Parks and Demonstration

[mahnmut]

America cannot expect a bunch of disenfranchised park-dwellers to come up with a solution to its economic woes -- they have a political ruling class to do that.

Sooo... when the Tea Party took to the streets to "take their country back" from the evil politicians, that was an expression of their democratic right to protest, something inherently American. Right?

...But when the Occupy Wall Str rallies took to the streets to "take their country back" from the evil banks and corporations, that's suddenly the first step to some socialist fascist Nazi totalitarianism, because they're unAmerican haters of freedom. Right???

I see. Welcome to Bizarroland.

Comments

[alphistia.livejournal.com]

"they have a political ruling class to do that." hahahahahahahahaha - the American political class at this point is like Erich Honecker in the last days of East Germany...or much worse...like the clueless ruling class in Weimar Germany.

But what is the source of the whole quote? I see a screenshot of Jon Stewart, but if he said this, he was being very sarcastic and satirical.

The Tea Party is a bunch of resentful small business owners (think of the worst Afrikaner petit bourgeoisie and that comes close to what a typical teabagger is) plus a clueless lumpy proletariat who want government benefits for themselves, but to hell with anyone else in the country. From the word "go" they were taking orders from Fox News with its talking points along with the Koch Brothers funding and control. They're the opposite of grassroots - they are 100% astroturf and are part and parcel of the Republican Party.

The Occupy Wall St kids (mostly kids) are generally white middle class people with anarcho-left sympathies who have been cheated from birth - lousy schools, colleges that rip them off every step of the way, and then NO JOBS - or the worst kinds of mcjobs, no health insurance, and a failing financial system that practically guarantees they will never get any kind of pension, much less social security. They have the sympathy of many traditional liberals and even a few Reagan democrats (mostly blue collar union members who might normally be teabaggers) - why? Because the middle class has paid for the greed and crimes of Wall St and the corrupt political class - just like what happened in Iceland in 2008. And people went into the streets there too.

The solution? Well, Wall St isn't going away and there will not be a new French Revolution. This movement will be crushed, although probably not violently. The normal American response is to co-opt dissent. Look for Occupy Wall St to be branded, given its own cable network and American Idol style reality shows, sponsored by Coke and McD's...'cause ultimately that IS the American Way...

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

The quote is from the video segment that you'll watch if you click on the screenshot of Jon Stewart. ;-)

Stewart being sarcastic is self-understood, I think.

[alphistia.livejournal.com]

the photo as a tv clip didn't work for me, probably a browser glitch....
and as I wrote, Occupy Wall St will end up with its own cable network to neutralize it, and there will be one more alternative to football for you.

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

Me thinks the Occupy Wall Str people are not being taken too seriously because they are too regularly being painted as over-educated Hippie types. that seems to be the only problem.

you see, it is easy for the poor and middle-class to quickly disregard the over-educated, because the middle-class and lower demographics don't give a damn. but the over-educated cannot so easily disregard the middle-class and poor since the middle-class and the poor are so much more frightening! and intense!

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Alphistia (see above) seems to have a slightly different picture of the Occupy Wall Str:

The Occupy Wall St kids (mostly kids) are generally white middle class people with anarcho-left sympathies who have been cheated from birth - lousy schools, colleges that rip them off every step of the way, and then NO JOBS - or the worst kinds of mcjobs, no health insurance, and a failing financial system that practically guarantees they will never get any kind of pension, much less social security.

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

All I know is that the local news channels piss me off when they report stupid shit, like an increase in thumb/finger blisters amongst the crowd due to bongo playing. those types reports completely take away from the reason for their localizing u know :(

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're doing what you preached earlier: discuss serious things in a serious way. :-P

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

I like volleyball.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Mahnmut is probably a bit sore about football (rugby) at the moment :P

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

So these guys are not astroturf but the others are? (devil's advocate time)

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Fucked if I know!

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

The other guys are, now, I'm not yet sure which particular monied interest will utilise this particular energy.

I don't know if astroturf is even really the right term for it. The Tea Party was born out of a genuine frustration, but it was all over the shop with no clear direction at the start too; then the Koch's et. al. came along and gave it direction and focus and used the energy for their own ends. The similarities between the two are manifold; I would expect there to be a similar type of co-opting going on here. I can't really see who yet, but there's no way the monied interests will let this kind of energy go untapped. Where it goes from there who knows? There's a whole lot of genuine anger out there that *something is broken*. Everybody seems to realise that the system is corrupt, but there looks like there is going to be two competing opinions on what the solution is. It seems quite appropriate to see a classic dialectic going on here. The system is fucked is solved by the thesis that government is fucked, which is countered by the antithesis that corporations are fucked, what comes next, the synthesis, is going to be the interesting part.

Here's hoping enough people realise that the problems in today's USA are that the government and the corporations are fucked. But what's the solution to that? Is America's democracy strong enough to withstand the upheaval necessary to change the system, or will blood have to be shed and buildings burned? Will people power prevail, or will the vested interests co-opt and distract the energy?

[prog-expat.livejournal.com]

The Red Scare: still ongoing.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

"Welcome" to bizarro land. Have you been living in this century? Shit is well fucked up.