even said to be an anagrammed prayer. The fish symbol was used because that was one of the main symbols of the belief, as with the cross or bread or wine.

[CZeke]

I wasn't sure what to make of the alt-text either. Does Randall ever post in these threads to clear up questions like that?

[Turing Machine]

If you look very closely, you can see Darwin, biding his time, with a little smirk on his face.

But no, enjoy the money. It's great stuff.

[Turing Machine]

*Before anyone tries to accuse me of being religious, I'm very pro-Darwin, existential, and a skeptical agnostic. My issue is with the motivation behind the Darwin fish (and the Flying Spaghetti Monster), not the intrinsic ideas. I also had a problem with the Jesus Fish eating the Darwin Fish, as that just didn't make sense.

My problem with the Jesus fish is that these people are identifying with persecuted Roman Christians, often while persecuting others for their life choices.

[citation needed]

[bigjeff5]

Because raising children is so much easier than answering questions correctly on tests, right?

You clearly didn't think this through, because simple first-hand observation clearly proves the implication (that raising children is more difficult than answering questions correctly) false.

Raising children is so easy virtually anybody in the world can do it, instinctively, with absolutely no training whatsoever. Pretty much any vocational skill which requires any training of any sort is more technically difficult than raising a child.

That does not mean it doesn't require significant effort, much like carrying a load on your back for a non-trivial distance requires significant effort. Carrying things isn't hard, though, it's just tiring. Likewise, raising children isn't hard - feed them, clothe them, keep them out of too much trouble for 18 years and you're good to go. These days you don't even have to bother with educating them, as the State generally takes care of that for you. Not exactly hard. Stressful and exhausting, sure. But not difficult.

Counter to that - have you ever been to college? Answering questions correctly on those tests isn't what I'd call easy. In fact, it's usually hard as hell (unless you are uniquely gifted or majoring in a very easy subject). That's why the less gifted people stay away from the more difficult subjects like engineering and physics and instead focus on humanities.

So yes, answering questions correctly on tests is vastly more difficult than raising a child.

And, completely OT, but:

No, I've never seen them before either. And I get a lot of chances to examine the backs of people's cars... like when they pull into the bike lane and suddenly stop, or pull out of a parking space oblivious to the oncoming traffic (ie, me) or pull similar stunts, or - my favorite - stop in the middle of a block to talk to someone headed the other way, who's stopped for a red light. Never mind that there's traffic behind them...
Boston, I love you but you suck some times. Like, when I'm on the way home from work and someone's giving out stupid pills to anyone who's got a driver's license.

I used to hate bicyclers who rode their bikes in the street when there was a "perfectly good" sidewalk right beside the road, until one of those bike-riding fools became a new temp at the office I worked at. It really only took him about 5 minutes to explain why riding a bike on the sidewalk on busy streets is practically suicide. Drivers are oblivious assholes in general, and especially so when it involves intersections where the driver will never be in any danger (i.e. crosswalks of any type). A car pulling out in front of a fast moving biker on a sidewalk (who always has the right of way, at least in my city) can lead to serious injury, yet most people don't even bother to look to see if anybody is coming until they are already fully blocking the crosswalk.

So the only real option a biker has is to ride in traffic, which forces the drivers to be aware of him. Even if it pisses them off, the bikers are still far less likely to be injured. I can totally dig that.

The only thing that pisses me off now are the asshole bikers who ride in the street yet ignore most traffic laws (some laws are actually different for bikers, but most apply to motorcycles as well so no complaints with those) - jumping across intersections on red lights, hopping back and forth on the sidewalk when convenient, etc. Pay the drivers around you a little respect, please, as I'm sure you'd like the drivers around you to do the same.

Oh and it's definitely not unique to Boston - I'm in Alaska and the exact same thing happens here.

[jpk]

The only thing that pisses me off now are the asshole bikers who ride in the street yet ignore most traffic laws (some laws are actually different for bikers, but most apply to motorcycles as well so no complaints with those) - jumping across intersections on red lights, hopping back and forth on the sidewalk when convenient, etc. Pay the drivers around you a little respect, please, as I'm sure you'd like the drivers around you to do the same.

Absolutely - I give bicyclists hell for running lights all the time, mostly because it means drivers are pissed at me. The one exception I make is when you have a red light and you're on the "crossbar" of a T-intersection. Basically, in that situation I feel sort of dumb waiting for the light, and I don't mind if someone sneaks through it. But just going because there's no immediately visible cross traffic is stupid, and it puts other bikers in danger.

But yeah, the only way to ride safely in traffic is to ride in a designated bike lane, obeying the traffic laws (including the ones about stopping for pedestrians, even when they're stupid) or in a lane if there's no bike lane. And if you see a bicyclist taking up the full lane, there's a good reason for it: if there's no bike lane, they are traffic, not pedestrians. And if you can't get all the way into the other lane, you can't pass safely, so there's no point in leaving you the temptation of most of a lane. Wait a bit, and you'll get a chance to get by.

[6453893]

My car has one elderly woman (the "grandmother") and nine cats on the back. I've never regretted the decision.

[chavousc]

These stickers are all over South Carolina as well.

I've informed my fiancée that they will never _EVER_ be on any car of ours.

I figure that will last right up until our wedding, then all previous directives from me will likely become null and void.

[usernamesstink]

My best guess on the alt text is that Randall is thinking of what would be the funniest thing he could do with the family characters and pets that you can buy in the store. You can buy them individually so you can kind of get creative with them. I dont really know if its a specific reference or if its just something that he would find humerous. Either way I think its meant to start people talking about what they would do given the stickers that you can buy for your family, and it sounds like some people are starting to post ideas on this matter already. Let the fun continue......maybe like a dog sticker and then a bunch of cat heads at his feet (except not so dark).

