How can a harmless, feel-good bumper sticker get people so riled up? That's what Box Brown sets out to explain with his webcomic "To Exist," which traces the history of the "COEXIST" bumper sticker. Famous or infamous, depending on your political leanings and/or feelings about sloganeering, the sticker cobbles the word "Coexist" out of symbols for major world religions and has a tendency to spur some religious and political conservatives to paroxysms of conspiratorial rage, as you can see in the excerpt above starring Representative-Elect Allen West.

In addition to cataloging some of the more outlandish reactions to the sticker, Brown also traces its origin to the work of Polish designer Piotr Miodozeniec; the version you've likely seen is an unauthorized knockoff, making "COEXIST" the "Calvin Peeing" of the bleeding-heart set. Brown also advances some theories about why people would answer the equivalent of "Can't we all just get along?" with such a resoundingly angry "NO!", all while working through what looks to me like a pretty heavy Seth influence. Read the whole thing.

(via Jess Fink)