What strikes me about the Left’s coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement is the total delusion about its meaning and the scope of its reach. I do not dispute that there is justified grievance about the bailout of the big banks by the Obama administration and the failure to get the economy moving and to create new jobs. But on this score, the OWS shares its estimate with that of the Tea Party, which made cutting the deficit and doing something about our growing entitlements a primary goal.
But where the OWS is different, is in its apparent characterization of itself as radical or revolutionary, terms coming from the utopian and highly unrealistic hopes of its participants. In his column today, David Brooks rightfully writes that they have “nothing to say about education reform, Medicare reform, tax reform, wage stagnation or polarization. They will have nothing to say about the way Americans have overconsumed and overborrowed. These are problems that implicate a much broader swath of society than the top 1 percent,” including the 99 percent they claim to represent. These folks are anything but radical, says Brooks. Their redistributionist claim to pay for everything by taxing the rich at the highest rate possible is a chimera. As he puts it,
Even if you tax away 50 percent of the income of those making between $1 million and $10 million, you only reduce the national debt by 1 percent, according to the Tax Foundation. If you confiscate all the income of those making more than $10 million, you reduce the debt by 2 percent. You would still be nibbling only meekly around the edges.
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These protesters may look radical and think of themselves that way, he adds, but the truth is that
its members’ ideas are less radical than those you might hear at your average Rotary Club. Its members may hate capitalism. A third believe the U.S. is no better than Al Qaeda, according to a New York magazine survey, but since the left no longer believes in the nationalization of industry, these “radicals” really have no systemic reforms to fall back on.
Brooks takes them a tad too seriously; these protestors are all poseurs, more interested in getting attention than in being serious. They have no sense of the economic reality in which the world lives; hence their magic solution to everything is “tax the rich.”
The truth is that they are would-be revolutionaries who perform for the TV news, which if it went away, would quickly find that the Liberty Park encampment would disappear in one day.
So here are three of my favorite examples of the radical delusion, in all of their multifold patterns:
I: Hendrik Hertzberg’s “Talk of the Town” in the latest New Yorker. Hertzberg is too smart to take the protestors seriously. Taking off from Chairman Mao’s well-known aphorism that a revolution “is not a dinner party,” he writes that the protest is in fact “a dinner party of sorts, albeit one with donated, often organic food served on paper plates,” tea that is of course “mostly herbal,” but no marijuana! New York City, evidently, is not Berkeley, California, circa 1968.
Hertzberg therefore questions “the meaning of it all,” and emphasizes with humor that whatever it amounts to, it has become “one of the city’s most interesting bargain tourist destinations.” Also, what drew crowds at first was not pure protest, but a false rumor that the mega rock band Radiohead would appear there and play for free! Yet Hertzberg took heart when “transit workers, teamsters, teachers, communications workers, service employees” all heeded the call of their union leaders and packed the area with 15,000 more people. The dream of the working class making the revolution real still lives.
Yet he understands that OWS does not have a “traditional agenda: a list of ‘demands,’ a set of legislative recommendations, a five-point program.” Of course they don’t. Writing a five-point program takes some work — which clearly these people don’t know how to do. They prefer what he calls “constructive group dynamics,” a feel-good time on the street to real politics. And of course, Hertzberg loves it. He writes:
There’s something oddly moving about a crowd of smart-phone-addicted, computer-savvy people cooperating to create such an utterly low-tech, strikingly human, curiously tribal means of amplification—a literal loudspeaker.
Nevertheless, as a good radical, Hertzberg has hope. The “greed and fraud” that “precipitated the economic crisis” is now being protested, and that is enough for now. The “Republican right willing and usually able to block any measures…that might relieve the suffering” is being challenged, and for him, that will do for now. I guess Hertzberg does not know about the Community Reinvestment Act, ACORN, the bi-partisan repeal of Glass-Steagall and the Dodd-Frank law — all of which Democrats have supported and which led to the housing bubble and the market collapse. So he sees a great future, as long as it is not hijacked by “a flaky fringe.”
I’ve got news for you, Hertzberg. You were witnessing the flaky fringe in all its glory. But I guess for you, what you saw doesn’t meet the criteria for flaky.
Thanks so much, Ron, for this excellent roundup and analysis. I was waiting to hear your thoughts on the matter. You have validated w hat I wrote yesterday: http://clarespark.com/2011/10/10/populist-catharsis-on-wall-street/
” It’s all so very simple. Protest, take to the streets, bring down the banks and the corporations, and Nirvana will finally arrive.”
Or Radiohead, or somebody…
As always, Ron Radosh is well worth reading.
Yes, take away the television cameras. Out here in Madison, Wisconsin, the cameras have in fact by and large departed from the Capitol, scene of the spring uprising that some of these OWSers acknowledge as their inspiration. I have news for them. As media attention has flagged, so have the crowds. The “99%” here a few days ago consisted of 58 protesters. Only the die-hard hangers-on are left. And they tend to be the most fanatic, or the most lost, and always the least palatable. Everyone else just got bored. I expect the same disintegration will set in soon with OWS gatherings. It is still conveniently pleasant out. How long will the party go on when the temperature plummets? Pretty soon the call will be for “the long march through the institutions” (or to a warm Starbucks). Viva la revolutione!
You have said it much better than I could, Ron. As usual, thanks.
I beg to add one small point. We keep hearing that the Tea Partiers are, inter alia, “white and male,” which apparently disqualifies them from having opinions worth considering.
I’ve seen footage on tv of various Tea Parties. Last year on July 4th with nothing else to do I attended one in a nearby (Detroit) suburb to see what it was like, and earlier this year they happened to have a smaller one, just a few hundred, across the street from a now-shuttered Border’s, so I meandered over to it.
I’m not sure if the crowds either place, or the ones I’ve seen on tv, were a majority female, but if not they were pretty close to it. And the OWS folks and their offshoots in other cities seem pretty white to me.
By the way, I drove past the municipal park where the July 4th rally had been an hour after it ended and the place was clean. I’ve seen pictures of the National Mall after the Obama inauguration–literally covered with trash–and the same scene after the mass Tea Party–clean as a whistle.
These are polite people who assemble peaceably, listen to speakers, and pick up after themselves. No wonder the left sees them as a threat.
I could never really bring myself to sign on with the “TEA PARTY”. personally I see them as the “Tepublic” party.
Dreamers all. Why they feel they need to argue the point of expidential wealth on the basis that they themselves think they may be there one day I’ll never understand.
They never did find a true direction, debt, taxes religion, all republic party issues that pander to the extremely religious and extremely wealthy, which is why they were hijacked.
