Is this a tough decision?
UPDATE: Watch this video from Occupy Wall Street.
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13 Comments
Checkout the video on the Last Lost Empire Blog…it’s an excellent early example of how this decentralized and truly democratic protest is working, which is extremely different from the “counterculture movement” of the 1960s-70s. I don’t think we should confuse these young people with those of 40 to 50 years ago. This is not a “counterculture movement” it is a “cultural movement” by the “99%”…
Here’s the link – http://www.last-lost-empire.com/
“these young people”
Am I the only one getting rather infuriated by the age-ism that’s been meandering through the criticism of OWS?
The movement is being branded not only as “hippie” (which is out of date slang), but as a “youth” movement: suggesting naivete, extreme idealism, and immaturity. The media’s pictures and news clips–at least those I’ve seen–have focused on the young college kids or unemployed basement dwellers.
Just as the Tea Party was branded as something for the retirees and old folks, this is for the young folks.
Focusing on the ages of the people involved silences the messages and motivations. I’m sick of it.
It’s a pretty common thread through the right wing. Ever heard, “If you are young and not liberal you have no heart. If you are old and not conservative you have no brain.”?
Even in conversations with people who I know respect my opinions and my knowledge, the moment the discussion turns political and I speak anything which is not written in The Great Book of Republicanism, I can instantly feel the conversation take a turn where they are suddenly trying their best to give advice to a rebellious child.
It really frustrates me that critics of OWS are nitpicking the people because they can’t complain about the message, other than to say they don’t get it. They aren’t trying to criticize what is being said, but who is saying it. It’s the same tactic that a lot of politicians use when they don’t want to debate a topic: they just go for character assassination.
It’s like the movie “Thank You for Smoking.” They’re not trying to prove that they have the right answer, they just have to prove that the people at OWS are not credible, regardless of what they say. If they can convince the people not to listen to “socialist hippies, anarchists, and anti-freedom islamists”, then they don’t have to win the argument with superior reasoning.
Fast Company has a study on OWS, they are not that young and most are employed – a far cry from the “hippie” monicker. That characterization is conservative propaganda.
Oh, I know that the age-ism is inaccurate: that’s why it’s so frustrating. It’s ad hominem attacks, and the media are pulling it off.
My husband is nearly two decades my junior. I take age-ism personally, and I’m sicked by it when I see it, in all of its forms. Once one is functioning as an adult, one’s age should not matter.
What I find most perplexing is how the left is astonished at the rights conversation about the OWS. Look what happened to the Tea Party protests. They were jumped on, denegrated, laughed at, joked about called names, dug through for hypocrisy, everything. Now when the people on the other side of the fence are doing it to this movement they are offended? Thats funny. Holy Cow, get real. If you can’t take it, don’t dish it out.
False equivalence. The media did take the Tea Party seriously. They covered every Tea Party protest, even if only 20 people showed up. Fox News even openly promoted Tea Party events.
And some of the signs held up by the Tea Party protestors were pretty funny (e.g., “Government keep your hands off my Medicare”).
I’m not offended at them making fun of OWS (I even post jokes about OWS in this blog), I’m offended by them making stuff up and passing it off as news.
IK thanks for activating the link to the Fast Company study.
I abhor people lying, using bad logic, and intentionally misleading people through propaganda. I have no problem with people who just have a different opinion. And there are so MANY facts that support conservative positions and so many real failures among liberals there is no need to make stuff up.
It reminds me of the nuclear war debates when I was in college in the early 80’s. The liberals of the time were arguing that we would vaporize the entire planet with 1/10 the weapons we had, which was complete and utter nonsense. My response was, if we use nukes in war, we won’t kill every single human being – just the vast majority of them, and destroy our future ability to rebuild. Frankly I think that is a big enough problem to avoid that we don’t have to make up fantasies about ow much worse it would be – reality is bad enough.
My apologies for using the term — I am older — almost everyone is “younger” than I am!
IK – I agree their was some very funny TP moments,particulary the old ladies with real tea bags hanging from their hats. That s good fun poking fun at ones self. However we al know the derogatory terms tossed around and the media heckling from the Mathews/Olberman types. As a group the TPers were relatively harmless, excepting the outbursts at congressmen and that proved to be a short lived isolated incident. This movement, however will be used by many groups for their own individual purposes, since their is no solid central theme as of yet. Their was a comment in an earlier post you did, where the individual pretended to be a bad speller and at the end advocated for looting. That kind of behavior will escalate and leadership along with the media and blogs like this one, must deter that. I didn’t like Palin’s use of bullseyes to “target” rivals or others talking about 2nd amendment resolutions. They should be denounced and were via the media and this site, which was justly done. Civil disobedience is our history and is healthy for a democracy, but the rule of law and ethics should be followed.
Arthanyel – I agree on the lying and manipulating, there is no need and no place. Our situation in itself provides ample ammunition for spirited debate.
PatriotSgt and Arthanyel, I agree. There is no need to exaggerate and it hurts your position. Several times a week I see articles from the left that look like good material for this blog, but as I research them I find that they are exaggerating or making a mountain out of a molehill. So I don’t post them. Luckily, most of the time those stories go away.
But I am constantly amazed that the right is STILL saying bad things about ACORN, or claiming global warming is a hoax based on Climategate, or still saying that Gore claimed he invented the internet, or saying that health care reform will increase the deficit. Or still claiming Obama’s birth certificate is fake. The list goes on and on.