The OWS is officially as bad as the Tea Party

Hatter

http://gawker.com/5857715/pressured-to-name-leader-occupy-denver-elects-dog

I dislike the Tea Party. I think that they're discrediting the entire conservative movement. That "farewell" from a chapter in Tennessee to Barney Frank made me want to shoot whoever wrote it. You're supposed to show respect to a veteran enemy. To do otherwise isn't just dishonorable; it disgraces your entire political party. And out of the presidential candidates coming from the Tea Party, so far we've gotten an incompetent and an evil whore.

But at least the Tea Party leaves parks cleaner than they found them. They obeyed the law. Their hypocrisy was philosophical in nature, stemming from the contradiction between small government and preserved Medicare benefits, and so it wasn't immediately apparent in the way OWS protesters' is.

And when they had the chance to elect someone to represent their views, they at least had the common courtesy to elect someone who could FUCKING TALK.

IanExMachina

inb4dogissmarterthanteaparty

I don't really see how electing a dog makes OWS as bad as the tea party personally.

Hatter

It shows they're more interested in acting empowered and protesting than actually getting their point across. 

The Tea Party actually put people in congress that matched their views. They're serious about getting their points out there, and they want to be seen as legitimate. They don't throw away chances to get their policies passed.

BlackHumor

ITT: Hatter says electing a dog is equivalent to almost totaling the economy of the United States on at least one occasion.

Hatter

Right, because a collection of senior middle-class citizens protesting in 2009 created a culture in which risky lending practices and unethical housing deals in the early 2000s were acceptable.

Ironweaver

They're not serious, obviously. You have to be really literal-minded to think that electing a dog means wanting a dog as your leader - they did it out of spite, and for a reason, I'd say.

Hatter

Milos, I'm not autistic. I know that they meant it as a political statement. Electing a dog as your leader means that you're telling the people who want to talk to you to fuck off. That's my problem. A legitimate movement that wants to effect change doesn't pass up an opportunity to engage in open dialogue with a city's leaders. 

Ponicalica

«Right, because a collection of senior middle-class citizens protesting in 2009 created a culture in which risky lending practices and unethical housing deals in the early 2000s were acceptable.»

I think he means the debt-ceiling fiasco, where the Tea Party, and their favored candidates, wanted the United States to default on their debts, which would have lead to the utter collapse of United States government bonds, whose stability is pretty much the single remaining reliable investment.

ClockworkUniverse

^^^Sure it's a joke. It's a joke a fourth grader would make.

MillerCross

Yes, but does that make someone just as bad as the tea party?

Hatter

That, combined with the other things I enumerated above. The whole rape, shitting on doorsteps, circling around police to keep them from leaving, refusing to get the needed paperwork to camp in the parks, blatant hypocrisy and competing idiotic ideas have sort of soured me on the whole 99% movement.

MillerCross

 The whole rape

?

Hatter

http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/211304/3/Cleveland-Rape-alleged-at-Occupy-Cleveland

CommandoDude

"But at least the Tea Party leaves parks cleaner than they found them.
They obeyed the law. Their hypocrisy was philosophical in nature,
stemming from the contradiction between small government and preserved
Medicare benefits, and so it wasn't immediately apparent in the way OWS
protesters' is."

[Citation Needed]

Which Occupy left any park unclean? Occupy Oakland was very good about helping clean up Oakland after Anarchists created property damage, Occupy Wall Street cleared up Zuccati Park when they left. Etc.

Which LAW has any Occupy movement broken? Cite any law code.

What hypocrisy? I don't count 'using a smartphone' hypocritical.

"And when they had the chance to elect someone to represent their views,
they at least had the common courtesy to elect someone who could FUCKING
TALK."

I wasn't aware mouth pieces actually said anything with meaning.

MadassAlex

> Hatter
> politics

I'll get my-- oh whatever, I'll bite.

There's two issues with using rape against OWS. Firstly and more importantly, using the action of a single bad egg to characterise an entire movement smacks of policy bias. Secondly, it's not proven. I don't personally doubt it happened, but nor would I take it as fact yet.

In terms of the more major issue at hand, don't forget that the OWS is based on rejecting the current power structure. If Wall Street holds so much capital that they can influence, well, anything, then laws that don't deal directly with humanitarianism are unlikely to be respected. Ergo, you get things that ignoring permits and messing with the cops. That's all fine and dandy in my opinion. The major role of the police is to enforce the law, but lawmakers do not represent the wider population. Therefore, the police will always conflict with the interests of the lower class in any sort of class struggle, and can only be counted upon to assist the lower classes when class struggle isn't present.

With that in mind, it's easy to see why the OWS break some laws while the Tea Party follow them. The Tea Party represents upper and middle-upper classes who benefit most from the current policies that aim to empower the wealthy.

Furthermore, the OWS choosing a dog to represent their views has a meaning you've entirely missed out on and it's a very clever move. They're essentially saying that they choose no representative, and in the same move, mock the opposition. What they're aiming to express here is that they don't need, want or care for a representative because they aim to be a completely equal collective, and shan't be swayed otherwise.

The masses aren't unwashed simpletons, Hatter. They haven't been for a long time. Today's age is an information age, where anything is accessible at the push of a button and communication can be conducted instantly across the entire world. We can thank this for the revolutionary action in the Middle East. And I guarantee you that common folk will continue to push for greater equality as this age progresses. Powerbrokers will lose control as their skills progress more slowly than Average Joe.

See, where those at the top have skills that deal essentially with management, business and illusion, the working class are hard at work developing the skills that make a society possible. The power is very tangibly in our hands already, because we run the factories, build houses, cook food and design technology. Our only roadblock is our lack of unity. That's changing.

The kinds of people that run Wall Street are only relevant because the system of Capitalism allows them to be so. If we can shatter the system, they become useless. It's regular people that have tangible skills that allow them to build or destroy whilst the extremely rich leech off the work of others. All materialistic human value lies in skill and labour, yet Wall Street leaders contribute neither unless it pertains to their own wealth.

MillerCross

> Hatter
> politics
I'll get my--

Man, I missed this so much, thank, Al--

oh whatever, I'll bite.

We can't be friends anymore. 

Icalasari

^ I wonder if anybody has gotten their hat instead?

MadassAlex

We can't be friends anymore.

---

An acceptable loss for GLORIOUS COMMUNIST AMERICA(S).

Icalasari

^ That made me think of GLORIOUSLeader

MillerCross

GLORIOUS COMMUNIST AMERICA(S).

[Long essay on Cuba explaining why Latin America can't be communist] 

InsanityAddict

This tradition goes back all the way to Incitatus and the Roman Senate, can't accuse the movement of being uncultured.

Malkavian

^^Because America will invade under the pretext of fighting drug dealers?

MillerCross

Will?