Find your voice, organize and create a 3rd party movement. The news is already calling you the democrat version of the tea party.
You want to yell at wall street,
How can “YOU” fix it?
Remember Wallstreet is a group of publically traded companies, the key word there is “public”. We should be able to pass laws that institue a max to min pay ratio on all publically traded companies. CEO’s make millions on companies they did not create, yet work a few years and leave with millions . A position on the board of diectors should have no pay. Usually those people are the ones that own the most stock. Their decisions for the company should benefit the stock as a whole, there for themselves.
Mark,
Just curious – how exactly does it affect you, when a CEO of a publicly traded company which you are not a shareholder of, makes $1 million or more in salary?
Well, for one there’s nothing wrong with making a million. Lets put that out there.
First, if you work for a company that just got bailed out with taxpayer money, it kinda does give the rest of us pause. So that’s at issue.
Secondly, if you’re a hedge fund trader or anyone who is paying 15% rather than what I pay for taxes, I’m pretty annoyed and so should you be.
As for simple wage inequality, we’re not at the point where it’s a society of landed gentry and groveling masses, but it’s annoying how tough times tend to require sacrifice from the people making the least while top management hands themself another raise.
We’re saying goodbye to $20-25 an hour jobs and hello to $10-15 wages. But somehow the guy making $1MM gets a raise? Look, upper management likes to hand themselves ever increasing remuneration. You would too if it were your circle of friends.
The difference between OWS and Tea Partiers is that OWS knows they’re not getting million dollar salaries anytime in their lives. The Tea Partiers like to think they’re in the same party as the 1% despite the fact that they’re by and large not really on the invite list.
1) Tax payer bailouts – I guess I am a little confused. It is the federal government that did this – in many cases forcibly. GM, Chrysler and BoA come to mind. Then I must assumed your anger about the bailouts is directed at the Federal Government – correct?
2) Hedge Funds and other investment returns being taxed at 15% (or better known as the Capital Gains tax) rather than at the normal income tax rate. The solution is a flat tax on all income and eliminate all tax deductions. Can we at least agree to a 3 tier rate structure?
To give you some historical perspective – numbers 1 and 2 (with a 3 tier rate structure) was accomplished in The Tax Reform Act of 1986 (not all deductions were removed, but tt was cleaned up). What happened? People who believe in the almighty goodness of government stood by while it used the tax code (its power) to to direct economic decisions. Again, you are asking for the federal government to get out of this business – correct?
3) The rest of your comment – wage inequality etc. Hey, why not make the minimum wage $1,000,000 per hour. What will happen? An easy answer – a MacDonalds fullmeal deal will cost roughly $1,000,000. What does this accomplish?
4) “…but it’s annoying how..” – this applies to everything in life. It ranks up there with “there outta be a law”. Unfortunately, now we do have the laws. The problem is that those making the laws, start making exceptions to the laws based on personal criteria (cronyism). Want to see it writ large? Watch the ever increasing Obamacare exceptions.
The solution is to limit the power granted to those who make the laws. Which leads you right back to the U.S. Government, as constructed by the Constitution – a government of enumerated powers. See the 10th Amendment.
Economic justice is not enumerated.
“I could never really bring myself to sign on with the ‘TEA PARTY’. personally I see them as the ‘Tepublic’ party.”
Since you aren’t aware that no one is ever asked “to sign on” with the Tea Party, it’s apparent you don’t know much about it, and should have left it out of your point. I can’t help but wonder how hard you’ve looked for a place to “sign on…” [giggles a little here]. Be at peace. Stop looking. You don’t have to sign on. Good grief.
Remember Wallstreet is a group of publically traded companies, the key word there is “public”.
Why pass laws? Laws are already on the books. If you want to change the behavior of a publicly held corporation, simply get your friends together, purchase a large block of stock, and attend the shareholder’s meetings. Even one share is sufficient to get you in the meetings, and changes have been made even in large multi-nationals by sufficiently stubborn shareholders.
Are you serious? You state that the Tea Party lacks ” a true direction” and is based around “debt, taxes religion, all republic party issues that pander to the extremely religious and extremely wealthy”.
Have I misunderstood you? The Tea Party has a very limited and specific set of principles:
-lower taxes
- reducation of and elimination of national debt
– rejection of deficit spending
- free market economy
- follow the US Constitution
- smaller govt and focus on local needs
Now, can you explain to me exactly how these principles are unsound or illogical? Where is there any mention of religion? What’s wrong with a govt not getting its citizens into massive deficit and debt? What’s wrong with any of these principles?
Oh- and if these principles are found only in the GOP, well, why does the Democratic Party reject them?
And what the heck do these principles have to do with ‘wealth’?
As for your support of those who are against ‘Wall Street’ (and this needs a definition), are you aware of the fundamental role of investment and banks in all economies? Why does the US have to borrow so much from the Chinese banks? Are you going to protest that?
Hey Mark: re: “Why they feel they need to argue the point of expidential wealth on the basis that they themselves think they may be there one day I’ll never understand.”
What the heck is expidential wealth? Wealth inherited from an ex-pediatrician? Something to do with dentistry? A combination of both? I have no idea what this sentence means even without the “expidential wealth” part. I’ve read it four or five times and I can’t figure it out. It’s giving me a headache.
Mark, there is no doubt that some salaries on Wall Street are excessive. Often, excessive salaries are a sign that a sort of aristocratic unreality has set in, and that the corporation in question has internal problems which will lead to its downfall (if it doesn’t have special protection from government). But these excesses are the responsibility of the Board of Directors and stockholders to correct. A corporation is a voluntary association. If salaries are out of line with the performance of executives, stockholders might take it as a clue that they should sell their stock. Government interference just leads to more corruption.
Just a question: would you apply the same restrictions in salary you propose for executives to sports and movie stars hired by corporations? If talent is not rewarded with higher compensation, how should corporations attract talented people?
“Remember Wallstreet is a group of publically traded companies, the key word there is “public”. We should be able to pass laws that institue a max to min pay ratio on all publically traded companies.”
That’s just it; “public” companies are actually PRIVATE, and as such, they exist in a voluntary, arms-length-transaction world.
Too bad you’re so ignorant and enmeshed in childish envy that you miss those salient points.
Remember Wallstreet is a group of publically traded companies, the key word there is “public”. We should be able to pass laws that institue a max to min pay ratio on all publically traded companies. CEO’s make millions on companies they did not create, yet work a few years and leave with millions . A position on the board of diectors should have no pay. Usually those people are the ones that own the most stock. Their decisions for the company should benefit the stock as a whole, there for themselves.
