Occupy Wall Street: Support or Oppose? (OWS vs. Nativity)

[Phatscotty]

Is the Occupy crowd the response/left equivalent to the Tea Party? Already a lot of comparisons have been made, I was wondering what you guys think about it. I haven't heard any estimate about how many people are participating in the occupation and I haven't been able to find out either. I know Occupiers are taking the Hennepin Court house here tomorrow (they got the okay from the police to camp there too). Anyone have anything to share about what happening in their city?

If I can get my buddy to roll with me we are going. LETS GO BRO!

[FoxMists]

Is the Occupy crowd the response/left equivalent to the Tea Party? Already a lot of comparisons have been made, I was wondering what you guys think about it. I haven't heard any estimate about how many people are participating in the occupation and I haven't been able to find out either. I know Occupiers are taking the Hennepin Court house here tomorrow (they got the okay from the police to camp there too). Anyone have anything to share about what happening in their city?

If I can get my buddy to roll with me we are going. LETS GO BRO!

The Occupy movement is not really a liberal response to the Tea Party, but I can see where you can make the connections easily enough. The way the world works is through pendulum swings. It is entirely possible that this is just an extra fast swing back to the left, but I doubt it. The very close ties to hacktivists LULZSEC and Anonymous who practically put Occupy on the map turns this into a new realm of collaboration with criminal organisations. This is less leftist and more anarchist than anything. It is also sad, I have to say, that we need this sort of revolution in order to slow down the right wing freefall the country has been on. The blame game is all fine and well but in the end, it never helps you fix your problems. Just fucking fix it!

Take your rage with you, Scotty. It will keep you warm at night. Good luck, if you go.

[BigBallinStalin]

The Tea Party crowd would definitely win in a fight because their members on average have more guns than the "99%" crowd.

[Night Strike]

The occupy movement is centered around either anarchy or socialism, depending which ones in the crowd you ask. The Tea Party is based in having a limited and responsible government. The ideals and methods of the two groups are completely opposite. And now that the big unions and radical leftists have been joining the occupation, it just verifies that their whole idea is to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism.

[Phatscotty]

I thought Occupy was planned by that SEIU guy Steve Lerner? Anonymus, from their last message, sounded like they had no part in it, but yes this movement will help them. That's what the occupiers want, to create the condition for a crisis. A stock market crash might suffice

[Lootifer]

I think (even though we know most of OWS is little rich kids) that it is the other side of the equation: TP is rich looking down (so to speak) compared to the OWS which is the poor looking up (even if its vocal chords are rich mummas boys trying to save the world).

[jimboston]

The Tea Party crowd would definitely win in a fight because their members on average have more guns than the "99%" crowd.

Plus they have Tea Par Death Squads... I have not yet heard about Occupy Wall Street Death Squads.

[Phatscotty]

The Tea Party crowd would definitely win in a fight because their members on average have more guns than the "99%" crowd.

Plus they have Tea Par Death Squads... I have not yet heard about Occupy Wall Street Death Squads.

They could start by having a message. The TP was Taxed Enough Already. It doesn't have to be fancy. This 99% stuff kind of implies they claim to speak for everyone. I don't know though I don't have any love for the banks and I will try to check out this crowd tomorrow but probably Saturday. I would bet it's gonna be a big union thing, as we have some in-home health care executive ordered unionization thingy going on here atm, plus we are right next to WI so we'll see.

[saxitoxin]

A sidewalk corner of Santa Barbara was occupied. I went down to see who was occupying it. There were four Hispanic gentlemen with a giant, professionally printed and pricey-looking banner that read "We are the 99% - Stop Greed" and then a SEIU logo in the corner. These four gentlemen are a regular fixture picketing outside Whole Foods and Walgreens, meaning they're professional protesters (that is, they're hired to maintain picket lines). It's usually UCSB students that get hired for these $10/hour picketing gigs but they lose out to day laborers in the summer and early fall months.

Anyway, I guess the 99% had to sub-contract the occupation. I'll try to snap a photo of them once I'm back in town.

• It's actually quite sad. I have no doubt the vast majority of the people in New York are legitimately exasperated, genuinely looking for revolutionary change and unaware that they're just props in a mobile marketing stunt that reeks of stale institutionalism. What started as a spontaneous, revolutionary movement is now just the newest vehicle to prop-up 70-something year old, major party, professional politicians who vote for things like the Patriot Act, FISA, and war (see: Nancy Pelosi - 'God Bless Wall Street Protesters!" http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65368.html). Really stomach-churning.

[GreecePwns]

I'm afraid the unions are attempting to co-opt the grassroots movement that started here in Manhattan. Still, the vast majority of these protesters are here on their own expense, and their numbers are growing every day, especially since the Tony Bologna pepper spray incident.

