When I see these so-called “protestors”, I see neither true idealists nor democracy in action. Instead I see well-fed, spoiled, entitled, over-priveleged, self-indulgent pretenders, merely looking for a convenient excuse to hang out, put on a show, and accomplish nothing useful–all while mindlessly following their fellow lemmings in some watered-down version of a pseudo-countercultural fad. Spare me.
How many of these people can name ten specific factual aspects of the issues they protest?
How many can write a coherently composed, correctly spelled, properly punctuated, factually correct, full-page essay explaining the Bernie Madoff story?
How many can cite even rough CBO figures as to the corporate-bailout packages tendered conditionally to AIG or GM, and name the conditions attached?
How many can explain QE1, QE2 and the differences between them?
How many can state, without looking it up on their electronics, the purpose of P-PIP and name its two component programs?
From the interviews I’ve seen so far, I’ll bet fewer than 1% on any single one of those–far, far fewer if answering all. By contrast, the percentage who are using this social occasion to suck on cancer sticks, smoke dope and play on iPads and cell phones? Far, far higher. Yeah, they’re “the other 99%”, all right.
Posers.
In many regards, I don’t necessarily side with the financiers or the corporations in this ordeal; but instead with common sense. Supposed “protesters”: if you’re going to wail against the wealthy, against Wall Street, against some ideal of the ruling class and their money, at least don’t be a materialistic hypocrite by shamelessly displaying the fruits of mommy’s and daddy’s productivity and affluence. Instead, put your own money where your mouth is.
Decry wealth and the wealthy? Fine. Then how about being authentic about your ideals, sacrifice your stuff, and spend your money and effort instead contributing to the Red Cross or other relief agencies for natural disasters, or aid for the ongoing famine in the Horn of Africa?
If this is “the other 99%”, no wonder the nation is so uneasy and disturbed.
tornado says
Comment from John Huntington of Brooklyn NY, with replies by the author:
>I was going to post a comment on this entry:
>http://stormeyes.org/wp/2011/10/were-like-protesting-or-something/
>
>Sadly, though you say, “Open, frank, intelligent
>and well written discourse and dialogue, whether
>or not you agree with me, is the reason for this
>blog.”, it seems like I can’t post a comment
>without signing in, and there is no obvious way
>for me to create an account, other than going
>and creating my own wordpress blog.
>That probably explains why the only comments on
>your blog since at least August come from
>yourself.
Wrong. Many comments, including this one, are posted on the behalf of the commentors.
Have you ever opened your BLOG to find over 8,000 “comments” awaiting approval since the day before? I suspect not. I have. Learn the facts before you make conspiratorial assumptions.
I find reiteration rather wasteful, but out of a sense of informational benevolence, I’ll do it anyway. As I have posted here before, I had to place this BLOG behind a login wall to stop frivolous comments, personal attacks and especially SPAM. This included multiple episodes where anonymous cowards SPAM-bombed this BLOG.
If you have any ideas as to how to stop all SPAM from occurring, then…by all means, please go for it, make lots of lives easier, and get rich as a result. The world will be a wondrously SPAM-free place, and you may even have the privilege of being “protested” by a bunch of ill-informed dope-smokers trashing a park in NYC.
WordPress has pretty straightforward instructions for creating an account, and making a BLOG isn’t necessary.
>In any case, here’s the comment I was going to
>post:
>When I see people baselessly whining about
>”these people”, who are actually two-dimensional
>straw men based on something they read in the
>newspaper, I ignore it.
I obviously disagree, but who am I to deny your freedom to ignore? But wait..you didn’t ignore it. That’s a rather self-contradictory action, eh?
>When I see bloggers putting political troll-bait
>on an otherwise interesting weather blog, I
>unsubscribe from their RSS feed.
The title is “Weather or Not.” I guess the “or Not” part didn’t register. I can’t help that.
Don’t like it? Don’t read it! Please, feel free to exercise the freedom to ignore, unlike in this instance.
>Bye bye,
Bye bye.
tornado says
One e-mail commenter, whose poorly written reply was too riddled with personal attacks, hatred and bigotry to bother reproducing here, did point out one flaw in my original post. I failed to provide a solution for the corporate graft that has occurred. Here it is in three words: Jail the corrupt.
Problem solved.
Whether the minority of financial thieves of the corporate boardrooms or the minority of “Occupiers” stealing from others and committing sexual assaults, all deserve lengthy time in penitentiary to ponder their vile deeds. I wish upon them the ultimate irony of shared prison cells.