Apparently some self-absorbed collectivists are making some sort of attempt at not-very-"civil disobedience" on Wall Street in New York City by getting together, protesting, demonstrating, and generally whinging that some people are more economically successful than they are.
No, seriously. If there is any message discernible in the hailstorm of nonsense being spewed forth from that… auspicious… gathering, it is, "Rich people suck, and they should give us money/jobs/etc."
Yeah. Good luck on that.
Doubly good luck with that when you quit your job to protest over economic inequality:
Wiljago Cook, 33, of Oakland, Calif., who joined the protest on the first day, said "exposing police brutality wasn’t even really on my agenda but my eyes have been opened."
She and her boyfriend and two neighbors all quit their jobs to come and planned "to stay as long as it seems useful," said Cook, who had worked for a nonprofit theater group.
Really? You quit your job to come and protest about… people not having jobs? *headdesk*
Another common theme I have been seeing on Twitter is a complaint amongst the "Occupy Wall Street" statists that corporations do not pay taxes. Uh, no kidding, moron. Corporations, in fact, do not pay taxes – they simply pass the charge on to you, the consumer, or stockholder, or employee, as a "cost of doing business". The very notion of requiring corporations to pay taxes boils down to nothing more than an idiotic, self-inflicted, with-malice-aforethought gunshot wound to your other foot… you know, the one the Federal Government does not already have a shackle around.
The one semi-message of the "protesters" I can definitely agree with, however, was the misappropriation of federal tax funds to pay for corporate bailouts – there is no such thing as a "company too big to fail", and spending your and my money to keep those companies afloat when the market dictated their death was a horrible abuse of government powers, and an egregious misuse of our funds. But, sadly, that complaint is all-but-buried beneath the non-stop stream of "Rich people shouldn’t be rich" or whatever the hell it is they are going on about today.
Look, I get that times are tough and that the economy has been trodding all over a lot of people’s dreams, but the simple truth is that standing around in a street in New York City is not going to change any of that – you are not going to find a job that way, you are not going to employ anyone else that way, and you are not going to correct any of the injustices you perceive… mainly because those "injustices" are entirely in your head and stem from your own personal greed and inveterate sense of entitlement. Hell, the "official" site for this shindig* (inasmuch as there is one) is claiming that they are "currently low on food." Maybe that is because you are depending entirely on the largesse of whatever supporters you might have? Or maybe it is because you are so insufficiently organized that you do not even know specifically what you are protesting about?
Oh well. No skin off my nose, and any American citizen is free to peaceably come together with any other American as they both so desire… but I am also free to point out just how stupid they are being.
(* – Speaking of, I guess an event comprising hundreds of protesters and demonstrators advocating "resistance" and "American Revolution", and which has already had hundreds of arrests, is not "insurrectionist" enough for some people.)
(9 News story courtesy of Glocked and Loaded.)
Marxism is the failed Political Experiment of the 20th Century. Those who cling to the Tenants of Marx and call themselves Marxists, Socialists, Communists, or “Progressives” now in the 21st Century despite 100 years of mass graves, abject poverty, and a ruling class fleecing the people in the name of “Altruism”, they deserve what is coming to them.
You wanna talk “Progress” how about progressing past pure stupidity?
Seems to me that their platform is based around “compassion for human beings”, like we’re supposed to base politics (right, just politics ;|) around emotions and humanity (their version only, of course).
I can’t seem to recall any previous socialist or communist movement that’s used that as their excuse. Is that the case, or am I just not reading enough history?
Also, if you’ve noticed their manifesto that can be edited by ANYONE, there is a reference to the transportation of fossil fuels. I hope it’s still there. It’s a good one.
quoted at Ushanka.us: http://blog.ushanka.us/2011/10/38-dead-on-wall-street.html
“Marxism”, to this lot, has more to do with “college forever”. They don’t understand the implications of Marx because they’ve never been taught any history other than Zinn’s BS.
First they warned that the tea party would be taken over by the right, but I think whichever lefties can manage to herd this stampede will easily take it over.
@ Weer’d Beard: Unfortunately, Dickens hit the nail squarely on the head – “ignorance” and “want” are inseparable sides of the same coin, and these people at these idiotic protests seem to be mindlessly wallowing in both. And, worse, they are True Believers of the sort that just know that if The Right People are in charge, then everything will work out, and the great Marxist experiment will finally come to the great and bountiful fruition they just know it is capable of.
In other words, Do It Again, Only Harder.
Me, I could go my whole life without seeing our country make the same mistakes that countless others have before…
@ the Dude: Some nitwit on Twitter mentioned the whole “compassion” thing, and completely failed to comprehend how “compassion” at the end of a government’s rifle is not “compassion” at all. The logical disconnect there was… impressive.
More to your question, I was always under the impression that Communism/Socialism/Marxism were all about “compassion”… at least in the notion of “take care of you fellow man by giving him that which you do not need”. Of course, “need” was defined by the government, “giving” was mandated by government force, and “fellow man” was “Party Members and other elites”, but at least that was the Party line…
@ Karl: Thank you!
@ Joe in PNG: Now that is a fair point. While what they are proposing may be Marxist in nature, it is highly unlikely that any of them are even aware of the historical analog. Of course, it is just as likely (in my book) that these protesters are naught but useful idiots for people who do remember their history…
@ Pop N Fresh: Pretty much the only point of intersection between the Tea Party and the Occupy X movements is that the government bailouts of private corporations was a Very Bad Thing, however, even on that point they differ as to the “why”. I think it is tremendously unlike that the TP will every be taken over or absorbed by these unorganized nitwits, but I do see it as likely that they might be eclipsed by them. If the media were to ever care about these non-event protests…
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