Congrats, Occupiers -- You ARE the 1%!

[The Central Scrutinizer]

And honestly, can you hear tape of the "human megaphone" and not laugh? I can't. It's like a Monty Python sketch.

Get a lot of these photos of Occutard St. Louis meeting with the mayor. And they wonder why people laugh at them.

In case you're wondering, in the photo on the left, they're using some childish hand signals to answer yes and no. Instead of actually talking to the Mayor, like adults. The second one is a hoot. I guess having a dollar bill taped over your mouth makes you all like edgy and anti-establishment and stuff. I wonder if they take them off when it's time to drink their can of PBR? You know, you have to stay ironic.

 

[Bri]

I've had about enough of the Occupy Whatever street theater.

I don't live in New York, so protestors in the park there don't really bother me. If I lived there I might find it mildly annoying, but I'd get over it.

The fact that so many people are talking about OWS -- in this thread and elsewhere -- and the fact that so much effort is exerted by their detractors to disparage them is evidence that they've been successful so far.

-Bri

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I don't live in New York, so protestors in the park there don't really bother me. If I lived there I might find it mildly annoying, but I'd get over it.

The fact that so many people are talking about OWS -- in this thread and elsewhere -- and the fact that so much effort is exerted by their detractors to disparage them is evidence that they've been successful so far.

-Bri

Being laughed at is success? That's odd.

 

[Ray Brady]

What exactly have they been successful at? Precisely what awareness have they raised? What do we know now that we didn't know before?

 

[Blue Mountain]

The "Occupy" part was a start: get noticed and get it into the public discussion. But unless it turned into the kind of mass protests that topped the governments of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, and is giving Syria serious headaches, they stood no chance of changing anything.

So now it's time to get involved in politics, get into Congress, and fight like crazy there. In a decade they might start to see results.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

The "Occupy" part was a start: get noticed and get it into the public discussion. But unless it turned into the kind of mass protests that topped the governments of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, and is giving Syria serious headaches, they stood no chance of changing anything.

So now it's time to get involved in politics, get into Congress, and fight like crazy there. In a decade they might start to see results.

It should be a slam dunk. They are the 99% after all.

 

[WildCat]

What exactly have they been successful at? Precisely what awareness have they raised? What do we know now that we didn't know before?

I learned about the human microphone and silly hand signals and that some people can defecate in public and don't even bother to wipe.

 

[paulhutch]

A PBS News Hour segment that I think is the one referred to in the OP is available online, segments with Ryan "Sweet Potato" are @ 2:38 to 2:55 and 5:11 to 5:31. Transcript is at the same URL.

 

[WildCat]

It should be a slam dunk. They are the 99% after all.

The 1% steal the elections with electronic voting machines.

 

[tyr_13]

What exactly have they been successful at? Precisely what awareness have they raised? What do we know now that we didn't know before?

That there is broad support for regulating investing and banking.

 

[Checkmite]

What exactly have they been successful at? Precisely what awareness have they raised? What do we know now that we didn't know before?

We know now that faux-tribal drumming 24-hours-a-day annoys everyone but the drummers so much that even the government-hating hippies and anarchists become willing to go along with tough regulation.

 

[Solitaire]

Indeed. Considering the current choices in the US are between a right wing party
and an extreme right wing party, neither of which represent the ideology of OWS.
Then we get into the barriers to entry to run a candidate in state or federal
elections, which is next to impossible without corporate backing.

Disagree strongly.

The biggest barrier isn't the laws regulating candidates. It's a bizarre notion that
government funded campaigns, free air time for all candidates, open debates for
all the candidates running in an election, and so on will level the playing field.

It won't.

Ross Perot is a perfect example of how buying a seat at the table brought
no lasting change. Two decades later and nothing remains but the name.
And yet this notion, that the trappings of power will make the connection,
rather than the direct approach of meeting people and talking with them,
lives on.

I wonder if they take them off when it's time to drink their can of PBR?

I hope they like it black. No cream. No sugar.

 

[Bri]

Being laughed at is success? That's odd.

They certainly seem to have gotten under your skin judging from the number of times you've felt compelled on this forum alone to tell others how much you're laughing at them.

If they were truly insignificant, everyone would simply ignore them. They're certainly not being ignored. Not by you anyway.

-Bri

 

[Bri]

What exactly have they been successful at? Precisely what awareness have they raised? What do we know now that we didn't know before?

There's plenty of legitimate criticism that can be applied to OWS, but I suspect that before OWS the majority of Americans didn't know that 1% own some 40% of the wealth in this country.

-Bri

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

They certainly seem to have gotten under your skin judging from the number of times you've felt compelled on this forum alone to tell others how much you're laughing at them.

If they were truly insignificant, everyone would simply ignore them. They're certainly not being ignored. Not by you anyway.

-Bri

I'll stop laughing at them when they fade from view. Which should be in about 2 weeks.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

There's plenty of legitimate criticism that can be applied to OWS, but I suspect that before OWS the majority of Americans didn't know that 1% own some 40% of the wealth in this country.

-Bri

And pay 40% of the taxes***. But that's another thread.


***Not exact figures. But close enough.

 

[Virus]

And there's always going to be a top 1% unless you use draconian measures to force everyone to have the same income.

 

[timhau]

The fact that so many people are talking about OWS -- in this thread and elsewhere -- and the fact that so much effort is exerted by their detractors to disparage them is evidence that they've been successful so far.

So they're a "success" the way 9/11 Truth was a "success"?

 

[theprestige]

The fact that so many people are talking about OWS -- in this thread and elsewhere -- and the fact that so much effort is exerted by their detractors to disparage them is evidence that they've been successful so far.

-Bri

Tell us about how successful Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake have been, ever since that storied Superbowl "wardrobe malfunction".

I think you may be putting too much value on "notoriety", and too little value on "not being epic ******* tossers".

 

[Checkmite]

If they were truly insignificant, everyone would simply ignore them. They're certainly not being ignored. Not by you anyway.

This is the warm, soft blanket that failed "movements" all over the world comfort themselves with in the aftermath.

"Occupy Wall Street" succeeded in drawing attention only to themselves, not their "cause"...whatever that was. They captured the spotlight for a long time and completely wasted the opportunity, falling into bickering, infighting, and consistently shouting down all amongst them who deigned to make an attempt at developing any kind of direction.