Am I the only one who doesn't get Occupy X?

[Mutant Funk Drink]

First off, I don't really give a fuck about the Occupy movement.

But I'll now get to my point:

I understand Occupy Wall Street, since the point of the movement is to make rich people pay their fair share; what I don't get are the splinter Occupy protests, like Occupy Los Angeles. I mean, seriously, what the fuck does that do for your movement? That would be like if you wanted to protest against the government, but instead of having the protest in front of the White House or somewhere in Washington DC, you instead have the protest in Des Moines, Iowa. What the hell does that really accomplish?

This is one of the biggest flaws with the liberal college student way of thinking. Kids read about Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, and they think that merely protesting is going to change anything. The fact is the people you are protesting against DON'T GIVE A FUCK about your peaceful protests. A bunch of homeless people and middle class white kids are of little significance to even those near the bottom of the social ladder. At least protesting in Wall Street might get in the way of some fat cats and piss them off, but what about places like LA and Oakland? You're really going to piss away your time waiting for the world to change around you while you sit in a fucking tent? Rich bankers and CEOs of mega corporations would laugh in your face right now if they could.

Occupy protesters should put their food stamps where their mouths is and start terrorizing influential rich people. Peace doesn't do shit anymore. It's not the 1960s, it's not the civil rights movement again, you're not real hippies, fuck you.

And now these fucks in LA want to stick around indefinitely? Um, what's that supposed to accomplish? It'd make more sense to Occupy Bill Gates' front lawn, or big banks, or something along those lines.

Someone please prove me wrong. Again, I don't really give a fuck about Occupy, but I want to know what the fuck good it's going to do by occupying areas that have little to nothing to do with your cause. Want to occupy LA even longer? WHAT THE FUCK FOR??? Stupid bitches.

[Nero]

By talking about it you're insinuating that it's worth talking about.

[Communicate]

It's a cultural thing, MFD.

It's winning over mass support and showing people that it's not futile to dissent. The tired old comment directed at anybody to the left of centre-right has always been "yeah, that's the way the world works, get over it", and movements like this are showing people that, though that might be the way the world works now, that it need not always.

[SIdt]

It's an excuse for pseudointellectual pre-undergraduate students to make a lot of noise and go camping. The act of protesting something achieves nothing but the inflation of the protester's undeserved ego.
Direct action, i.e: civil war, has been historically proven to achieve substantial political change. But these kiddies are content with obtaining minor, reversible ammendments that have no lasting substance, so they can claim to be part of grownup politics. Renouncing capitalist virtues from the safety of their tents, leaving only to have lunch at Starbucks and quote Nietzsche to each other.

[Communicate]

Originally Posted by SIdt

Direct action, i.e: civil war, has been historically proven to achieve substantial political change. But these kiddies are content with obtaining minor, reversible ammendments that have no lasting substance, so they can claim to be part of grownup politics.

Errm, this is direct action.
Plus, "content with minor reform"; you'll notice that is the whole point behind not issuing a list of demands, it's nothing to do with minor reform at all.

You're not speaking truth. Are you lying, ignorant, or is it something else?

[SIdt]

Originally Posted by Communicate

Errm, this is direct action.
Plus, "content with minor reform"; you'll notice that is the whole point behind not issuing a list of demands, it's nothing to do with minor reform at all.

You're not speaking truth. Are you lying, ignorant, or is it something else?

So you agree they are protesting just for the sake of it?
The whole point of staging a protest is to convey dissatisfaction with some aspect of a current political model. I didn't say they were actively seeking reform, I said they'd be content with it, which is a reasonable assumption given the subject of their demonstrations.
What constitutes actual direct action is subjective. I apologise for the vagueness of my original statement.
I define direct action to be a physically reactionary response to a perceived injustice. Waving a placard around is not what I would consider direct action, because it doesn't achieve anything, other than the self-satisfaction I mentioned previously.
Actual action involves riots, bombings etc. which, provided their extent is national, can impose actual political change. The childish banner-waving we've seen so far is an insult to the people who are actually willing to die for their political beliefs, informed or not.

