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Largely true, in many respects; again, the Tea Party had much the same problem for the same reasons. Joel Send a noteboard - 22/11/2011 12:26:29 AM
What's Congressional approval at, 11%? 9? Everyone, left and right and center and unaligned and whatever knows that we have problems, and no one seems to think our government is able- or willing- to fix them.


Admittedly, OWS took some time to focus its message. It started off, I believe, as a response to all of the problems that we've been facing.

So people jeered at OWS "What, you're upset about bailouts? AND the increasing amounts of debt of the American public? AND the fact that government and corporations are becoming increasingly entwined? AND dishonest banking/investment policies!? AND a list of half a dozen other things? Well, you have to pick one! You don't even know what you're protesting!"


OWS has definitely focused its message since it started, but I find it a little odd that that was a criticism at all.* If only 9% of America (9%! Jerry Falwell had a higher approval rating than that!) thinks Congress is doing a good job, surely people recognize that there are problems across the board?




*Well, not THAT odd. I just read a leaked report from an anti-OWS public relations firm that basically said it would try to plant stories with "negative narratives" and influence language to do just that. I don't doubt that there are others- I can barely even blame them. If I was a big corporation or bank, I'd want to discredit this movement, too.

I know they dislike that comparison, but I still think it dead on; Tea Partiers dislike people drawing similarities between them and a group whose GOALS are so diametrically opposed to theirs, but the myriad murky MOTIVES are undeniably the same in many cases. There is something to the notion that the two groups simply identify (or misidentify) very different causes of the same problems, and in many cases do not identify a cause at all, only object to the problem. Which, of course, is one of the objections to OWS, and one I happen to share, but I think it exists to just as great an extent with the Tea Party, and many members of both groups find it much easier to just blame groups they already despised than make a sincere effort to learn about and accurately diagnose the problem. Why face the difficult task of seeking the cause of and solution to complex problems when it is so much easier and more convenient to make them a pretext to attack groups one already wished to cripple or destroy?