—
Over the past 10 years, I have read any number of jaw-droppingly stupid comments from leftists, but this is one for the ages.
Your fundamental ignorance of the concept of publicly-traded shares…your sophomoric calls for govt-mandated salary controls, i.e., full-throated Fabian socialism and Constitution-be-damned…your complete lack of irony in stating, on the one hand, that directors own the most stock but, on the other hand, their actions don’t benefit the stock, only themselves.
???
Wow, man. Just…wow.
Mark Strauss,
I don’t think it is true that the freedom party that wants the destructive government types to have as little money and as little power as possible want low taxes just because they want to be multimillionaires some day. This is just a leftist lie. The problem with having the government guys with guns steal more and more money from the productive class to have it flow to and be lost by the corrupt class is that consumption, theft, taxes, waste, corruption and destruction, export, ruination, erosion and dissipation of wealth, which government specializes in, destroys the money supply, drives us back towards the evils of fuedalism (local wars, starvation, epidemics and early death). If you ever figure out where money value comes from, it comes from profit and production, which only the private sector today engages in. Not the government. If we want to become a richer country, if we want to create new money value, if we want to advance to higher levels of income, wealth and capital accumulation, sufficient strenghth for peace and the avoidance of war, you have to join the Tea Party to help create more capital, wealth, profit and money. This is the only way keep our limited supplies of wealth out of the hands of government which destroys everything it touches, because it refuses to do the human thing of making a profit for distribution in the market, the sole method of wiping out poverty forever. If everyone was a capitalist owning enough capital to provide their needs for 80 years or more, the maldistribution of wealth would disappear forever, simply by reaching a higher plane of wealth production and no one would have to have their wealth stolen and destroyed to bring everyone (a lower number of survivors) reduced to the same level of fuedalistic poverty. Taxation is not a zero sum game, it is a negative sum game. We in the Tea Party don’t want a Zero Sum Game or Negative Sum Game that makes everyone poorer. We want a growing pie from the pursuit of profit and capital expansion and greater domestic oil and gas production so everyone is richer, not a reduction of competition, so the shrinking supply of wealthy are relatively more wealthy, which is the goal of the socialists like Stalin, Mao and Kim Jung Il. Stop talking nonsense, Mark. All that is necessary to stop excessive pay to CEO’s is to start competing with them and doing what they do better. The Government can do that. Pay caps of course is a good idea but stopping the corruption and destruction of government is an even better and more essential idea.
I get a creepy feeling that may be it’s us who are delusional, in thinking that
the Leftoids and the Leftocracy are delusional. They know what they want and they don’t care who they hurt to get it, and we take them lightly at our peril.
The leftists and the OWS groupies are indeed delusional. They seem to have one desire: to have Others fund their lives. Period. They themselves see no relation between Work and Income, and no requirement for they, themselves, to work to obtain an income. Others, the mythic Wealthy, must provide for them.
Equally, their delusions extend to a mythic view of an economy. An economy operates within three phases: Investment, Production and Consumption.
These groupies have absolutely no understanding of the reality and definition of ‘wealth’ – wealth underpins the first phase of an economy: Investment.
They think that wealth emerges from a Magic Cauldron, endlessly bubbling up in some Rich Man’s Basement Vault. They don’t understand that wealth must be created, and it is created by generating a SURPLUS of money that is left over after the costs of PRODUCTION of the Goods.
Imagine a primitive farmer consuming all his grain seeds; he’d be left with no seeds to plant next year’s crop.
Imagine a businessman selling all his products at below-cost; he’d have no wealth to purchase new raw materials or repair his equipment.
Wealth is surplus, and it is created by work. It is not stored in old socks but is INVESTED in future-oriented activities – next year’s grain crop, building a new factory, funding research, etc. Banks carry out a great deal of this investment phase.
These braindead and ignorant leftists focus only on ONE phase of the economic triad: consumption. They want someone else to give them all their consumer needs; free tuition, food, housing, and so on. In their self-absorbed selfishness, they haven’t a clue about how an economy actually operates.
Hi Ron, Good story and follow up on these kids that are not making and sense. I think they are following the ideas of Pevin and her DSA costitution of a socialist agenda. It sounds more and more like the ten items listed in section two of the Communist Manifesto. Obama started it with his brain washing of using and spreading the wealth of businesses and banks to start a “class warfare”. These kids want and now expect everything for FREE. Wow, I never taught i would see this in my life time of sixty-three years.
tony
Not to nit-pick on Ron Radosh (I bought ‘Commies’ in hardcover. You’re welcome), but it hardly seems fair to speak of “justified grievance about the bailout of the big banks by the Obama administration”. Wasn’t the most substantial and significant bank bailout the TARP program under George W. Bush? And frankly, I would be one of a possibly dwindling few who makes very little money who would say that not only did Bush do the right thing with TARP, it appears (so says Wikipedia on TARP with a cited reference to US Treasury) that it wound up costing us about $25-30 billion – pocket change in comparison to what we have seen of late. And let’s face it, the banks do have us by the short and curlies in one way – they are the blood circulation of the economy. If they seize up, very likely in Sept of 2008, we are ALL well and truly pucked in a big big way. I submit the ramifications of a failure to pass TARP at the time are beyond horrifying, and yes, to use a well-overused phrase (since January of 2009 certainly) may well and truly have “saved us from a great depression”.
The key is not in letting the banks fail then, come what may, it is doing whatever is reasonable NOW to make sure the banks never get themselves and us in such a position again.
But I have to credit Mr. Bush for that action, in the end the cash price appears well well worth it, and I would repeat that either crediting or smearing Mr. Obama as being a “bank bailout” president hardly seems fair.
It’s not like he hasn’t given us plenty of other ammo to work with.
Not to entirely excuse TARP (I would really have much rather simply let the bankruptcy courts see things through) but there’s a difference between the original intent of TARP under Bush and how it was actually implemented under Obama. Originally, the program was simply and only to purchase “troubled assets” from banks: the securities that were based on what turned out to be badly performing mortgages. It was not supposed to be a general bail-out program.
The thing is, what people forget is it was the Bush bail out and McCains support of it was what led to the Tea Party later on down the road. Lots of us stayed home, because McCain was just going to be another Big Government Republican.
There is no inconsistency in the criticism of Obama vs Bush by Tea Party and/or conservatives. We have been and will continue to be critical of both parties.
Watching the OWS in the news,I associated a thought that this class warfare street party was much like the Russian Revolution of 1917. On this aimless theater there are serfs against the aristocracy. There are bolsheviks in the extreme wings. The current administration has implanted central planning and numerous czars. The placards demand fairness, social justice, socialism, and redistribution of the wealth. The Russian Revolution did not turn out well for Russia.