[Communicate]

Yeah, except there's only a handful of people willing to start bombing shit. And in the current climate, if people did start bombing shit it would turn people away from the cause, not to it.

These people are making a positive impact by fighting these battles for cultural legitimacy and political visibility. You don't have the right to demand somebody to engage in all-out violent revolution, almost certainly at the cost of their life, full-stop. That's especially true when it's not only almost certain to fail right now, but also be a hindrance to the cause.

It's not an insult to anybody. There are people out there who just can't throw their lives away, through having dependants or all sorts of personal reasons, they're doing what they can to help.

The choice isn't sit on your arse (as you are doing) or go rambo on the establishment, there are other options. This option, fighting the cultural war and reversing the normalisation of the status quo, is a critically important battle right now. Mass wildcat striking would also be good, but again, nobody has the right to tell these people to take actions, alone, that will almost certainly destroy their lives.

You don't want to live, fair enough, but don't try and bring everybody else along on your suicidal mission as if it was an ethical obligation of theirs.

[iMagiNation]

You guys are so brutally primitive. "Fuck 'em, they're hipster douches until they start bombing rich people." Yeah, that's great. Now we're terrorists.

Are you all fucking retarded? Don't answer that. You are.

[Mantikore]

Let the kids have their fun. Theyre spending more time outdoors and learning important skills like camping

[iMagiNation]

Originally Posted by Mantikore

Let the kids have their fun. Theyre spending more time outdoors and learning important skills like camping

lol they're learning a lot more than that. They're learning what pepper spray tastes like and how to organize and what solidarity means and a billion other things that can't be bought or sold much less taught in school. well I suppose you could be taught what pepper spray tastes like, but that's of no consequence. the point is your mom.

[Mantikore]

Ive actually tasted pepper extract before, which is close enough. Its pretty rank.

[Turd_Smasher]

It's a theory where protesters think they can get the wealthiest percent to create more jobs and put money back into the system, by annoying them with loud hippy music and chanting. It's supposed to make the rich people's lives more unpleasant until they give in. I think it would work better if they just protested in front of the rich people's homes and threw turds at their cars as they passed by.

[Communicate]

Originally Posted by Turd_Smasher

It's a theory where protesters think they can get the wealthiest percent to create more jobs and put money back into the system, by annoying them with loud hippy music and chanting. It's supposed to make the rich people's lives more unpleasant until they give in. I think it would work better if they just protested in front of the rich people's homes and threw turds at their cars as they passed by.

No it's not, it's talking to each other.

"WE are the 99%".
It's not making demands on the rich, it's making a case to the world about egalitarianism. You can't demand rich people give you something they control if you don't think they have rightful ownership of it.

The idea of wealth distribution isn't "hey wealthy people, give stuff to workers" it's "hey working people, take what you deserve".

[ysr2096]

Originally Posted by Mutant Funk Drink

Someone please prove me wrong. Again, I don't really give a fuck about Occupy, but I want to know what the fuck good it's going to do by occupying areas that have little to nothing to do with your cause. Want to occupy LA even longer? WHAT THE FUCK FOR??? Stupid bitches.

But what does occupying Wall Street do to Wall Street? Nothing much directly, right? So what's the point of protesting? To get attention, rally support, whatever. The occupation is symbolic, but the purpose and function of the protest is not lost by taking it to other cities. And, not that it matters, I'm sure LA has its own corporate cultural locus to occupy.

Originally Posted by Mantikore

Let the kids have their fun. Theyre spending more time outdoors and learning important skills like camping

Camping isn't an important skill.

And someone's going to get skin cancer eventually.

[Daily]

[&Zenith]

Originally Posted by iMagiNation

the point is your mom.

word