What are these people bitching about?

[Jimothy Sterling]

It's a fucked country that proudly says Fred Phelps has a right to preach hatred against gay people, but not dying of cancer is a privilege.

 

[StarCecil]

Ugh wow ok the 1% of the population pretty much controls the entire government and 42% of the world's wealth, while the 99% of the rest of the world control nothing and barely fight over whats left of the wealth.

See, this is my problem with the protests.

What does that even mean? Control the government how? Are they this Illuminati I hear so much about? I mean, I'm registered to vote, for Christ's sake, and I plan on voting this next election. Every American (sans minors and felons, but I don't care about them anyways) can vote if they bother to get off their asses to register.

If you're going to complain about "corruption" or that the US is run by the corporations, have some proof, not just a vague definition to direct your anger at.

Seriously, this 99% is far more responsible than the top 1% for the status of our economy.

 

[Something Amyss]

About as easy to ignore most of someones post and just claim its "false" with absolutely zero counter argument.

Hey, if you said Columbus claimed the Earth was round when everyone thought it was flat, I'd say "false," too.

"RAWR DIRTY HIPPIES" isn't enough of an argument to merit a counter-argument. It's a bigoted hiccup.

Come back with a real statement, and we'll talk.

 

[Thaluikhain]

It's a fucked country that proudly says Fred Phelps has a right to preach hatred against gay people, but not dying of cancer is a privilege.

Funny how you don't see police pepper spraying or clubbing him.

OWS is doing what Americans are supposed to be famous for -- not taking shit and letting people know when something's fucked up. They're being the kind of Americans I was led to believe inhabited this country, rather than the crawling, corporate suck-ups I've seen way too many of.

Also funny how actually doing what your nation prides itself on doing pisses people off no end.

 

[Something Amyss]

And youd be wrong. Again. And no one would care about what you have to say as you would not be providing any proof.

Nah, pretty sure people knew the Earth was round, considering the ancient Greeks figured it out. But still.

Yeah, already did that, that was the whole fucking post that you edited out when you picked a single line to quote. Guess you can't focus on more than one line at a time huh.
So yeah... youre done here. I aint risking a migraine dealing with people like you when its clear you have absolutely nothing worth saying.

I really love that we have a ignore feature. ^.^

No, you didn't do that at all. You harped on made up points.

Ignore me all you want. I suspect it's just a cop-out because you know you're selling a lie.

 

[Woodsey]

Well, they're just a bit pissed off that 1% of people control something like 40% of the wealth, whilst they're being royally fucked over, often through fault of the 1%.

Any retard telling you its just lazy people, or just stupid people, or lazy and stupid people, is just that - retarded.

Its like these people that say constant internet connections for games are fine, because their connection is and "if you're not connected to the internet in 2011, its your own fault". Their heads are well and truly stuck up their own arse holes.

And yes, some protestors will act like dicks because some people are dicks. Doesn't make the whole thing stupid (or anti-Semitic, as Fox news have, hilariously, being trying to tell people).

Ugh wow ok the 1% of the population pretty much controls the entire government and 42% of the world's wealth, while the 99% of the rest of the world control nothing and barely fight over whats left of the wealth.

See, this is my problem with the protests.

What does that even mean? Control the government how? Are they this Illuminati I hear so much about? I mean, I'm registered to vote, for Christ's sake, and I plan on voting this next election. Every American (sans minors and felons, but I don't care about them anyways) can vote if they bother to get off their asses to register.

If you're going to complain about "corruption" or that the US is run by the corporations, have some proof, not just a vague definition to direct your anger at.

Seriously, this 99% is far more responsible than the top 1% for the status of our economy.

Corporations and groups donate money to party campaigns so that they can win elections. Parties protect their interests so that they get their backing again.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Seriously, the ignorance on these threads recently is astounding. I'm ashamed of our species.

Every does seem to have different opinions on what the protestors are angry about, just like the protestors themselves

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I never meant to imply that sentiment. I was only correcting the numbers in Cheshire's post.

I actually meant to continue my post by saying that just because there is a bigger problem (millions of people die from hunger every day so most Americans should be grateful for what they have) DOESN'T mean that the disparity between the rich and the poor ISN'T a problem and that people who believe that people who believe it is a problem SHOULDN'T protest.

I just wanted to keep my reply short and not make Cheshire feel as though I was antagonizing him. So much for that...

My mistake. I suppose I did make a number of rather broad assumptions in my reply; I apologize if I came off as hostile or overly argumentative.

