Operation Occupy Wall Street

Politics and religion
61

It’s not a unified protest - there is no group with a set agenda in control. Each protester has his specific agenda.

These democratic assemblies in New York, LA, and Chicago are in the process of determining precisely what their demands are, but something a large majority of the protesters have in common is a dislike of current US economic policies, like bank bailouts, cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and a failure to tax wealthy corporations.

This is literally a democratic movement. It looks extremely strange to most people since we live in a corporatist state, not a democracy.

This movement is modelling itself after the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia as well as the mobilization in Wisconsin.

One of the great values of this kind of thing is to break the tribal/atomistic nature of modern American society. People can meet up with those they would otherwise never meet who share similar political demands and organize to realize those demands. It’s empowering in a new way for many of these people.

Just how empowering it is is dependent partly on how many people join the movement.

62

briankoontz laying down some troof.

63

I don’t think so, they know how to stop us, but they don’t have the discipline.

64

Weren’t the bank bailouts profitable? We need to stop wasting our government’s time with taxes and start doing more payday loans for mega corps!

65

This country would make a lot more sense if it was renamed The United Aspirations of the Wealthy.

I’m one of the few people who thought “trickle down economics” was an accurate title. It reminds me of people dying of thirst who desperately put their mouths under a faucet to catch any drop that trickles out.

One of the lesser known factors in play here is the end of the world. The neoliberal movement is an endgame movement, where the idea is for the wealthy to accumulate vast sums and then to fare as well as they possibly can in a dying world.

Prior to the late 1960s, the global elite were caretakers of the world. Not the nicest caretakers by any means, as any number of minorities frequently discovered. But their overarching goal was to maintain the world.

The American depression (social depression, not economic) beginning in the 1970s (arguably beginning in the manic* 1960s or even earlier) was due to the shift of the ruling class from caretakers to destroyers.

The neoliberal and neoconservative movements both reflected these new elite values.

One of the elite deceptions, the manner in which they have gotten away with destroying the world, was to abandon the hardcore racism and sexism they had previously practiced. They, and the world, celebrated the elite shift from hardcore racism and sexism to softcore racism and sexism, progressives taking credit for it themselves, therefore conning the world into believing progressives had power and that “progress” would continue.

This destroyer mode is of course opposed by the majority of people in the world, who see themselves as caretakers and maintainers of the world. So the people of the world need to become the new adults, in charge of the hapless immature elites who view the world as an empty desert with themselves as oases.

  • manic-depression being two sides of the same coin
66

Were you high when you wrote that?

67

You haven’t been around here long enough.

You need to do some searching on Brian Koontz.

68

Brian, that was awesome. I would substitute fear and apathy for the malice you attribute to the elite, but awesome nonetheless.

69

Fun.

1317453147-shitis.jpg970×725

70

I’ve been passing them on the way to the bus stop from work for a few days now, and the turnout here in Chicago has thoroughly underwhelmed me-- maybe at best 30-40 people*, all in their early 20’s, and not a single one of them looks like they hold down a job that wouldn’t require them to wear a name tag.

While I was waiting for the bus, one of them approached me with a flyer and asked me if I’d like a copy of the Bill of Rights. I’m generally distrustful of any stranger handing me anything I didn’t order from or throw at/near them, but if I had to have something given to me, the Bill of Rights would be pretty near the top; probably not immediately after currency or things that could be sold for currency or refunded for booze, but up there nonetheless. So, I said I’d take it on the condition that he could, without looking, tell me something --anything-- about the 7th amendment. After a few seconds of watching him stammer, I politely told him no thanks and sent him on his way.

The point (and I do have one) is that I don’t believe for a second that these guys have any idea what they’re talking about or what they’re protesting against; they’re there to be seen and have a cool story to tell on the quad later that afternoon. I actually think that this is why they’re so ticked off about not having media coverage-- not because the message isn’t getting out, but because they, personally, are not being seen (and yes, I know this was supposed to be an Anonymous™ Event, but I’ve only seen one person there with a mask this week, and he was wearing it on the back of his head).

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what they’re trying to accomplish; I’m for taxing the top 2%, and I’m in favor of more oversight in the financial sector, but these people are going at it completely the wrong way and are so poorly organized that they can’t even accidentally fail in the general direction of success. The people they’re protesting against literally spend more time thinking about where to have lunch than the message these kids are trying to project, and everyone else just seems to find them irritating.

*In all fairness, these encounters were a bit after 5 pm, so the bulk of the people they’re protesting against had probably already left for the suburbs. Also, it was cold and rainy here all last week, so for all I know there could have been thousands of them there at noon.

71

I didn’t know what the hell the 7th was without looking it up, and I doubt anyone else on the forum does, excepting lawyers.

72

You’re an absolute delight, you know that?

73

I didn’t, either. That’s why I asked. But then again, I wasn’t handing out flyers which I clearly hadn’t read. I mean, if you’re pushing a list with only ten items on it, it really undermines your credibility if you don’t know at least something about them all.

74

Maybe if you’d taken a copy you would have learned something.

75

I thought (incorrectly) it was about double jeopardy rather than jury trials. so you did ask about the toughest amendment.

Still your experience is quite similar to both a young CNN and veteran CNBC reporter who were interviewing Occupy Wall St protestor. Pretty much all of the protestor were clueless about everything other beyond. The country is screwed up and the rich rule the world.

76

Fixed it for you.

Disclosure

  • well over 20, 30, 40 …
  • has held many jobs with nice titles and even had a tiny golden parachute once (yes it was from a big finance company)
  • can name two things about 7th amendment even off top of head
  • might know something about Anon’s “moralfags” wing
77

No, no, clearly the young people need to sit down and shut up and learn to mind their elders.

78

Oh, believe me, I looked up the whole thing when I got home. Then, I immediately kicked out all those soldiers I’d been quartering without consent. Thanks, Third Amendment!

79

I’m sorry, how did you fix that, exactly?

80

The Seattle Times has some coverage today. I like this guy: