I put these three bumper magnets on my car about 6 weeks ago. Spouse just noticed them today and demanded I remove them. Said it reflected badly on HIM and that 1) someone might punch him if he ever got out of my car and 2) the neighbors might disapprove.
Not interested in a political debate in any way, just trying to figure out if I'm being out of line.
39 comments
You said it is your car, put on it what you want. I will take democracy over this chaos any day!
Although I 100% align with the thought behind all of these, I also would hesitate to put these on any of my vehicles. There are too many counter-view points that also have poor impulse control and lack social maturity – and you are likely to get slashed tires, or broken mirrors/windows/etc.
I mean, if those bother him, he can drive his own magnet free car.
If it’s your car, you have every right to put them there. I can understand his viewpoint if he shares the car equally. If not, he doesn’t get a say in it.
Bumper stickers do have a tendancy to bring iut the crazy in people aligned hard both ways. I dont think hes necessarily wrong. I dont think your necessarily wrong either. The furthest ive gone on my car is a sticker with a goat that says “whatever floats your goat” but im also known in my town as the goat lady because i own a goat farm.
Ahh yes, let me go to the well known unbiased site Reddit to talk about my left leaning views. They won’t be absolutely biased as well to the left to give me good advice.
Ok that out of the way. Don’t forget a marriage is give and take. If there’s something you don’t like you should be ok to tell and find a middle ground. If you stand firm then you run the risk of causing further issues if he doesn’t drop it and vive versa if you were in his shoes.
I’m not American just to be clear but I found it very useful to not talk about or show my politics and if I were American I’d be the same.
Y’all know your political beliefs don’t need to be your whole identity right?
PSA: things like this can put a target on you in emergency situations. Huge identifier. Even things like “Baby on Board” stickers can make you a target. Best to go incog imo.
I only don’t put similar ones on my car so I’m not a target and no one follows me home. I live in a Republican town, very rural and small for the state I’m in especially. So my husband and I agreed it wouldn’t be the best idea.
I’m pretty anti bumper stickers in general. They don’t change minds, they can piss people off and well…they just make a nice car look rough IMO. But, you do you.
Look, you’re obviously in the right about the basics, but let’s do the nuance.
Taking a step back, you are taking an action, doesn’t matter what yet, that is making your partner uncomfortable and feel upset, and that matters. If you decide that you don’t care about that, that will hurt your partnership and damage your relationship. If you have kids, it will affect them as well. The fact that you feel it *shouldn’t* make them uncomfortable is a different matter. You can have a conversation about persuading them that it’s the right thing or an okay thing to do, and maybe youll be successful when you try, but until you are successful, you are just being in conflict over this. You have to ask yourself if this is worth that to you. Maybe it is.
If it isn’t, I recommend you, despite nominally being right, take them down as a show of good faith until you have a conversation with your husband and bring him around. If this act of political statement and self expression is important to you, say so to him and explain in a way that he feels and gets that. At a certain point, he is also in conflict with you and it’s disrespectful to you as well to dismiss your important feelings out of hand. That matters too. But this isn’t just a simple dumb thing over a bumper sticker, not really, and you should take it seriously and ask that he takes it seriously too.
You don’t want politics obsessed crazy people around your car, do you?
My take on bumper stickers is that they’re all harmless until someone with too little self-control decides they need to act out against it. Much like political or controversial yard signs… I don’t want to be targeted or honed in on by some wing nut because it pisses them off. People are violently assaulted daily in this country for a simple difference of opinion. I’m not trying to tangle myself in that mess.
He’s not wrong. People will legitimately mess with your car if they don’t agree with your statements.
So you came to Reddit for affirmation? You do know your audience.
Your bumper stickers wont be changing anyones political views. You are just making a target of yourself, and a target of your vehicle to be vandalized in a parking lot without cameras.
I agree with your husband, it’s not worth it. Why does a vehicle have to be a traveling political statement.It’s kind of weird lol
Your husband’s reasons are dumb but people have done violence for less. I’d take them off.
People who put this crap on their cars are usually looking for trouble or just love to argue. I’m with your husband on this one.
I honestly wouldn’t. I agree with you 100% but the people who are of the opposite view can be insane and actually dangerous. Some of these people fantasize about the day they can do harm to you and get away with it, be careful.
I mean, who cares about stickers
But yeah you live and USA and wouldnt be surprise someone yell/hit at you or your husband
I hung a logo of my daughter’s high school soccer team from my rear view mirror one year. Went out to dinner in the neighborhood of the OTHER high school. Came back to the car to find milkshakes dumped all over the hood
You know what sets humans apart from animals? Animals don’t get butt hurt
They’re magnets right? It may be *your* car, but the driveway is both of yours – so maybe a good compromise would be to remove the magnets when parked at home, and also when husband is riding in the car.
I have no political affiliation, but I always invite people to stand in the other person’s shoes. In this case, if your husband put political statements on the back of his car that made you uncomfortable or upset, would you want him to respect your feelings and find some sort of compromise as well?
I love it! Keep doing you 💕
I personally don’t put political bumper stickers or yard signs because I don’t want to make myself a target. I agree with your husband in terms of safety, but that’s all.
In this day and age, it’s probably safer to not have them on your car.
A family friend had this creep of an ex. She was with my family and he followed my car that had a single identifying sticker (company logo). Took off my stickers after that.
Based stickers though. I’d put it on a work station or water bottle.
He’s right. Teenagers, unmarried, and divorced ppl in these comments will disagree.
God forbid you need to bring this car into literally any mechanic shop for any reason or get pulled over by any police officer. You gain nothing but social clout in exchange for real life tangible risks.
I wouldn’t affix any political messages to my car, no matter what side of the aisle you align with.
While I agree with the message, I would never put these on my car. It puts a target on your back for people who disagree to start arguments, drive aggressively or even start a fight. Nothing identifying and nothing that makes people mad. Something funny, something you enjoy, but never politics or info about your family.
Idk man people get murdered for their political beliefs nowadays I guess he has reason to have concern!
Your husband is right.
I feel like 3 bumper stickers regarding a single topic is excessive.
Also, I would prefer chaos, but that’s unrelated.
Like they are on point.
But I will say that my wife in particular and other women in my life generally don’t seem to understand how close to violence men are at all times, and they often inadvertently cause drama (or don’t understand how quickly it can escalate) that could very well turn violent for me to deal with as the man.
That’s likely were your husband is coming from and I understand that.
I would never have political things on my vehicle because people on all sides of politics tend to get pretty insane when they see something humorous about politics.
Bumper stickers are tacky to me. Also I don’t like having things on my cars that couldn’t target/identify me.
I think your husband has a point. Publicly displaying your political views can put a target on your back and attract the wrong kind of attention. It just causes unnecessary drama for no reason. Even if it didn’t, these types of stickers aren’t going to change any minds or provoke any positive response.
Just my experience-
when I had political/social stickers on my car, similar to these ones in nature, I had my car keyed many times so badly the metal and the paint were badly damaged. I ended up removing them to stop the damage.
It never happened again after I took the stickers down. But now I have the stripes all up and down my car as a souvenir.
Do silly bumper stickers matter more than your marriage?