If you're not paying attention, that's probably exactly how it sounds.Todd Ralph said:The majority sound like spoiled rich kids and idiots who either never read the fine print line or insisted on living out of their means.
Uh, not really.ecoho said:its really really stupid. lets face it this has three outcomes
1)they are ignored,arrested, and fade from history
2)they riot and lose with alot of people getting shot
3)they riot and win and we go into anarcy
all i know is if 3 happens we will have a civil war and ill tell you right now youll know what a millitary state really is.
^THIS.Harley Duke said:I feel it's a movement that's misunderstood mostly because it refuses to explain what it's all about to the (loud) people demanding answers. "Why not band together and put forth meaningful legislation if you want reform," I am asked, by people seriously why one wouldn't use the system already in place. "If the system has already been purchased, and the interests of the people are no longer truly at its heart, why would you think any kind of legislation it generates could be considered 'meaningful,'" I reply, confused that I was even asked the question.
The reason you see people sitting around in tents, discussing things but not necessarily taking actions yet, is because it is difficult to tack down what sort of action to needs to be taken when almost every road looks like it leads to ruin. Can we pass laws to increase corporate oversight? No, the legislation option is hopeless if we can't afford our own representatives to work against the ones corporate interests have purchased already. Will balancing the national budget help fix economic disparity? No, it won't do anything but quiet the woes of an ailing international economy; once the economy is alive and kicking again, the haves and have-nots will be largely the same people. Is it really to late to do anything about all of this? It can't be too late--and even if it is, we've got to try something. How can we change anything? Who knows, but we aren't going to get anywhere without a lot of people helping us. I feel like the reason we sit around like this is because acting without a plan would be pointless in this day and age. We already don't stand much of a chance; lashing out at random or pulling some wild stunt here and there is only going to hurt is, which a few of the more violent Occupy protests have already done.
But something we're doing is working, because you see police deployed to "keep the public safe" from us. You can look on YouTube for videos of peaceful protesters being approached and subsequently maced by police for the serious crime of "just sitting there." Why does just sitting in public to protest economic disparity and frustration with a corporate government present a significant danger to anyone, significant enough to warrant such a heavy police presence and such violent reactions? Clearly we're disturbing someone deeply; someone who controls the police perhaps, who isn't so interested in our cause. Napoleon wouldn't have sent in his dogs if he didn't think Snowball was a menace somehow, right?
We may look as though our idea is being poorly executed and that's because it is. But you don't improve any if you don't lose a little first. We need to figure out what we CAN do before we go about trying to accomplish what we SHOULD do. What's important is that hope can't die here or, to bring up Animal Farm again, "Life will go on as it has always gone on -- that is, badly."
Sorry for the wall of text. I'll give you the tl;dr -- I feel strongly that this is the right way to go, and while we don't have the specifics planned out, "not having a complete plan yet" is a pathetic reason to completely dismiss something as important as this has the potential to be.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Reading the "original" goals/desires of the OWS Movement, I figured it was a somewhat lofty goal, but a respectable one nevertheless, to remove corporate influence from politics. However, I recently had the pleasure of both seeing one of the "Anon" men screaming out that some dude I had never heard of before was the "new devil" and other such nonsense, and a few days later read the...*ahem*...concise list of OWS's demands. I found out they not only wanted practically every last thing that people have been lobbying for for the last few years and then some, including, but not limited to, the magic creation of cheap, effective green technology, a toppling of ALL big business, not to mention the complete removal of capitalism, but that roughly 1 out of every 5 people interviewed had no idea what they were protesting for.hannan4mitch said:This. The OWS movement got dragged down because so many other things got tacked onto it, and the, erm, quality of these auxiliary things made OWS an easy target for IRL flaming.Voonhartking said:good idea, poorly executed.
As LiberalSquirrel said, by way of Roosevelt, the lunatic fringe of the OWS movement is killing it.
no i beleave they are self intitled fools who need to go get jobs instead of whining. protests are only for real problems not ones that could have been solved by them being smart or for heavens sake doing some hard work. i was unimploied for 3 years and you know what i did? i went out and found a fucking job and guess what? i have enough money that i can go to rome next year because i saved my money instead of spending it on things i cant afford.Glerken said:Uh, not really.ecoho said:its really really stupid. lets face it this has three outcomes
1)they are ignored,arrested, and fade from history
2)they riot and lose with alot of people getting shot
3)they riot and win and we go into anarcy
all i know is if 3 happens we will have a civil war and ill tell you right now youll know what a millitary state really is.
3 is ridiculous, so go ahead and cross that out. Riots are possible, but they wouldn't reflect the entire Occupy movement, only a small violent percentage.
There's always the possibility, you know that people will start to work to change things. The OWS protesters may not be doing everything right, but neither are the police or the people covering the protests.
I think the Occupy movement extends to people who say something along the lines of "good idea, poor execution" or "I agree with their ideals, not with them" If you agree with them, then you are "the 99%." You're just not the ones that get news coverage because you're normal.