Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
What or who is OWS? :noob: Acronym for Occupy Wall Street?
Also, by 99-ers I meant those unemployed longer than 99 weeks and whose unemployment insurance has run out. Not to be confused with the 99%-ers. ;)
The local main news distributor (and the Finnish version of the BBC) report that roughly 700 protesters have been arrested. I am saddened and dismayed by this anti-Semitic display of our news media :(
Looks like the protestors managed to shut down the Brooklyn Bridge.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/01/busine...html?hpt=hp_t2
Is this still a silly protest by 20something stupid ingrates, or privileged whitefolk?
It's even sillier. People claiming the police led them to occupy the roadway of an active bridge, then arrested them for occupying the roadway of an active bridge. :rolleyes:
This movement is saying nothing besides "we're not happy". In democracies, protests have to be more specific in order to be more constructive. The ludicrous and anti-1st amendment rhetoric you're posting, GGT, isn't necessarily what the privileged 20something whitefolk on the bridge have been writing.
Could you be any less specific in your vague criticism? I mean, if you really tried?
Funny, that's what people are saying to the "protesters".Quote:
Originally Posted by Nessus
At least you didn't use "folks" this time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
It's rather unfortunate that the plight of these people cannot be condensed into sound-bytes suitable for audiences prepped by Fox and Glenn Beck. So of course "folks" would be confused about what exactly people are complaining about; where's the beef? But don't let me interrupt your little privileged outrage over there.
Instead of projecting your values onto them and transparently liking them simply because I don't, can you clarify what their "plight" is? iPhone bill is cutting-into their beer money? They don't have access to $100,000/year state-unionized janitor jobs?
I thought a community leader such as yourself would be more attuned to the topics of the past few years. It seems this was a belief as unfounded as that of Moses.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
I know it's been rough on hipster beer budgests when their parents take them off the family-plan cellphone billing. Those iPhone bills run to like $80/month!
You should have put in "j888" instead of hipster, local polls seem to indicate that is several times funnier.
I admit I am not personally invested enough to try and talk to you into seeing what is wrong with your narrative on the matter. But as a community leader, it would behoove you to behave less like the most petulant children on board our sinking ship.
What is your narrative on the matter, oh mighty one? As a community leader, it would behoove you to actually stake out positions instead of just sneering at those who may disagree with you.
PS- http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...e-videos-show/
I am not a community leader, far from it. I don't exactly know what you purport to be doing with this charade, but it seems like a rather obvious deflection.
My position? I do not like the things I read on the Rolling Stone, on blogs, on other reporting sites, on how a tiny slice of American life controls the whole world. Economically, of course. I do okay, it doesn't hurt me personally. I simply do not like the repetition of Bolshevist Russia in terms Ayn Rand would like.
Nor am I sneering at people disagreeing with me, I do not like the tactics or the tone of the conversation thrown at me. This is all personal preference and you're well to accost me for these, but all the same, it is not quite how you portray it to be. This is my objection through and through.
And yet you're never willing to really go into details, or demonstrate any particular deep understanding beyond what's in said Rolling Stone articles. You just like to point at said views.
while you revert to name calling and overly simple mass generalizations to express your opinion on what you want everyone to believe are facts (without doing the legwork something like that requires).
You want me exposed to the barrage of filth and hatred Loki and Kain have in store for those people? I may be better off today compared to a few years ago, but I am not prepared for that. We can't have an honest discussion in your forum, Dreadnaught.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
This is hardly my forum. And I've never seen you really put yourself out there about these issues. Never.
You throw barrages of scorn at people, then complain about people's tone towards you. Which is frustrating because, as I've said many times, many of us really want to hear detailed views and ideas from you. But whenever encouraged, you claim other people are the ones holding you back. I don't buy it.
Bridge space and time, be the Kwisatz Haderach! :o
And whose fault is that?Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
Coming from the man who "likes my essays"? I have been forth-with about my beliefs, to the limit the current flaming and hatred situation allows. I am pre-empted by myself, hated on by Fuzzy, and savagely attacked by some of the right-wingers. This may not leave enough room to narrate my life story to your satisfaction, but to borrow from your own creed, I have mine, so fuck you, huh? Your forum is run as you see fit, and this is how it goes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
Are you new here or something? :weird:Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
Avoiding discussion because your extreme views conflict with other views and others' extreme views seems... somewhat disingenuous and self-fulfilling.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nessus
Wow I gotta say you guys sure have a LOT of hipsters. Clever of them to make use of the most-attention grabbing tactic at their disposal ie. cause trouble where the money is. You know it's weird how you harp on about them being privileged iphone-flashing kids. Relevance? Apart from just letting you patronise people you disagree with that is.
Thank glod for wikipedia or I'd have no idea what this was about:
Quote:
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing demonstration[3] opposing corruptive corporate influence over U.S. politics, the monied corruption of democracy[4] and a lack of legal repercussions over the global financial crisis.
...
