Occupy Wall Street

[carlfense]

Goodwin's law prevails again

 

When ever I encounter the words "Nazi" or "Hitler" outside of a history book I immediately stop paying attention.

Always.

[Husker_x]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall a Tea Party event being reported that lasted into perpetuity, comprised of the unwashed masses flooding parks with sleeping bags.

 

I'm not even sure what the Occupy Wallstreet protesters are trying to achieve. Ask anyone what the Tea Party wants and you can list off a few items pretty quick. Not so sure at this point with this new crew.

[Excel]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall a Tea Party event being reported that lasted into perpetuity, comprised of the unwashed masses flooding parks with sleeping bags.

 

I'm not even sure what the Occupy Wallstreet protesters are trying to achieve. Ask anyone what the Tea Party wants and you can list off a few items pretty quick. Not so sure at this point with this new crew.

 

Well the Tea Party has its own faults and while it may not be full of homeless hippies the accusations that its populated by

aren't entirely without merit.

 

In 2009 I attended an early Tea Party rally in SC. Tons of confederate flags, lots of thinly veiled racism and very little substantive discussion of policy, I was less than impressed. But really...what can you expect from a movement started by Neal Boortz and Glenn Beck then astroturfed by the Koch Brothers?

[knapplc]

Goodwin's law prevails again

 

Godwin's Law is dumb. It's simply pointing out that when people try to make comparisons they typically fall back on the most obvious point of reference because, frankly, most people don't know much about much. It doesn't mean the conversation is over, and in fact the people invoking Godwin's Law are equally at fault for being unable to perpetuate the conversation. Simply crying, "Godwin's Law!" does not win an argument. But

 

Nebraska Fan has his own version of Godwin's Law - whenever we have a debate about the team that falls into rhetorical impasse, inevitably comparisons are made to our 90s teams. We can call it Knapp's Law, and I can get a nickel every time someone makes such a reference.... wait, wait, I'm being told there will be no nickels.

[carlfense]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall a Tea Party event being reported that lasted into perpetuity, comprised of the unwashed masses flooding parks with sleeping bags.

 

I'm not even sure what the Occupy Wallstreet protesters are trying to achieve. Ask anyone what the Tea Party wants and you can list off a few items pretty quick. Not so sure at this point with this new crew.

 

Well the Tea Party has its own faults and while it may not be full of homeless hippies the accusations that its populated by

aren't entirely without merit.

 

In 2009 I attended an early Tea Party rally in SC. Tons of confederate flags, lots of thinly veiled racism and very little substantive discussion of policy, I was less than impressed. But really...what can you expect from a movement started by Neal Boortz and Glenn Beck then astroturfed by the Koch Brothers?

That's consistent with the Tea Partiers that I know. Some from my own family. +1

[Husker_x]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall a Tea Party event being reported that lasted into perpetuity, comprised of the unwashed masses flooding parks with sleeping bags.

 

I'm not even sure what the Occupy Wallstreet protesters are trying to achieve. Ask anyone what the Tea Party wants and you can list off a few items pretty quick. Not so sure at this point with this new crew.

 

Well the Tea Party has its own faults and while it may not be full of homeless hippies the accusations that its populated by

aren't entirely without merit.

 

In 2009 I attended an early Tea Party rally in SC. Tons of confederate flags, lots of thinly veiled racism and very little substantive discussion of policy, I was less than impressed. But really...what can you expect from a movement started by Neal Boortz and Glenn Beck then astroturfed by the Koch Brothers?

 

Funny thing is Bill O'Reilly pulled the same tactic displayed in that video. In a large enough crowd you are bound to find enough deluded ignoramuses. As for the racist accusation, maybe where I live it's different than South Carolina, but Herman Cain is by far the favorite of the Tea Party types I know. (And I'll go ahead and clarify, I'm not a Tea Partier--unless it's a mad tea party--or a Republican.) However the word racist is marched around like it actually applies to a large group of people, which is degrading for one, and so far as I've seen, mostly unfounded.

 

That, however, was not my point. My point was if you asked the Tea Partiers in 2008 what they were against, the answer would have been Obamacare. This Occupy Wallstreet protest doesn't have, at least on its face, a comparable statement of purpose, which then begs the question, like an absurdist piece of comedy: Why are you protesting? If a vagary like "greed" is the only thing anyone can come up with, I suggest they roll up their sleeping bags, pick up their trash, and go home.

[VectorVictor]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall a Tea Party event being reported that lasted into perpetuity, comprised of the unwashed masses flooding parks with sleeping bags.

 

I'm not even sure what the Occupy Wallstreet protesters are trying to achieve. Ask anyone what the Tea Party wants and you can list off a few items pretty quick. Not so sure at this point with this new crew.

 

Well the Tea Party has its own faults and while it may not be full of homeless hippies the accusations that its populated by

aren't entirely without merit.

 

In 2009 I attended an early Tea Party rally in SC. Tons of confederate flags, lots of thinly veiled racism and very little substantive discussion of policy, I was less than impressed. But really...what can you expect from a movement started by Neal Boortz and Glenn Beck then astroturfed by the Koch Brothers?

