He told me that as he was walking there with his class, he noticed a sign that said “F*** ICE.” Yes, the word was spelled out.

Several days ago, he said that while he was walking home from school, he saw some kids, seemingly junior high age, walking down the sidewalk with a sign that read the same words – again, unedited.

So I guess this is just where we are now.

This won’t be a column about ICE, but it will be a column about persuading other people – specifically, one lazy way too many people attempt to do so: slogans.

It’s popular to use slogans. Slogans are easy to remember and they can elicit strong emotional reactions. If the goal is to rage bait people, slogans are highly effective.

What they aren’t very effective at, however, is helping people know what is true and what is false.

And they don’t actually solve any problems.

On Monday, Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said the following on X related to slogans and the recent attack in Iran that killed the country’s supreme leader:

“Every member in the U.S. Senate agrees we cannot allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

“I’m baffled why so many are unwilling to support the only action to achieve that.

“Empty sloganeering vs. commitment to global security — which is it?”

Big problems require big solutions. Slogans simply aren’t built for that.

Slogans reflect something about the people who use them. They signal either an inability or unwillingness to engage with substance and nuance. If someone uses slogans in their dialogue, I pretty much immediately tune them out. I know they aren’t interested in serious discourse.

Slogan usage is, of course, not partisan. Both parties depend on them, and I’m certain anyone reading this can quickly think of examples from both parties. If you think that’s probably a big reason why we are as politically polarized as we are, I would say you’re right.

The result is actually pretty scary. Power-hungry politicians, who in no sane world would ever have a chance at winning elections, suddenly become favorites. They’ve learned that all they have to do is parrot the slogans that the political leaders on their side have used with the right amount of indignation.

Subsequently, people don’t win elections because of what they can actually do for people but based on how effective they are at repeating the slogans in a way that outrages the most amount of people.

It’s all incredibly corrosive.

And legitimately dangerous if you consider “power-hungry” to be a best-case scenario for some of these politicians. There seems to be no bottom to the barrel anymore. When you look at the political landscape, you realize that we will pretty much elect anyone as long as they have a certain political letter by their name.

Oh, sure, people will say things like, “Those aren’t my views” or “I denounce that type of language,” but that’s about the most you can expect. How refreshing would it be to hear someone say of someone in their own party, “I reject that language completely, and I reject that person as a political figure completely. They should resign/withdraw, or be shamed into doing so.”

Again, I’m sure anyone reading this can quickly think of a politician on the opposite side of them who they think is truly an abomination and should be rejected like that.

But, unfortunately, not as many would be willing to look at those on their side who could be put in the same bucket. For those on their side, well, there’s always some way to soften the language/behavior or downright excuse it, usually through some shameless attempt at whataboutism.

We’re just not serious human beings.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, there’s an added layer of concern – which is that people who depend on slogans because they don’t have the ability or patience to do otherwise can now run to ChatGPT and have an argument constructed for them.

Those arguments are misleading at best, but when all that matters is “winning,” we shouldn’t be surprised this is the result we get. The arguments are constructed for that sole purpose.

I’d like to think there’s a way out of all this, but I’m not sure there’s an appetite for it. The worst part of all this is how many people seem perfectly content to continue to live inside their slogan-driven bubbles. Very few seem to want to think beyond them. Politicians don’t have the will to be better because people don’t demand it.

Unless that changes, I guess we get what we deserve.

Contact Ryan Comer at rcomer@standard.net.