Perhaps the most constructive, if unlikely, thing (and it would REALLY upset the apple cart in Washington) would be for OWS and the Tea Party to initiate dialogs between each other over common interests like their shared disgust with our disconnected ineffective national leaders so disinterested in anyone who cannot drop millions in personal, corporate, PAC and party campaign donations in their lap. That is the primary thing that prevented the ground swell of Tea Party support from taking over the Republican Party last year, the thing that is slowly and steadily nominating the ONLY GOP presidential candidate NONE of the Tea Party actually wants. It is also the most egregious and staggering betrayal by Barack Obama; just a few days ago I read RON PAUL, of all people, disputing his fellow candidates claims that Obamacare is socialism, instead insisting (rightly) that corporate power expressed through government is actually fascism (in fact, that is pretty how Mussolini defined fascism when he came up with the concept.) It may be a long shot, but if the populist left AND right got together against the government AND corporate elite ignoring the rest of the country, there is no telling how it would all end, but I doubt the plutocratic establishment could hold out for long without implementing real and large scale changes.
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An Open Letter to All People with Nothing Better To Do - 20/11/2011 10:49:21 AM 1748 Views
Huzah! A man chooses and a slave obeys! *NM* - 20/11/2011 10:56:42 AM 530 Views
How much violence has there actually been? - 20/11/2011 12:35:54 PM 884 Views
Re: How much violence has there actually been? - 20/11/2011 12:44:00 PM 944 Views
Because it's easy. - 20/11/2011 12:49:02 PM 848 Views
I think it's great that student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy. - 20/11/2011 06:27:27 PM 763 Views
Completely agree. *NM* - 20/11/2011 07:44:10 PM 593 Views
Asian parents have the right idea - 20/11/2011 08:49:39 PM 893 Views
because that's not a huge generalization of an entire race... - 20/11/2011 09:05:26 PM 836 Views
every pakistani, indian, viet, chinese, cambodian person I know (and thats a lot) .... - 20/11/2011 09:27:34 PM 857 Views
I had a lot of asian peers in class growing up with parents who were not like that - 20/11/2011 10:35:45 PM 859 Views
You has? Sorry...it was too good to pass up. *NM* - 20/11/2011 10:40:48 PM 482 Views
lol! oops! *edit* fail. *NM* - 20/11/2011 10:42:33 PM 498 Views
I understand that, and agree to a certain extent. - 20/11/2011 11:53:30 PM 823 Views
Well... - 21/11/2011 05:39:09 AM 792 Views
Hm. Those are all very sensible points. Food for thought. *NM* - 21/11/2011 06:06:24 AM 431 Views
To take it a step further - 21/11/2011 02:36:49 AM 787 Views
I agree 100%. - 21/11/2011 05:41:40 AM 727 Views
they are. - 21/11/2011 06:55:27 PM 769 Views
HUZZAH! Very well said. - 20/11/2011 01:20:48 PM 775 Views
I think people were jeering OWS for not being "focused" because there are so many damn problems - 20/11/2011 04:54:24 PM 881 Views
Largely true, in many respects; again, the Tea Party had much the same problem for the same reasons. - 22/11/2011 12:26:29 AM 925 Views
It is WEIRD when Ron Paul consistently comes off as the least insane GOP candidate - 22/11/2011 02:56:33 AM 751 Views
Yeah, I recall that link, and still do not entirely agree with it. - 22/11/2011 04:16:13 AM 667 Views
Well yeah, because you sympathize with OWS - 22/11/2011 02:34:51 PM 834 Views
I would not go that far. - 23/11/2011 07:09:22 AM 1070 Views
"There are plenty of jobs and pay"... Do you read the news? *NM* - 20/11/2011 12:42:30 PM 498 Views
Yep, there are lots of jobs... - 20/11/2011 05:49:58 PM 875 Views
there ARE plenty of jobs - 20/11/2011 06:14:30 PM 899 Views
Excercise in creative thinking... - 20/11/2011 06:45:49 PM 880 Views
Take an economics course. Learn about structural unemployment. - 20/11/2011 11:50:40 PM 806 Views
*NM* - 21/11/2011 05:13:39 AM 488 Views
I'm sorry dude, but there ARE jobs. - 20/11/2011 07:21:21 PM 861 Views
but what kind of jobs? - 20/11/2011 08:08:58 PM 687 Views
"My plastic surgeon" WTF Aisha - 20/11/2011 08:36:13 PM 918 Views
Im a nurse - 20/11/2011 09:24:14 PM 800 Views
job that pay money - 20/11/2011 08:57:55 PM 842 Views
lets face it. all the jobs you just mentioned are jobs illegals take - 20/11/2011 09:35:07 PM 829 Views
Re: lets face it. all the jobs you just mentioned are jobs illegals take - 20/11/2011 10:29:16 PM 779 Views
Re: lets face it. all the jobs you just mentioned are jobs illegals take - 21/11/2011 12:19:52 AM 885 Views
That's a shitty situation - 21/11/2011 12:24:20 AM 742 Views
While it is true that the plural of anecdote is not data... - 21/11/2011 12:34:35 AM 665 Views
no I realize that - 21/11/2011 12:57:06 AM 639 Views
First of all, I worked at a dairy and have a friend who busses tables. - 20/11/2011 10:32:39 PM 802 Views
Thats a big problem, Aisha - 22/11/2011 06:42:18 AM 747 Views
Not in Michigan. *NM* - 21/11/2011 05:11:40 AM 469 Views
...I feel like you've been getting all of your information from TV News. This isn't about bills. - 20/11/2011 04:35:13 PM 803 Views
Better question is have you been to any of them? - 20/11/2011 06:42:02 PM 920 Views
I may need to be more concise about something - 20/11/2011 06:53:58 PM 848 Views
Re: Better question is have you been to any of them? - 20/11/2011 07:00:30 PM 717 Views
Wait...you think there is a problem with courts treating corporations as persons? - 20/11/2011 08:33:43 PM 765 Views
You know what he meant. - 20/11/2011 09:32:59 PM 829 Views
Pretty sure the inception of corporations was not 1886. - 22/11/2011 05:45:31 AM 795 Views
You do realize... - 22/11/2011 06:01:47 AM 749 Views
Almost anything CAN happen. - 22/11/2011 07:43:31 AM 789 Views
You're right. I will hand you your ass on this one. If you give me gloves before touching it. - 23/11/2011 02:26:35 PM 796 Views
That looks a little shaky. - 23/11/2011 05:42:39 PM 822 Views
Funny how once we as a society used protesting for non personal gain ... - 20/11/2011 08:49:37 PM 880 Views
I love this post. *NM* - 20/11/2011 09:06:49 PM 478 Views
Good post - 20/11/2011 09:13:12 PM 828 Views
Then why don't the unemployed ... - 20/11/2011 10:36:36 PM 735 Views
The UN is clearly out of touch with reality. - 20/11/2011 10:44:44 PM 824 Views
"There is no right to work"? - 22/11/2011 05:50:30 AM 814 Views
Also, do you even have a job yet? *NM* - 22/11/2011 06:02:11 AM 450 Views
Ikke ennĂ¥. - 22/11/2011 07:28:27 AM 795 Views
A simple no would suffice. *NM* - 22/11/2011 07:32:27 AM 512 Views
Well, that was little more than a simple no. - 22/11/2011 07:57:11 AM 722 Views
So do you think there is no cause whatsoever for protest? - 21/11/2011 03:31:04 AM 819 Views
Re: So do you think there is no cause whatsoever for protest? - 22/11/2011 04:15:30 AM 794 Views
I am also not Dan. - 22/11/2011 06:08:06 AM 679 Views
Re: So do you think there is no cause whatsoever for protest? - 22/11/2011 06:47:25 AM 882 Views

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