OWS is nothing more than a bunch of Utopian fantasists. All utopias are achievable, if only people would behave ideally. For some reason, though, they never do. The inability to follow an argument to its logical conclusion is common among Utopians.
Sigh…One thing is clear enough here. Radosh has been a wet blanket on anything left of the right wing of the Democratic party for decades now. Whatever you think of his critique of OWS and its friends, he has no alternative to offer that’s one bit more likely than his caricature of these folks to solve our problems.
It’s also silly to do this little math exercise on taxing the rich. The core point of the major allies of OWS, especially the AFL-CIO, has been the financial transaction tax, which, if turned over into the proper social investment, could do a great deal to create both wealth and jobs, and in the longer term, reduce deficits as well.
The problem is that every decent proposal that could make a dent in our problems has been declared ‘off the table’ by the core leaders at the top of both parties. Given those circumstances, all we have left to do is mount as much street heat as possible until we crack the ceiling. When all reasonable demands are considered unreasonable by our ‘betters,’ what demands are raised in the streets do not matter all that much.
Rather than wet blankets, we need to be fanning the flames.
Problem is, nobody in the real world gives a shit about “street heat.” Making a public spectacle of yourself is not the way to solve our current problems. You’ll never get anywhere with the pathetic batch of whining, incoherent freaks you’ve got acting as your public face. As another commenter pointed out, you have no hard core revolutionaries working for you. No trained cadres who know how to make things happen and make people take them and the cause seriously. Maybe they’ll show up later if your movement turns out to have real legs. Right now it’s just a joke.
Re “The core point of the major allies of OWS, especially the AFL-CIO, has been the financial transaction tax, which, if turned over into the proper social investment, could do a great deal to create both wealth and jobs, and in the longer term, reduce deficits as well.”
What the hell is “(F)inancial (T)ransaction (T)ax”? If it is what I perceive it is it will introduce an additional friction into financial system, and friction always dissipates energy into heat thus increasing entropy. In other words, it will produce more waste.
Now, what is “(S)ocial (I)nvestment”?, and particularly the “(P)roper” one? Who and how determine this?
And who will turn this FTT into that PSI? And how? Especially “in the longer term”. Again, define longer, please.
Yawn.
The core point of the major allies of OWS, especially the AFL-CIO, has been the financial transaction tax, which, if turned over into the proper social investment, could do a great deal to create both wealth and jobs, and in the longer term, reduce deficits as well.
—
IOW: wealth redistribution.
Quick question: what entitles you – or anyone else – to money or wealth that you had no hand in earning or creating?
The OWS are the conformists and the Tea Party are the radicals. Need proof? The conformists in the media are fawning all over the OWS gangs and endlessly disparaging the Tea Party including making up stories that never happened. We are the revolutionaries. This group of older middle class Americans now find themselves on the cutting edge of political thought, aligned with those other revolutionaries in the founding of the country. The OWS crowd? Eh. Marxism/socialism/fascism/authoritarianism/totalitarianism – so yesterday, man.
Beware Communitarianism.
Beware Amitai Etzioni.
Beware UN Agenda 21.
Power to the Contitutional Republic.
I thank you
Right on Betina. The OWS crowd of faux revolutionaries have become useless even as props for the rapidly exploding US Left whose agony of defeat will be televised.
Oops…that should read ‘Constitutional”…apologies
This is a very interesting article and it prompted me to leave a comment. The basis of my comment is that I helped to organize the Minnesota effort to support Occupy Wall Street.
Before I write I will give you a brief history of who I am. I am a 26 year old male who grew up in a small town. My mom and dad made about 80-90k (combined) a year. I have worked since I was 13 years old. As a kid I detassled corn for several summers. At 16 I moved up to working at an auto salvage yard part time. I started full time as soon as I graduated high school for 3 years until I joined the U.S. Army. I served 4 years in the military as a medic. I find that a general criticism is: “you never had a job and you don’t know how to work.” I hope my employment history can speak against that argument. I am not a pot smoker. I am now a full time student. I live frugally off the money from the GI Bill. I own a computer, a blackberry, and a fuel efficient car. I have 2 roommates to offset the cost not living at home.
There are a few things from the article I would like to address.
1. The title of your article seems to imply that the Occupy Wall Street, OWS, is acting on behalf of the left. Although there has been a lot of support from labor unions, there is a very unique variety of people here in Minnesota. I spent most of the first few days talking with pre-sponsorship tea party members, a very large libertarian/Ron Paul faction, and quite a few republicans. Most people are there because they feel that the government, on both sides of the aisle, vote on behalf of their money over their constituents. I may be naive but I think that is a fairly bipartisan issue.
2. OWS is not anti capitalist. While there is the normal fringe element screaming about the evils of capitalism, most people you talk to have a different view. I personally like capitalism. I think it drives innovation, creates jobs, and helps us grow. I do believe that capitalism, like socialism, communism, etc… can easily be abused for overwhelming personal gain at the expense of others. When I read things such as Citizens United v. FEC It seems like we are moving towards giving large business and labor unions legal ways to buy representation.
3. One thing discussed in the article and another linked article is that there isn’t much talk about education reform, tax reform, or fiscal reform. I may be mistaken but that is the reason we are here. We have seen how repeated tax cuts have not helped create jobs, so let’s bring them back to the level of the Reagan years. We have even proposed spending cuts such as ending the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a modest $3 trillion government program that we could easily do without. We also have ideas about belt tightening. It was mentioned that people need to be more responsible with their spending and savings. Most people graduating from college today have debt around $27,000 and are entering the world of 9.1% unemployment (20% for the 18-24 demographic). Instead of funding a war we could fund higher education so that college can be seen as a way to get a better job and contribute to the tax system instead of financial irresponsibility.
I realize that many of you feel insulated from the problems that we are demonstrating about. Just look at things from my perspective. The first president I could vote for won the election and then did the opposite of everything he said. Of my close high school friends I have: a fully licensed teacher (bachelors degree), a 3 tour combat vet, one graduate from UTI (top end mechanics), the list can go on. My teacher friend gets his income from sparse substitute jobs because there is nothing available for entry level teachers. My friend with a degree from UTI that cost him $15,000 got laid off 2 years ago from a $50k job and only recently found a job changing oil at a Jiffy Lube. My friend who did 3 tours in Iraq as an infantryman lived with his parents for a year until he could find a job. The entire facility shut down just after he moved out at the age of 26. I was talking to him about it in the hospital after his appendix ruptured to which he will be paying for out of pocket seeing as he can’t afford insurance.