[drazen]

advertising the presence of a handgun is just asking for someone to come in and [strike]try to find it[/strike] get shot when they think you're not [strike]in[/strike] but turn out to be home after all,

I presume someone with such stickers would probably be the concealed-carry type, so either the thief would find nothing or the homeowner would catch him. For an extra deterrent, maybe they could add a dog-with-a-gun too.

Otherwise, unless they can quickly get in and out and locate a secured firearm and get it out of whatever it's in the person might leave it in when they're not home (e.g. a floor safe), it won't really matter; either they'll be out of luck or the crazy sticker person will shoot them, both of which are bad results for the thief. Burglars would look for easy marks; anyone who proclaims "I defend myself" is probably NOT worth the trouble, when they can find someone who can't or won't.

[PollyEsther]

My problem with the Jesus fish is that these people are identifying with persecuted Roman Christians, often while persecuting others for their life choices.

[citation needed]

Seriously? Normally, I wouldn't get into this, but you *did* ask. I had a guy try to spit on me because my motorcycle was a "tool of the Devil". A friend had his girlfriend's parents wrap her picture in newspaper and bury it in the bottom of a drawer because he was atheist. I had my Lutheran high school science teacher flunk me because I asked "what about the dinosaur thing?"

At a party one time, we had Campus Crusade for Christ people (1) get upset because we didn't skip the "sex scene" in Terminator. Now if you know the movie, you'll be saying "WHAT sex scene in Terminator?" Soooo, yeahhhhh.

1. They sort of invited themselves along and we were trying to be tolerant. Very long sordid story.

[Cactuar]

Because raising children is so much easier than answering questions correctly on tests, right?

Please. Families feel under pressure today because they've felt under pressure, always. Childless couples may not get a whole ton of financial support, but...the simple fact is that they largely don't need the help, and are contributing less to society than equivalent couples with children.

And as to college -- having gone through college as an honors student getting a difficult degree, and also just helping to raise my younger siblings...I can definitely say that raising the children was a much more difficult and terrifying task. College doesn't last forever, for one.

Putting a university sticker or family sticker on your car is not saying "F*ck you if you're not like me." It is quite blatantly saying "I appreciate these things" or "I'm happy to be me." It may not be witty, but neither is it malicious. The fish as a Christian symbol is also not malicious, neither now nor in the past. It is a symbol of "This is what I belong to, I am grateful."

Now, if there were family decals like the ones mentioned, with two mothers orfathers for example, or a "belief symbol" like the atom for atheists, or the hexagram for jewish, those would also be simply statements of belonging, not malice. However, clear parody ones like the "I don't have a family, I still have my money hahaha" or "This is Calvin pissing on your fish who may or may not have legs", etc., are clearly malicious.

I think it takes a lot of reading into the situation to get to the conclusion that the DINK family sticker is "clearly malicious." We live in a world where you feel free to just casually toss out how much of a cakewalk you apparently think college is compared to the hallowed calling of raising children, where you act as if it's an obvious fact that the DINK couple is "contributing less to society than equivalent couples with children[,]" and a world where other equally untrue and equally insulting things are said about voluntarily childless couples with an equal amount of undeserved confidence in their veracity.

Having children is not some kind of virtue in it's own right, not an automatic good, and above all certainly not necessary to contribute to society or live a rich personal life, but people without them are constantly told that they are not contributing as much, or are clearly living unfulfilling lives destined to end in regret, and often by childed persons who have no room to talk in either department.

So, I'd agree that the DINK one is a response, but it's not a malicious response. Every bit in the same way as the atheist symbol you referenced is a response, not malicious, but a pushback against a cultural narrative (at least in America) that says Atheists are simply less than Christians. The culture (and you, by the looks of it), values the contributions of DINK couples less than it values the childed. Here, the DINK couple are saying, "This is what I am, what I belong to, I'm grateful, and it's not a bad thing." And like a bunch of the Atheist stickers, it comes off as snarky, but certainly not malicious. It's not at all comparable to a 'Calvin pissing on [insert fish here]' bumper sticker.

[Steve the Pocket]

This is one probably something only douchebags would buy*, but a parody sticker featuring the person and the car itself would be funny.

*To a point. Moreso with expensive cars, but people with expensive cars are the ones who'd be most likely to want the sticker.

[Wrangler]

No, I've never seen them before either. And I get a lot of chances to examine the backs of people's cars... like when they pull into the bike lane and suddenly stop, or pull out of a parking space oblivious to the oncoming traffic (ie, me) or pull similar stunts, or - my favorite - stop in the middle of a block to talk to someone headed the other way, who's stopped for a red light. Never mind that there's traffic behind them...
Boston, I love you but you suck some times. Like, when I'm on the way home from work and someone's giving out stupid pills to anyone who's got a driver's license.

I believe i drive in same state, but i usually do the I-95 ratrace at rush hour and found many those stickers herding north out of Boston.

I agree with previous poster about city not wanting people slapping stickers with content of their family for all the public to see. I had feeling when i first started seeing them, it sad we have think about that but that way it is.

Anyways, like any trend it will hopefully go away. Like Bart Simpson and Garfields dolls w/suction cups on windows....perhaps flung into space with asteroid made of junk.

[bigjeff5]

It's not at all comparable to a 'Calvin pissing on [insert fish here]' bumper sticker.

The Jesus-fish eating the Darwin fish is just as malicious, though. Even when I was a bible-toting christian that decal really bothered me. What's worse is that I saw it more frequently than either the Jesus-fish or the Darwin-fish!

Hooray for Christian tolerance! Right?

[sternvolmer]

http://tinypic.com/r/rkbi14/7