Hummer Owners Claim Moral High Ground
September 27, 2009 · Print This Article
Most people who buy Hummers do so out of vanity or to make up for certain physical deficiencies. But, Hummer owners themselves actually believe that they’ve got the moral high ground because they’re – get this – defending America’s frontier lifestyle against anti-American critics.
A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research came to this conclusion after the authors researched attitudes toward owning and driving Hummers. They found that Hummer drivers see themselves as patriotic defenders of the American spirit, framing themselves as “moral protagonists” even as they unapologetically contribute to harming the very country they claim to love so much.
From Eurekalert:
“As we studied American Hummer owners and their ideological beliefs, we found that they consider Hummer driving a highly moral consumption choice,” write the authors. “For Hummer owners it is possible to claim the moral high ground.”
The authors explain that Hummer owners employ the ideology of American foundational myths, such as the “rugged individual,” and the “boundless frontier” to construct themselves as moral protagonists. They often believe they represent a bastion again anti-American discourses evoked by their critics.
“Our analysis of the underlying American identity discourses revealed that being under siege by (moral) critics is an historically established feature of being an American,” write the authors. “The moralistic critique of their consumption choices readily inspired Hummer owners to adopt the role of the moral protagonist who defends American national ideals.”
Amazing, isn’t it? Of course, Hummer owners aren’t the only ones that take this stance – conservatives in general employ similar excuses for their desperate attempts to preserve what they see as “the American lifestyle”. To them, being American is apparently synonymous with being selfish assholes who don’t give a shit about the next generation, only about their own desires.
Fuck you and your H2!
Link [Eurekalert]
Photo credit: FUH2
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I love the http://www.fuh2.com/ web site, I have been a fan since the web site went up, and the owner had no idea that people all around the world also hate drivers who think getting 9 or 10 miles to the gallon while invading innocent countries to seize control of other people’s oil is some how “patriotic.”
Since I ride a bicycle, don’t eat animals, and get plenty of exercise I’m in great physical shape, and I look at the typical H2 “Hummer” driver is overwhelmingly fat and pathetic. When I give them my middle finger most of them give me an angry look or yell something impotant. A few will slam on the breaks and try to bring their pile of Republican shit to a stop to try to play pretend, then they see I just stand there astride my bike and they keep rolling.
There’s something wrong with the brains of people who purchase these things, something very wrong. It’s a sexual dysfunction expressed.