It's an understandable mistake. Cheshire was certainly attacking the legitimacy of the protesters' plight, and while I didn't agree with him, my change in numbers did, in a way, strengthen his point.

Apology accepted, and I'm sorry for causing confusion.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Occupy Wall Street = Named People trying to be Anonymous.

 

[Princess Rose]

They are pissed because they (or their family) ran up too much debt, and signed idiotic credit agreements, because they wanted to live above their means. Feeling stupid when it all comes back around, they want to change the system to protect them from themselves.

But most people are there to look good to the opposite sex. Protests are well known places for hooking up.

This. A thousand times this.

I can get behind a good protest - in fact, I've done protest marches before. But this protest? Idiocy.

To the Protestors: The people who profited from your misery don't actually work AT Wall Street - they send their minions to do the work for them. You are only harassing the messenger, and not very well at that. Stop being idiots. When you come up with a protest that has a message and actually might do more than make you all look like twats, call me.

And yes, protests are great places to hook up. ^^

Edit: Just to be clear, I don't necessarily disagree with the protestors - but I think that the fact that a clear message can't be gathered FROM the protestors is a huge problem. And, without a clear message or intent, I can't agree or disagree with them.

 

[Toriver]

Yeah, it's mostly pissed-off leftists on another protest. But there are a few problems with this one in particular. They just seem to be mad at the corporate system without a unified alternative to offer. The people who love to talk about "building up, not tearing down" just seem to want to tear down. They've got too many different kinds of people there to agree on what an alternative should be: anarchists, socialists, communists, and many others. The only thing they know is that they don't like what's going on.
Can't say I don't sympathize with many people's economic troubles: if I had any confidence that I could find a job back in the US, even with a degree and international experience, I would be in the US now. But I'm afraid they don't quite grasp some hard economic truths:
*There is no free lunch. Everything has a cost. Somebody has to pay that cost.
*Simply due to human nature and the above "no free lunch" principle, there will always be those with more control over the economic system than others, and therefore, there will always be rich and poor: the rich will have the control and the poor will bear the weight of the cost. This has pretty much been true for any society, ever, even in their beloved Scandinavia (remember: Iceland tanked like a rock) and American indigenous societies. This will especially be true as long as we produce anything more than we absolutely need to survive.
*As others have mentioned, the current system really is too big to fail. Many think it can't get much worse because they're desperate or have let media hype affect them, but it can get far, far worse. If the banking system goes down, EVERYONE suffers. We're talking on the scale of massive layoffs, upheaval, huge levels of poverty as people lose their savings, a huge spike in government debt as entitlements grow to a further unsustainable level, and other consequences. And if these guys have nothing better to offer, not only do we all suffer for nothing, but it will go on for an indefinite length of time while some new system, that will likely be no better than the old one, is thought up.

So yeah, I would prefer it if they just didn't do their best to just make things worse. I'd like to be confident that there will still be an America to return to.

 

[Evil Top Hat]

The riots are mainly about the economy, a rich v poor scenario as I understand it. This has been building up for years, it was the recent quantative easing that finally set things off.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

Generally: They're angry about the disproportionate amount of wealth held by some.
Specifically: They have no idea.

 

[THAC0]

the bottom line is that these protesters are angry at an unfair system that keeps most people poor regardless of how hard they are willing to work.

these protests have been very clear in their aims and goals from the beginning. If you don't get it by now, it is prolly because you are too busy telling them to "get jobs"

this is long overdue.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Something about the economy being shit, governments and companies being evil and 1% of the world control all the money.

I have no idea where that 1% figure comes from or what it means since as far as I know wealth can't be so easy subdivided into a less then and more then group nor do I understand that number at all unless you factor in all few billion people (which is stupid since the world lives in different climates and unless you just want global communism then not everyone is going to have money). The economy is not something that people can push a button and fix either, its a complex mess that relies on everyone and not just the government passing a law. The notion that government is evil is also kind of wonky since it kind of implies that since we elect them either we're stupid, we willing elect evil people, or people become evil once elected. Personally I think the situation is more complex then just drawing a snidely whiplash mustache on anyone in Congress.

It looks to me as if the people are trying to form the beginnings of a communist revolution. The "common man" wants to throw down the "elite" and redistribute the worlds wealth so everyone has something. It's not a bad plan, its just that communism doesn't work in the real world.

 

[Versuvius]

Something about the economy being shit, governments and companies being evil and 1% of the world control all the money.