On the other hand. If anyone is able to come tell my friend who worked doing field labor every summer, worked at a fast food chain while in high school, then did 3 tours in Iraq over 6 years in the military that he doesn’t know what it is like to work because the only job he could get within 75 miles of his parents house was closed down and he now collects unemployment, I am sure he would love the insight.
If you could tell my friend who has also worked his whole life, even offset his tuition working at the school he attended full time, that the reason he can only get jobs with less than 10 hours a month is because he doesn’t work hard. I am sure if you knew how he could work harder he would happily oblige.
Then if you don’t mind explaining to me why wanting a government of the people, by the people, for the people is delusional.
Next time you see one of these articles dedicated to how we are all lazy pot smoking criminals who just don’t want to work, think about what I wrote. There is a good chance that you and I want the same thing.
P.S. I was serious, my friends would all love to know how they can work harder. Send me a message because we can use all the help we can get.
Your account of your achievements and those of your friends is impressive. But what does that have to do with “Occupy Wall Street”? Do you really want the collapse of Wall Street, which – I take it – consists of corporations which produce goods, wealth, and jobs, and banks, which provide money for loans? I think of the “Occupy Wall Street” people as lazy, vain, and greedy, organized by groups like ACORN. You and your friends sound more like Tea Partiers.
Zach, I’d like to comment on your rambling diatribe much like the OWS crowd. Quickly though a couple comments: the connection between the OWS and Tea Party is tenuous at best while the connection between OWS and the loony left is very strong.
Next the very nature of OWS is anti-capitalist. Destroy the corporations and redistribute the wealth is anti-capitalist.
Tax cuts by themselves do not create jobs so that is a red herring. Tax cuts and a limited regulatory environment and rational, limited government helps, but with Odummer and the Demorats no amount of tax cutting will stimulate jobs. I would love to see the tax rates during Reagans mid to final years.
“I do believe that capitalism, like socialism, communism, etc…” This is just stupid to put capitalism on the same level as communism to try to drive home a point. Crony capitalism I think is what you are trying to refer to. And you are correct, it is corrupt and corrupting.
“This is a modest $3 trillion government program that we could easily do without.” What program are you referring to?
“Instead of funding a war we could fund higher education so that college can be seen as a way to get a better job and contribute to the tax system instead of financial irresponsibility.” Way off the rails here Zach! Paying for higher education is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. That is just simply whinning and showing your entitlement mentality aka spoiled brat.
Life is tough so suck it up. Tell your friends that and think about it yourself. In fact go talk to some WWII vets WHO really worked hard after the war to make this nation strong.l
Zach:
Most of us do not feel isolated from the Occupy Wall Street Protagonists. Especially since I can buy a train ticket and go to Wall Street, or drive forty minutes and be in Barney Frank’s congressional district. (The man really responsible for the current depression.)
However I can assure you that the Fleabagers on Wall Street have nothing at all to do with you. (Unless you are part of the Minnesota Progressive Racists that backed the outlawing of alcohol at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, then yes you are all Racists.)
By the way what newspaper out there has the job ads from North Dakota and Nebraska? I see that their unemployment is under 4% and I need to get off the east Coast before the States start to go bankrupt next year.
Re. “I do believe that capitalism, like socialism, communism, etc… can easily be abused for overwhelming personal gain at the expense of others.”
1. We do not have capitalism in this country. Starting sometimes in the beginning of last century the government started to grow and over the years of both Rep. and Dem. admins grew into a huge enterprise that by its size and incessant meddling into economic life by regulations and by picking winners and losers transformed economic system into so-called “corporatism” which is polite name for fascism.
2. All “isms”, except capitalism are humans attempts to understand and modify society “for the better”. Capitalism as well as slave and feudal societies before it were not designed and were not well understood until 19-th century. I think you should read some classical authors like Smith, Ricardo, and yes, Marx and Engels. If I were in your shoes I would start from “Communist manifesto” that consists of 2 parts: 1 part describing early capitalistic society of mid 19th century and the 2 part describing their vision of a “better” organized society. You would be struck (I was) by the following difference: while 1 part is real, the 2-d one is an idealized extrapolation of Plato’s Republic. Almost 2 centuries later and few 100 mil dead in a various attempts to implement the 2-d part speaks for itself. Unfortunately only few listen.
All I see “protesting” are a lot of communists and anarchists wandering around spouting out platitudes and insane ideas. It didn’t help them in 1968, and it’s not about to help them in 2011. I just think it’s the far left having a nervous breakdown because they were let down so badly by Obama. Well, now they can choke on his failure and his horrible policies that have brought us to the brink of bankruptcy. Hopefully, we can change all that in 2012 and throw this fraud out of office.
“Spouting platitudes and insane ideas?” No, you’ve got the lefty kids in the squares mixed up with what’s going on in the GOP ‘debate’ spectacles. PS: To see what a real debate is, you have to go back to Lincoln and Douglas
These so called 99% are in reality the sponging 47% who pay NO TAX AT ALL. They are just taking their SPONGING entitlement culture for a day out to Wall Street and the naive, gullible, in the Democratic Party tank Lame Stream EneMedia (LSE) are talking them up for all they are worth.
The top 1% pay 40% of Taxes the top 5% pay 70% of all Taxes the 53% pay ALL the Taxes and these 47%ers pay NOTHING they are just LEECHES.
So if you want to talk about FAIRNESS then the top earners need THEIR taxation to be DECREASED and the 47% of SPONGERS need to brought in to line and made to PAY some Tax instead of living off BENEFITS paid for by others. This is not about FAIRNESS it never was about FAIRNESS its a POLITICAL PLOY stirring up Class Envy and the the disgusting Obambi REGIME and the Deem’o'cratic Party is feeding its deluded half educated followers aided and abetted by the LSE some ILLUSION to RIOT over.
Hi Zach hows the mooching going who’s paying your Tuition why the wicked 53% TAX PAYERS THATS WHO , whose money did you use to buy your Computer, your Blackberry, your Green NAZI car, and your apartment . Not YOURS I can guarantee it. You and your Class Envy movement are just a joke.
I have information that “AD Buster” media secured the http://www.OccupyWallStreet.org before June 2010. What we are seeing on Wall Street is a an assult over eighteen months in the making. I don’t know where the money is coming from but being a fleabager on Wall Street is paying between $350 and $600 per week right now. I will leave tracing that money back to the Democrat astroturf accounts to somebody who gets paid for it.
i agree alot if not most are posurs…but the union thugs are not. we need to be wary. they dont have to start just follow and the useless cops and corrupt politicians will be right there helping them
Distortions of simple facts matter. Bank bailout took place in last days of Bush administration- not Obama.
