Signs of Deadly Times

Faux Virtues Meet Stubborn Truths

Among the exemplars of political fads, the left’s creedal yard sign is surely one of the funniest. They’re a bit weatherworn now—and very 2020—but a few remain as fixtures around town; with slight variations on the wording, they serve as the unofficial Progressive’s Creed. More than that, they advertise just how gullible the homeowners still are, even in 2024. No amount of facts or statistics to the contrary can dissuade such neighbors from proclaiming their devotion to a suicidal cause.

A couple such signs still hang around in my neighborhood, too. Naturally, they sit in front of guilt-inducing, beautiful estates; white leftists, in particular, hope to signal remorse by posting one next to the mailbox. It’s like putting blood on the doorpost, minus the actual redemption.

The list of tenets is growing, and so are design challenges; one sign still available online crams in a line about injustice, but in a mismatched, smaller font. Most signs feature an umbrella virtue to underscore the rest—for my neighbor, it’s “kindness is everything”. I feel the kindness, too; each time I pass their new-construction monstrosity, I’m warmed to know that its owners believe “no human is illegal,” because the their gated and fully-fenced acreage suggests otherwise. I guess I’ll just climb right over, then.

The virtue-signaling sign was a new attempt to convince everyone that the left occupies the moral high ground. In fact, they are actually a very religious bunch, unwaveringly devoted to their devilish and debunked ideas. Previously, “Bernie” bumper stickers were a popular way for fellow travelers to distinguish themselves, but the colorful Stalinist yard signs finally let the neighbors in on the wonderful secret, too. Suddenly, it was easier to see who was “vaccinated”, coddling criminals, and endorsing open borders. In a way, the signs were helpful.

One purveyor of creedal signs advertised their proselytizing powers this way:

“Convey the importance of human rights and equality among fellow citizens by placing love is love yard signs.”

They also offered this persuasive angle:

“Let your fight against social injustice be clearly and silently seen by neighbors as you put on the love is love yard signs.”

The message behind the sign was simple: As you drive by, returning from your greedy hours of meritocratic employment, pause to recognize your more virtuous neighbor’s silent fight against social justice. Consider that women’s rights are human rights, and that therefore all humans can now access your girls’ bathrooms. Forget the millions of dollars in riotous violence, looting, and financial corruption—fists up for BLM! Also, remember, nobody is illegal, but please press the gate code to enter. Without these reminders, you are apt to carry on with life, blissfully unaware of your neighbor’s continuing commitment to deviancy, crime, and open borders.

Leftists are known for destroying economies, but even they could still recognize a good market. The world moves quickly, so signs multiplied to cover emerging virtues. There was the earlier “hate has no home here,” and then the Covid era’s “do your part, get vaccinated,” and “we’re in this together.” Then, recognizing the doom, the proud Biden voters down the street threw up a sign to assure us that “everything will be okay.” The market demanded a more elegant solution, though—a single sign that encapsulated all the latest messaging. An entrepreneur responded, and the leftist virtue sign was born, raising a printed fist against all the realities that disprove the clownish creed.

My neighbors with the creedal signs also had to slap up the Ukraine flag a couple years later. The mailbox garden was perhaps a little crowded, but that was a small price to pay for establishing one’s leftist street cred—Ukraine being a smart-sounding proxy for all anti-Trump fervor. You can almost hear the thick accent: “We stand with Ukraine!” The flags are tattered now, but the battle-worn look makes the old yellow-and-blue a bit more stirring.

However, reality is embarrassing sometimes, and it isn’t as humorous as those mockworthy signs. Our committed leftists have paved the way for real tragedies, such as the latest one—just 72 miles away from my neighbor’s compound, in the sanctuary-county that includes Athens, Georgia. A lovely, young nursing student who was disciplined enough to run at a popular University of Georgia campus trail met her violent death at the hands of one of the left’s “no human is illegal” darlings. He and his criminal brother were welcomed to Athens-Clarke county, where they secured an apartment right in the middle of the coed action. Faced with this obvious poor result, the left must now shamelessly pivot to a different phrase in the creed— “women’s rights”. Already, the dissemblers are out lecturing us on the “dangers women face when running alone,” while failing to point out why those dangers exist in the first place.

To be fair, our progressive friends must invent these deadly virtues because they don’t live in reality; instead, they inhabit the utopian constructs of their minds. Such fantasies make for a gloomy world, though. As historian Christopher Dawson noted in 1934, “A secularist culture can only exist, so to speak, in the dark. It is a prison in which the human spirit confines itself when it is shut out of the wider world of reality.”

The list of real victims grows faster than the left’s faux virtues. Yet, without a doubt, the sign business will not suffer, and Biden’s border propaganda will continue with vigor that far exceeds his own. When the oracle of the left announces the next false hope, they’ll just crowd it onto the list of lies on the placards. It’s a sign of the times, guaranteed to disappoint—but as our comrades promised, “everything will be okay”.