Hopefully, the Tea Party and these guys can come to some sort of agreements.

[Night Strike]

Hard to come to an agreement with people who want to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism.

[Lootifer]

Hard to come to an agreement with people who want to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism.

No middle ground, nope, none at all.

Jeez, you're worse than scotty. And that's saying something.

[Night Strike]

Hard to come to an agreement with people who want to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism.

No middle ground, nope, none at all.

Jeez, you're worse than scotty. And that's saying something.

When you're comparing such things as working hard to take care of yourself and your family versus redistributing the wealth because "rich" people make too much money, then no, there's not any middle ground.

[saxitoxin]

Stand the f*ck Back Egypt ... It's Time for a Youth Movement - American Style!

[radiojake]

Hard to come to an agreement with people who want to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism.

Are you McCarthy's love child?


Do you worry when your children bring out the red crayon?

[Night Strike]

Hard to come to an agreement with people who want to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism.

Are you McCarthy's love child?


Do you worry when your children bring out the red crayon?

I don't have children.

[radiojake]

Hard to come to an agreement with people who want to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism.

Are you McCarthy's love child?


Do you worry when your children bring out the red crayon?

I don't have children.

Haven't you been raging on about whether or not your daughter should get the gardisil injection?

[Night Strike]

Hard to come to an agreement with people who want to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism.

Are you McCarthy's love child?


Do you worry when your children bring out the red crayon?

I don't have children.

Haven't you been raging on about whether or not your daughter should get the gardisil injection?

I said that if/when I have a daughter...

[radiojake]

I said that if/when I have a daughter...

Must have missed that part... fair enough...

Well, in that case, if/when you have children and they bring out the red crayon for their colouring books, is it going to send you into a nervous breakdown?

I've just never seen someone worry about socialism so much - You do realise there is 0% chance of socialism ever being implemented in the US, right?

[Mr_Adams]

Tea Party=Political Movement
Occupy Wall Street≈Bowel Movement

[spurgistan]

Note that NS never specifically denied being Joe McCarthy's love child. Ergo, guilty as charged. I say we drug test him, just to make sure.

Also, the Tea Party and OWS are alike in that they're groups of angry people. If you think it's anything deeper, you're not paying attention.

[anonymus]

Hard to come to an agreement with people who want to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism.

No middle ground, nope, none at all.

Jeez, you're worse than scotty. And that's saying something.

lol i was just thinking the same..

/

[Nobunaga]

Hard to come to an agreement with people who want to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism.

No middle ground, nope, none at all.

Jeez, you're worse than scotty. And that's saying something.

lol i was just thinking the same..

/

... Think it through then and please, tell us all what middle ground you can find between the two. You are purporting there is room for middle ground and ridiculing those who say there is not. So, educate us.

... But first, while you prepare your analysis, please consider a few of the "official demands" of the Occupy Wall Street folks:
...

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

... And the progs laugh when we imply this group is socialist?!
... Perform actual work for wages?! Are you outta your mind?!
...

Demand four: Free college education.

... So... who's going to pay the bills for teachers, books, etc...?
... Perhaps we can aspire to the level of France's university system! ... wait a minute..
...

Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.

... Awesome!!
...
... This next one is pure genius!:

Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the “Books.” World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the “Books.” And I don’t mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.

... Personal responsibility for one's actions? .... NAH! We don't need that kind of Right-Wing shit here, man!


... Lookin' forward to your (and by "your", I mean of course anybody's) assessments of that middle ground.

...

[MeDeFe]

Considering the trillions that banks worldwide have received so far, the last is actually only fair. If banks, hedge funds and Bob knows what else don't have to take responsibility, why should anyone else?

[thegreekdog]

Considering the trillions that banks worldwide have received so far, the last is actually only fair. If banks, hedge funds and Bob knows what else don't have to take responsibility, why should anyone else?

I didn't see this response in any of your posts when we had the bank bailouts. If banks and other financial institutions may risky investments such that the institutions fail, they should be allowed to fail. Forgiving indebtedness is not the same as allowing banks to fail. If the people are asking for a "lender bailout" then I can sort of see their point, although I'd much prefer not to have had the original bailouts.

Speaking of which, assuming that the bailouts are what the protestors in New York are protesting (it seems unlikely given that the bailouts happened a few years ago), I think they and the Tea Partiers have something in common. Apart from that, there doesn't seem to be many congruent theories. Plus, you know, Tea Partiers are racist, bigoted, hick hayseeds (or Wall Street fatcats) which creates an irrefutable presumption that they won't be part of this New York crowd (which is composed entirely of mainstream Americans, intelligent college students who picked themselves up by their bootstraps, and hard-working Americans of all races, religions, and creeds).