As a Jew, the one thing that disgusts me is how anti-Semitism always gets blended into the message when the economy in any country goes south! I see many videos of these resentful people with signs of hate slogans that blame ‘the Jews’ but the irony is Wall Street really has absolutely no linkage between those ranting unemployed losers and the real economy. I should know because I’m a Canadian who has worked on Bay Street (Toronto’s equivalent of Wall Street) as a researcher for RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) investing.
I’m not in that business anymore because I got sick and tired of realizing that the stock market is just an insane game of speculation. I got frustrated with seeing that the few good companies that pay constant dividends were being artificially manipulated as if they were stocks that paid no dividends! There is too much money chasing high capital returns, which is purely driven by the largest investment companies and hedge funds. As an insider, I find it a joke how any one company can try to differentiate itself from its competitors when they all invest in the same products! In anyone day, ideally when there are no new market threats (a spread of infection effecting cattle, a frost effecting fruit, a battle effecting the immediate rather than the perceived reduction of oil, etc.) there is no economic necessity that justifies the massive volume of shares being bought and sold! This is only being driven by artificial manipulation, some days there is absolutely no good reason why the bid and ask system can widely vary in trends that can last anywhere from a day or even a week. All anyone needs to do is to look at the penny stock market, everything being equal (interest rate and inflation being stable); these stocks generate illogical volumes of trades where profits and losses on stocks paying no dividends can vary widely (from 50% to up 500%). All the while, absolutely nothing new affected these companies bottom-line, this was all done by artificial manipulation in order to make capital gains by buying low and selling high or by short selling.
Now for people who want to invest in good dividend paying stocks, I get frustrated for them because the dividend yield (the percent of money you get is calculated by the full year dividend price over the current price of the stock) is constantly fluctuating. Novices to the stock market think that a bull market (prices going up) is a good thing, well it’s not when prices are being artificially manipulated. For example, a stable stock whose price is $20 and its dividend is $1 (paying .25 cents every 3 months) has a yield of 5%. What is common practise these days is investment houses will suddenly push this stock for their clients. As more investors buy the stock, the yield goes down so a once stable stock at $20 slowly rises and at $25 your dividend yield drops to 4%. But suddenly there are too many investors that now everyone wants to make a profit before selling it, so the ask price (lowest price seller will go) starts to increase and slowly over a few days the price might hit its maximum at $30 (yield is now 3.33%). Next thing you’ll see is a trend, especially at uniform bear market (prices going down) because once prices slightly go down, it will trigger off an automated sell (what I call dump it all now—fast!) by investment houses’ software.
None of this trading is truly necessary at such massive volumes, it only happens because if stocks were stabilized (which in my opinion they should be during 99% of the year), stockbrokers would be out of a job! Think of stocks as buying paintings, very rarely are paintings bought as an investment and then sold for a quick profit within a year. Well the stock market is an auction house where people buy and sell the same paintings over and over again ad nauseam! So pray tell, how the hell does buying and selling the same piece of paper in huge volumes of trading have anything to do with the loud mouths shouting about occupying Wall Street? To yell and blame the Jews is the equivalent of planning a mob rally to occupying Las Vegas and saying it’s all the fault of the Jews! Thanks to the marketing of brokerage houses and hedge funds, clients can only get a return on their money by artificially manipulating the stock market (short term pump and dump of targeted companies over and over and over again) so that the stock market has become a casino! And just like a casino, the house always wins, in this case brokerage houses and specifically traders make huge profits by insuring the stock market is never stable.
And it is for this particular reason why many investment houses recently went under because of greed; they introduced a new product of repackaging toxic mortgages together and selling them to their clients. But it’s no different than saying in the wine market brokers will create a new product for investors, so they’ll crush up all the useless grapes of poor quality, make a liquid and pour it into very dark bottles where nobody can see what it looks like. Then the brokers will turn around and repackage crates of this wine as something exotic in order to create a false demand. Investors buy up all these crates of wine in the hope that the price of this exotic wine goes up, however the brokers never expected investors to actually open up this wine. Well when one consumer who invested a large part of his retirement open up a crate and gave a bottle to an expert to evaluate the quality of the vintage, the expert was shocked to find this exotic wine was just a cheap liquid made of rejected old grapes. Once the word came out, all the investors tried to sell their crates of this crap but nobody wanted to buy this stuff. So all investors who were lured into buying this repackaged crappy grape juice lost their savings. While some of the brokers that spent a mint creating this product to sell went bankrupt. And this domino effect continued until the remaining surviving brokers and banks that were totally responsible for creating a false market to sell these rejected grapes as an exotic wine begged the government for a bailout to save their business!
The bottom-line is that nothing has changed, the remaining brokerage houses continue to create new investment instruments that are little less than rejected grapes being repackaged as sparkling wine! And the manipulation of the market through massive amount of trading volume continues unabated, yet none of this has anything to do with why this unruly mob who wish to occupy Wall Street are without jobs! Finally everything I’ve mention is due to greed—it has absolutely nothing to do with the religion of Judaism! Jews don’t control Wall Street, most of the surviving firms don’t even have Jewish partners! Knowledge is power but these leftist mobs have no cohesive message so they have gone back to the old European standby of scapegoating the Jews!
I loathe people who blame my people in time of economic crisis! All these problems are because of greed, just as greed is the reason why the EU is becoming insolvent! You have a bunch of socialist countries that gave out more in government programs than they could afford and they financed it by going into debt. But with an enormous underground economy combined with the greed of citizens who wanted more government services and subsidies (educational, food, rent, etc.) yet refused to pay for it through taxation then of course crippling debt resulted. But Europeans are playing their old blame game and reverting to blaming the Jews!
I’m beginning to lose my faith in humanity!
OWS dirtballs remind me of an old Frank Zappa ditty “Uncle Remus”
“We look pretty sharp in these clothes
(yes, we do)
Unless we get sprayed with a hose.”
I’m hoping for the water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the streets of this two legged trash.
Zach gives us a list of woes: friends out of work, getting sick and uninsured. Man, you are just bad luck for the people around you.
He tells us how hard he’s worked but just can’t get a break. His answer: Occupy Wall Street. Let’s see how that’s supposed to work?
Step One: occupy the center of Central Podunk, Minnesota.
Step Three: everything’s fixed.
Zach needs to work on Step Two just a little bit, because reading through his “woe is me” essay he’s looking for somebody else to come to the rescue.
