Before I begin I would just like to say that I absolutely hate bumper stickers. I personally think that they are the tackiest thing ever. If I wanted to tell the world where I stood on a controversial topic I would probably just tweet it, not stick it to my car. And If I really, really wanted to let the world know I would buy a t-shirt.
With my mini-rant out of the way let me continue on with the post.
Bumper stickers can tell you a lot about the person driving it. If the tiny Prius in front of you has a bunch of pro trump bumper stickers tacked onto the rear end of their car it’s safe to assume that said person is a Trump supporter. Bumper stickers tell you a lot without saying much.
The bumper sticker I found for this prompt is clearly pro-life. It says “Two down. one to go,” with both slavery and Holocaust crossed out and abortion not. What it’s implying, however, is that abortion is as bad as slavery and the Holocaust and like these terrible events abortion needs to banned to ensure that it never happens again. What this bumper sticker does is assume that the reader is familiar with both slavery and the Holocaust and understand that these both are extremely dark events that scarred both the United States and Germany respectively. It relates abortion to these events which in turns makes viewers see abortion in a light of it being somewhat of a genocide.
The logos in this is interesting, to say the least. I can see the kind of logic that the creator was going for and I have to give them credit. It’s pretty good. By relating abortion to slavery and the Holocaust two things that be truly depicted the extent at how evil us humans can be towards each other it makes those who are pro-life feel cemented in their views, while also giving them an “I told you so complex.” For viewers (such as myself) who are pro-choice, it makes them feel slightly uneasy that abortion is being grouped into the same category as these because it makes pro-choicers feel as though if they agree with abortion, they are also in a sense agreeing with the Holocaust and slavery. If people didn’t have a solid understanding of the Holocaust and slavery, I can see how this would make them question their stance on the issue.
However, that’s where the logic of this fails. Abortion is nowhere as equal to slavery and the Holocaust. Slavery was the forced labor of blacks and the Holocaust was the mass extermination. While it can be argued that abortion is bad, is it nowhere on the level that these two events where and to compare it to them, is to diminish the travesties associated with these events.