 

That's the biggest difference right now--there's no astroturfing going on with the 99ers (that has been uncovered yet).

 

And not only do you have the montage from the Daily Show showing the hypocrisy in covering this event, you now have outlets like CNBC, CNN, and local Fox affiliates (the one in Dallas, at any rate) covering the events with copious amounts of exposition and unwanted unwarranted editorial. And if the online coverage/proof is to be believed, there is a deliberate effort to underreport the numbers associated with the movement, while the opposite was playing out on News Corp-friendly outlets (deliberate over-reporting of attendance figures for Tea Party events, despite proof to the contrary).

 

Plus, remember that people didn't really know what the Tea Party was wanting in its infancy as well. The only things that were clear at the beginning were that a centralized government was anathema to Tea Party beliefs, while a centralized religious authority and thinly-veiled racism were not.

[knapplc]

That, however, was not my point. My point was if you asked the Tea Partiers in 2008 what they were against, the answer would have been Obamacare. This Occupy Wallstreet protest doesn't have, at least on its face, a comparable statement of purpose, which then begs the question, like an absurdist piece of comedy: Why are you protesting? If a vagary like "greed" is the only thing anyone can come up with, I suggest they roll up their sleeping bags, pick up their trash, and go home.

 

If you asked the hippies in the 60s what their focus was, you wouldn't have gotten much of a cohesive answer, certainly not in the beginning. But from that whole freaky Peace/Love/Kum-Ba-Yah movement we got, at least partially, some of the most important and historic social rights legislation passed in this country's history.

 

There are going to be those people who just don't know much about politics, society, or business. But they still have a voice, and they still have a right to use it. I can ignore them if I don't like their voice (and I've pretty much ignored the 99ers so far), so there's no harm done if they protest.

[MNSker]

I'll throw a line out there and ask why the Tea Party and and OWS don't merge into something cohesive, namely:

 

1) Limit the scope of the Federal government and pass on more responsibility to state government.

 

2) Limit the power of corporations via intelligent regulation and end the sweetheart deals.

 

Those points are extremely vague and open to interpretation and debate, but it doesn't make sense to me to distrust government and allow corporations to run unchecked, or vice versa.

 

As an example of #1, the FDA. It provides some needed oversight to prevent quackery and enforce standards; on the other hand it has been successfully lobbied by drug manufacturing firms. As an example:

 

http://www.dailypaul...it-to-be-a-drug

 

Forgive the link if you don't like ___ Paul; I grabbed the first google result I found.

 

In this example, a company spent something north of $100M on a drug study, only to find out (well into the process) that the drug occurred naturally and was already in many supplements. It lobbied the FDA and, due to a timing loophole, the FDA wound up placing the drug on its banned substance list with the result that the vitamin (B6) is no longer in off-the-shelf supplements.

 

Government in action. :/

 

 

We're living through an example of #2. Another one off the top of my head are limitations on who can get into an IPO.

 

Goverment and corporate are so intermarried that it would be a shock to the fundament of our economy to make substantial changes, but IMO those changes need to take place. Separation of church, state and business.

 

[edited for punctuation and clarification]

[Guy Chamberlin]

Fascinating and sad, but both The Daily Show and the Colbert Report do a better job of research, context and analysis than our supposed news gathering organizations.

 

Stewart and Colbert do have an agenda and some obvious leanings, but they've exposed Obama, the Democrats and MSNBC when they, too, are wearing no clothes.

[walksalone]

I understand the whole "Occupy Wall Street" thing, but they've been out there almost a month...

 

Go get a f*ckin' job...

[It'sNotAFakeID]

To address the OP issue with a double standard I'll bring up the already mentioned Tea Party. These people, much in the same likes as OWS, are upset with the current government and they, like every person in America has the right to, are protesting. Because they're more Republican in nature, they're going to be praised by the right-wing media. Now this same right-wing media is demeaning this other protest group [OWS] for doing some of the same exact things the Tea Party is doing? There's your double standard.

 

And yes, the left-wing media is doing the same too. Like carlfense said, it's a matter of perspective.

[carlfense]

Good example of the sort of thing the OWS movement is so upset about:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-october-17-2011/ellen-schultz

[Husker_x]

To address the OP issue with a double standard I'll bring up the already mentioned Tea Party. These people, much in the same likes as OWS, are upset with the current government and they, like every person in America has the right to, are protesting. Because they're more Republican in nature, they're going to be praised by the right-wing media. Now this same right-wing media is demeaning this other protest group [OWS] for doing some of the same exact things the Tea Party is doing? There's your double standard.

 

And yes, the left-wing media is doing the same too. Like carlfense said, it's a matter of perspective.

 

Depends who you're talking about in the 'right-wing' media. Some folks are going to bash lefties no matter what they do. Some, however, even at Fox, support the idea of the protests but 1, think they're protesting at the wrong place (not the White House or Congress) and 2, shouldn't desecrate property, in some cases private property, with litter.

[carlfense]