Zach is the kind of simpleton who stood in the crowd and listened to Barack Hussein Obama tell them that his election was the moment that the seas would recede and the earth would heal. Instead of getting a queasy feeling that the person on stage was a pathological narcissist with delusions of grandeur he was cheering. Now the follower of The One Who Failed is blaming everyone else for his and 53% of his fellow citizens who were equally deluded.
To this otherwise excellent expose, about the only thing which I might offer in the way of improvement would be to mention that, though the accouterments be in a modern setting, at its core, OWS is a counter-culture movement in standard form—counter, that is, to the same old common sense concerning all human activity and gain; for, the thing which the counter-culture movement perennially misses is that, all human improvement depends upon the level of purposeful activity which bears upon the having and nurturing of children—a thing which, by every manifestation, in the OWS mob is quite absent, or, if every they did know anything about it, they are fully in denial of, . . .
And in the way of correction, strike me if I’m wrong but, wouldn’t the sentence: “Anyway, Mark, I have news for you. It ain’t cheap!”, instead of the period after “you”, stand better with a colon after “you”, to read: “Anyway, Mark, I have news for you: It ain’t cheap!”, and to be consistent with the casual address announced in, “Anyway” coupled with the solecism “ain’t”, the entire thing then to read: “Anyway, Mark, I got news for ya’: It ain’t cheap!”?
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here is the record. This “spontaneous” uprising was planned since at least before June 2011.
I developed a thesis last night while clicking through channels, looking for the ball game. These liberal arts, unemployed/unemployable, left wing slackers have spent years watching “Friends,” “Sex In The City,” and “Two and a Half Men.” The slackers see these characters as being real and want to live/be like them.
And, I’d bet, the the same kind of shiftless characters occur in the music, reading material and literature that these slackers follow.
Zach, Thanks for your Service.
Socialism is never the answer to economic problems. It is the cause of them. It is the specific cause of ours. We need less socialism and more freedom. Less Wealth redistribution and more Liberty Distribution.
If there is less regulation, there is less of a vehicle for bribes and deals with politicians to bypass them.
If government doesn’t have power over something, no business can hire lobbyists to purchase a favorable exemption.
Less government, more freedom ALWAYS brings lots of jobs. It is proven to work every single time it is tried.
If these folks are so down on capitalism maybe they should give up their iPhones/iPads etc. I could certainly use an iPad if they want to do the right thing and give it up…
I think a problem is that capitalism is just a straw man set up so Marx could punch it a few times. Adam Smith didn’t invent capitalism; he invented economics as a social science. A capitalist system is merely an economic system, and the greater the degree of freedom, the greater the efficiency of the system, i.e. the more economic it is. Feudalism and it’s modern doppelgänger socialism are retardations of an economic system; they attempt to slow down and control what is fundamentally beyond human control. This goes back to the priest-kings and pharaohs who tried and failed at the same thing. The greater the friction and inefficiency, the slower the growth and the greater the number of people who suffer.
Of course corporations aren’t necessarily blameless in our present retarded economic system; some beg the government to give them a competitive edge, which slow the system as surely as a stupid law like Sarbanes-Oxley or McCain-Feingold. Markets aren’t perfect, and won’t bring about nirvana as some libertarians believe, but they’re certainly more efficient than any government meddling. The defenses put up around capitalism are often specious, because defending what doesn’t exist is just playing the game by the feudalists rules. Economics is all about people–it comes down to simply getting people what they want in exchange for what they’re willing to sacrifice for it, and receiving the benefit of making it happen. Every anti-’capitalist’ argument should be answered in just that way, and endless series of “who the hell are you to tell me I can’t have…”
In the end socialists and priest-kings and romantic ‘revolutionaries’ all just want to tell other people what to do. And it always works out for them when they win; socialism pretends to be a system to help out the common folks, but in reality it’s just the recipe to make certain people wealthy and powerful, and when they win, they become far more ’1%’ than any Steve Jobs. Compare and contrast any American ‘plutocrat’ to Mao or Stalin or Hitler. A Steve Jobs has to please his customers. A Mao can murder a few tens of millions and still be worshipped by most of the rest. No wonder these rich snob crybabies want to give socialism a try. They could live the life of Mao–kill whom you will, mess around with as many twelve-year-old girls as you can handle, have any material thing you can think of, and have everybody, everywhere saying, ‘yes, oh my master.’ What’s not to like?
Is incredible that as much as they try to save the US economy is like something almost impossible for a least a few years, it is hard to explain what’s going to happens tomorrow, theirs no point of raising taxes at 50 or more % if there no purpose of it.
They have organized people to start taking money out of the big banks and putting that money in credit unions and smaller banks…Looks like they’re not as delusional as you think…
The Occupiers: Pathetic Becomes Perilous
Choose your variation: There’s nothing surer: The rich get richer and the poor get—poorer/children/laid off. Whatever you pick, the line may be considered one of the slogans of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators.
When those protests against everything began a month ago, most outside observers viewed them with a mixture of bemusement and bewilderment. They have rapidly devolved into a source of disenchantment, disgust, and now fear.
At first, what little focus they had seem centered on the people President Barack Hussein Obama called the Wall Street “fat cats.” They’ve widened their scope beyond greed.
A LaLa Land demonstrator revealed that new vista when he announced at an Occupy Los Angeles rally that violence and bloodshed will become necessary components of the Left Coast occupation.
Rejecting Gandhian non-violence, the unidentified, heavily-accented speaker lectured his excited audience on his revolutionary model, the French Reign of Terror. He concluded, “So, ultimately, the bourgeoisie won’t go without violent means. Revolution! Yes, revolution that is led by the working class. Long live revolution! Long live socialism!”
See and hear his call for insurrection here: http://bit.ly/nH1wBA.
The failure of the Occupiers to recognize that Washington, not bankers, was the primary cause of the sub-prime mortgage crisis which precipitated our Great Recession and most of the Occupiers’ grievances could be dismissed as merely pathetic. This new wrinkle is disturbing. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5712.)
We went to a rally sponsored by MoveOn, and it was
mainly about job growth and creation here in the U.S. There was a strong union
presence there, including the head of the postal workers’ union. Everyone was in
good spirits, we talked to a few nice people who were very concerned about what
is happening in our country, held our signs, and waved at the cars going by.
Most were fairly supportive, people waving and honking their horns, but we got a
real kick out of the guy that drove by and flipped us off. Really? A group of
people gathers to push for job creation in the country, and your response is
“Fuck you?” I just don’t get that.