The aim of the demonstration is to begin a sustained occupation of Wall Street, the financial district of New York City, to protest perceived corporate greed and social inequality. Organizers intend for the occupation to last "as long as it takes to meet our demands." Demands are in the process of being negotiated and developed.
the Adbusters Media Foundation, best known for its advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine called Adbusters, proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street in protest against the current leadership, U.S. politics and the failure to prevent or make effective changes in the global financial crisis.
According to Adbusters, a primary protest organizer, the central demand of the protest is that President Barack Obama "ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington."
The protest has been criticized for its lack of focus and actionable agenda. In an article that was critical of the protesters, Ginia Bellafante wrote in The New York Times: "The group’s lack of cohesion and its apparent wish to pantomime progressivism rather than practice it knowledgably is unsettling in the face of the challenges so many of its generation face — finding work, repaying student loans, figuring out ways to finish college when money has run out."[15][16] Glenn Greenwald responded to this criticism, writing :
The desire to form a more coherent agenda was evident around the 13th day of the occupation, with sentiment in the encampment generally split along two lines: those who want the protest to remain amorphous and to grow through spectacle; and those who want to draft focused demands about wealth disparity.[18]Quote:
"Does anyone really not know what the basic message is of this protest: that Wall Street is oozing corruption and criminality and its unrestrained political power—in the form of crony capitalism and ownership of political institutions—is destroying financial security for everyone else?"[17]
The movement is centered upon the statement: “the one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%,”
The protesters' messages seem to be varied with a variety of demands such as raising taxes on the rich, raising taxes on corporations, ending corporate welfare, support for trade unionism, and protecting Medicare and Social Security in their traditional forms. Libertarians who are protesting want to end the Federal Reserve, end corporatism, end all wars, and are protesting the execution of Troy Davis.
Canadian writer Naomi Klein supported the protest, saying, "This is not the time to be looking for ways to dismiss a nascent movement against the power of capital, but to do the opposite: to find ways to embrace it, support it and help it grow into its enormous potential. With so much at stake, cynicism is a luxury we simply cannot afford."
Educator and author Cornel West addressed the frustrations that some critics have expressed at the protest’s lack of a clear and unified message, saying:
It’s impossible to translate the issue of the greed of Wall Street into one demand, or two demands. We’re talking about a democratic awakening...you’re talking about raising political consciousness so it spills over all parts of the country, so people can begin to see what’s going on through a set of different lens, and then you begin to highlight what the more detailed demands would be. Because in the end we’re really talking about what Martin King would call a revolution: A transfer of power from oligarchs to everyday people of all colors. And that is a step by step process.[57]
These dumbfucks *are* the privileged class they're ostensibly protesting against; they're just jealous that they don't have the fabulous wealth that some more privileged people have. They're petulant children, complaining that some other kid got a little more ice cream than they did... and while this is in the nature of children (and democratic politics, it seems), it's hardly a sound basis to craft political change or constitutional amendments on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimless
Where would you place them on Loki's income graph? And it's a good thing someone has the time, the money and the energy to protest :o
3rd and 4th quintile.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimless
Damn straight. Otherwise there wouldn't be anything funny on the news.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimless
So we're not really talking about just a little more ice-cream are we, and also congrats on having some fabulously rich 20-year-olds in that country of yours.Quote:
Originally Posted by CitizenCain
Sure we are.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimless
Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimless
A) NYC.
B) They're still "students," and as Dread pointed out, they're hipsters who live off their parents, and thus, "count" (or don't as they case may be) as dependents under their parents, and live off of their parents' income. Parents who are undoubtedly 4th quintile for being able to send their children to college in NYC.
Yeah, I saw that graph, you clearly don't understand the meaning of "little" (now look what you made me say :mad: ) even if we assume they're only fighting for their own quintiles. It'd be even more fun to see the graphs on asset-distribution :oQuote:
Originally Posted by CitizenCain
I'd like to see the demographic dataQuote:
Thanks!
A) NYC.
B) They're still "students," and as Dread pointed out, they're hipsters who live off their parents, and thus, "count" (or don't as they case may be) as dependents under their parents, and live off of their parents' income. Parents who are undoubtedly 4th quintile for being able to send their children to college in NYC.
So now we're complaining that the kid whose father owns the ice cream store gets ice cream anytime he wants? :cry: How unfair! It's almost as if life isn't inherently fair or something... :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimless
I doubt that's the case, since once you saw it, and had proof that these protesters are all well above the median and average incomes for the country, you'd have to come up with some reason why it doesn't matter, in order to square things with your highly socialist world view. Sounds like a lot of work to me, hence I doubt you truly do want what you say you do.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimless
Cain and Fuzzy may be aggressive, but they outline and try to justify their views in detail. You have a habit of sniping at people. You snipe cleverly, but it's still just sniping at what other people say. Your reluctance to stick your neck out there just makes you seem extraordinarily thin-skinned.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nessus
So no one has ever patronized the Tea Party and called them "racist"?Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimless
I am criticizing these hipsters because they are wasting space. That the best they can do is make loud, incoherent rants about a system that has mostly benefitted them. If they were clearly and definitely supporting a real policy that would be one thing —*this country has a long tradition of activism to promote certain causes.
But Occupy Wall Street is just a bunch of misdirected angst by people too young or immature to realize that economies stumble.