I have no idea where that 1% figure comes from or what it means since as far as I know wealth can't be so easy subdivided into a less then and more then group nor do I understand that number at all unless you factor in all few billion people (which is stupid since the world lives in different climates and unless you just want global communism then not everyone is going to have money). The economy is not something that people can push a button and fix either, its a complex mess that relies on everyone and not just the government passing a law. The notion that government is evil is also kind of wonky since it kind of implies that since we elect them either we're stupid, we willing elect evil people, or people become evil once elected. Personally I think the situation is more complex then just drawing a snidely whiplash mustache on anyone in Congress.

It looks to me as if the people are trying to form the beginnings of a communist revolution. The "common man" wants to throw down the "elite" and redistribute the worlds wealth so everyone has something. It's not a bad plan, its just that communism doesn't work in the real world.

This system doesn't work either. In the US over half of all bankruptcies are caused by your capitalist dream. The insurance companies you pay don't pay out when you get seriously ill or injured and then you can't afford treatment and spend everything you own trying to survive. This is but a tiny facet of how the US is thoroughly fucking it's citizens. The idea that "If you work hard you become rich" is fucking ludicrous, especially if you -can't- work and are left in the gutter. I spit on the US and it's greed.

Also, 1% of the US population does own more welath than 99% of everyone else combined. Most of it is in tax free offshore bank accounts. Which is why there is NO FUCKING MONEY in the economy as a whole

 

[Versuvius]

Not to mention that most of the world in general's business plan is Spend Money to Make Money. If you spend less than you earn, after a long enough period of time there is no currency left lower down.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Something about the economy being shit, governments and companies being evil and 1% of the world control all the money.

I have no idea where that 1% figure comes from or what it means since as far as I know wealth can't be so easy subdivided into a less then and more then group nor do I understand that number at all unless you factor in all few billion people (which is stupid since the world lives in different climates and unless you just want global communism then not everyone is going to have money). The economy is not something that people can push a button and fix either, its a complex mess that relies on everyone and not just the government passing a law. The notion that government is evil is also kind of wonky since it kind of implies that since we elect them either we're stupid, we willing elect evil people, or people become evil once elected. Personally I think the situation is more complex then just drawing a snidely whiplash mustache on anyone in Congress.

It looks to me as if the people are trying to form the beginnings of a communist revolution. The "common man" wants to throw down the "elite" and redistribute the worlds wealth so everyone has something. It's not a bad plan, its just that communism doesn't work in the real world.

This system doesn't work either. In the US over half of all bankruptcies are caused by your capitalist dream. The insurance companies you pay don't pay out when you get seriously ill or injured and then you can't afford treatment and spend everything you own trying to survive. This is but a tiny facet of how the US is thoroughly fucking it's citizens. The idea that "If you work hard you become rich" is fucking ludicrous, especially if you -can't- work and are left in the gutter. I spit on the US and it's greed.

Also, 1% of the US population does own more welath than 99% of everyone else combined. Most of it is in tax free offshore bank accounts. Which is why there is NO FUCKING MONEY in the economy as a whole

Then why don't you go protest these individuals instead of protesting the government? Unless the government personally paid them I very much doubt if they directly made that happen. Also, just for reference communism usually winds up causing an even more lopsided distribution of wealth in practice since the vast majority have nothing and the guys in charge have everything (even more so then the US system). Also, how does what the US government does affect the wealth of say a country in Africa? or the poverty in India? Is it supposed to stiffen money from the wealth to pay other countries?

 

[4173]

To way, way over generalize, they are protesting because it is really hard to get elected with promises of increased taxes.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

Bunch of young whippersnappers goin' on with their "Rock n Roll" and "Drug use" and "Communism" and "Free thinking"

Back in MAH day, we walked uphill both ways in the snow for five miles to a job. And we LIKED IT. Kids these days....

OT: I'd like to know what they really want as well, my friend. And I don't really see a coherent narrative from them

Yeah cause everytime I try to follow it, the news people don't really say why they even started protesting and it's soooo confusing and most people on The Escapist (that have posted their own comments on it) say it's just a bunch of stupid people bitching for no reason.

News stations rarely care much about why the people are protesting they just hope they'll be some violence to report on. Case in point:


To the news it hardly matters what a protest is about as long as they can show some pictures of people shouting to the confused public so that they can boost their ratings because, apparently, that's what the news is supposed to be about instead of providing as much accurate information as humanly possible.