There was a simultaneous Occupy South Bend rally going on a block away, so we
joined forces with them. Slightly different focus, but still on the same side of
things. There is a growing inequity in how much the Haves have and how much the
Have Nots don’t have. The rampant greed of Wall Street and the deregulations of
their activities resulted in the average American getting screwed over royally.
We–those same screwed-over taxpayers–bailed out the banks and investment
companies, because to not do so would mean a complete collapse of the economy. I
understand that, and I still support the bailouts. However, although some of
that money has been paid back, not all of it has, and the profits of the
companies and their CEOs are still through the roof…and they are still not
investing in the American recovery. No one has been held accountable, and the
greedy bastards are still doing what they were doing when they got us into that
mess.
Ken and I are fortunate to have weathered this fairly well (knock on wood). He
has a good job, and if need be, I could go back to work in the health care
sector. But I was proud to stand in support of all those who have been so
severely affected by this, whether it’s people who can’t retire because they
lost most of their retirement funds, or people who have been out of work for
months or years because the jobs simply aren’t there.
Herman Cain (or as Palin likes to call him, “Herb”) commented on the growing
Occupy rallies last week and said that if you don’t have a job, don’t blame the
banks, don’t blame Wall Street…blame yourself. I wonder what planet Mr. Cain
is living on? There are 14 million unemployed in the United States, and I can
tell you that I know plenty of people who are hard-working individuals and want
to find a job, but simply can’t because there are so few jobs available. Matt
has sent out over 2,000 resumesand has been unable to get anything. These are
not lazy people, these are not people trying to take advantage of government
programs. They are people like you and me who have been downsized and outsourced
and screwed by corporate greed.
I supposed it’s easy for ol’ Herb to tell people to blame themselves. He isn’t
struggling to pay the rent or put food on the table for his family or trying to
pay medical bills. When he had to deal with cancer, he had the best care that
money could buy; he didn’t have to worry about how his medical bills might
bankrupt his family or make them lose their home. There are millions of
Americans who aren’t millionaires who worry about those things every single day.
I stand with them.
nutwoodjunction.blogspot.com
“There is a growing inequity in how much the Haves have and how much the
Have Nots don’t have. The rampant greed of Wall Street and the deregulations of
their activities resulted in the average American getting screwed over royally.”
That sentence makes absolutely no sense. Like most leftist “arguments” it is a bunch of unrelated statements smashed together to imply a connection.
What “deregulations” are you talking about? Be specific. How does that cause economic “inequity?” Are you saying the cure for recession is to increase regulations? How many are enough or are there never enough? What economic theory are you basing your explanation on? And where is the graph that shows how more regulation yields more economic growth?
What makes economic equity a moral principle anyway? Is it in the 10 Commandments? Is economic equity a principle of the Declaration of Independence? Or are you just greedy, wanting half of what I earn, so you can be equal, and doing nothing to deserve it other than wanting it?
How do you plan on regulating “greed?” And how does greed of someone affect you anyway? How does your neighbor’s income affect you at all? I assume that greed suddenly happened and didn’t exist during boom times, otherwise how could greed explain the recession? Is there a graph somewhere that shows greed rising and falling and causing the economy to expand and contract?
And when President Obama and the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency why didn’t they take the time to pass a law against greed? They promised prosperity. Where is it?
Finally, Herman Cain was making a point you are incapable of understanding – that you have a great deal of control over your future, your life and your income. The world does not owe you a living. And while it is true that Obama socialism causes unemployment and poverty, as individuals we are still responsible to make our own way.
Did anyone notice that Gitlin is himself white, male, graying, married and comfortable. Maybe we should add hypocritical to the list.
The young protestors are generally slackers looking for good times, sex and rock and roll. Bored out of their gourds and looking for the next lay. The old guys quoted by Radosh are the pathetic ones trying to regain lost youth with their thinning greasy hair, slack muscles, yellow teeth and bad breath. They have never done anything to create a life worth living and are like aging parasites searching for that last meal. You all know who they are. Really yesterday, man. Not worth a second thought.
This 2004 article about the FDIC in Chicago guiding mortgages to illegal Mexican immigrants –AKA lending hard left –is almost comic, from a 2011 gallows perspective, in that then when the lurch-left lost to Isaac Newton again as it always & forever must –the hard left is hitting the streets, feeling all ‘subverted’?
‘Almost’ comic, because what with the disappeared military weapons in numbers possibly up to 20,000 also courtesy of the same Chicago terminator factory and also associated with Mexico, one must pause and scratch one’s chin, if it would hold still.
Wall Street Occupiers Bare Their Fangs
I was roundly chastised on October 8th by an indignant critic who took great umbrage at my early criticism of the self-proclaimed Wall Street Occupiers.
I must admit that my preliminary observations on the WSO were premature and only semi-accurate. I had suggested they were out of touch with reality whereas the truth could be that they are in close touch although their view of reality doesn’t approximate the beliefs of the 99% of Americans they claim to represent.
Kheaven1942 acerbically commented on my article, “Wall Street, the Numbnuts not the Movie” (http://tiny.cc/x2pnt) by saying, “Congratulations, this is the most delicately fabricated story I have ever read. It’s amazing to what lengths you went to make sure you capture only the very, very few in this movement who make it look uneducated and stupid. You, and everyone else following this story know very well how much more organized this is than what you are trying to portray in this sad excuse for journalism.”
In rebuttal, I would like to thank Kheaven for calling my writing “delicately fabricated” since I’m rarely delicate about anything but I have to correct him on his fabricated fabrication.
Kheaven went on to explain, “The movement is only a few weeks old. It is completely normal that it is still growing with no concise and clear direction and motivation–that would be asking too much. Give it a few more weeks, months, maybe even years, and this could be the new face of democracy.”
On that, I would have to agree and disagree. The demonstrations on Wall Street and yesterday in Times Square and across the nation may be growing without clarity of purpose but are “normal” only if normality is now defined by gross abnormality despite efforts by the mainstream media to depict them as a grassroots movement akin to the Tea Party.
For one important thing, Tea Partiers are law abiding people who respect the law, the rights of others, and common decency.
Sorry, Kheaven, but thousands of people exhibiting placards declaring hatred for and supporting the violent overthrow of my country, copulating in a public park, trampling on American flags, disrupting commerce and civil order, defying and intimidating legal authority, endorsing Nazism, Marxism, and anti-Semitism, and defecating on patrol cars among other outrages do not constitute the norm in any normal context.
Did I focus on the ”very, very few in this movement who make it look uneducated and stupid”? Hardly. The vast majority seem relatively educated but educated in public schools . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5729.)