http://vimeo.com/31187119
I'm not the type of guy to get involved with protests and even care, for that matter, but when I saw this.
I was disgusted.
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http://vimeo.com/31187119
I'm not the type of guy to get involved with protests and even care, for that matter, but when I saw this.
I was disgusted.
damn, fuck that. I hope the cop who threw the nade at the people trying to help olsen goes to jail. probably won't though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FYXn8nD6Tw
saw some of this on CNN.those Oakland cops are apparently notorious for using excessive force.
crazy times we're living in
I agree that the Oakland cops should have used tanks on those Occupy hippies.
lol. if you're gonna hate on hippies you should at least make sure that's who's being talked about....Scott Olsen is a veteran who did two tours in Iraq...and after surviving that he got his skull fractured for going to a peaceful demonstrationQuote:
Originally Posted by replicant
also, these protests aren't just being held by hippies...unless you define hippies as people who aren't too ignorant to see how fucked up the system has become
RepublicanorDie
saying things like "republicanordie" or like "run those hippies over" makes you seem VERY informed, and VERY smart:D.
I will define all of these "Occupy" numbnuts as "hippies" and sometimes I will refer to them as "sheep" or maybe even "sheeple".Quote:
Originally Posted by RedScharlach
The entire movement is a waste of fucking time since they honestly have no direction or digestible leadership.
Sitting at a corner saying "We want our fair share of the nations money." isn't going to do dick.
Especially, when they are so divided on the subjects they are staging the "Occupy <buzzword>" protests too, that it's annoying and painful to see it reported on the news. The vast majority of them (and yes I am generalizing) are a bunch of ignorant dinks that have no idea what they are even protesting about. Even fewer can offer any insight into how to actually fix the 1% VS 99% imbalance for example say the Occupy Wall Street group keeps pointing fingers about.
We live in a Captialist Republic and people need to deal with that or bring about change in a manner that actually has potential. Standing on the sidewalk pissing and moaning about how your boss, his boss, company executives, your government, etc makes more money that you do is fucking worthless. If you want more money (or you simply want a job), then go the fuck out and get one or work toward creating an environment that promotes job growth (or even personal security). The problem is too many people think they are too good to work manual labor, fast food, retail, etc jobs and they sit on their thumbs waiting for a genie to pop out of a bottle and fix things.
Our economy is in the shitter partly because of poor decisions made by government officials and companies. However, the lions share of this troubled time is because people refuse to live within their on fucking means. If you make 20k a year (for example) with no money in your savings or other income to fall back on, then maybe it's not such a good idea to go out and get a loan for a car, house, business, etc. Using the same income stated it's also a really fucking poor decision on your part to go out and use a credit card which you maintain a balance on that equals 10%, 25%, to even 50%+ of your yearly salary.
I don't care if you are republican, democrat, libertarian, constituionalist, etc since I don't subscribe to any of them. The simple fact is people need to get their shit in check, learn how to effectively bring about change, and then work toward that "utopian" dream people seem to want to cling to. Sitting in the mud and waiting for handouts isn't how you bring about transitions in government.
Also, if someone in a position of authority who is carrying a deadly weapon tells you to move... Then if you and yours aren't really ready for a revolution, then you need to move your ass to where they tell you to go. FIN!
We'll see who is smarter when you're throwing rocks at my Tank. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by chocolate
Nobody is saying "We want our fair share of the nation's money"; that's the message that the media has been putting in the protesters mouths; and neither is anyone "siting in the mud and waiting for handouts." It's more like they're sitting in the mud, waiting for someone to come up and talk to them and actually try to understand why they're there. Of course, they aren't really expecting people who would rather call them names and beat them into the mud and tell them "you're just not working hard enough!" to engage in conversation, but they would expect them to be civil enough to crack their skulls with a smoke grenade and then laugh about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by replicant
No doubt, a lot of people were living outside of their means for the better part of the last decade - but they were doing so because the whole Financial Industry was devoting massive amounts of time and effort into creating new "financial innovations" whereby they could more and more efficiently prey on the middle and lower economic portions of America - all the while convincing their prey that their prosperity was actual, and not the result of industry-wide complicity in keeping everyone in the dark so as to inflate the bubble for longer and longer. Oh, and the government, which "made some bad decisions" was actually systematically breaking down every possible regulation that stood in the way of these activities - regulations which had nothing to do with free trade, but which in fact were only aimed at keeping regular people's money out of risky investments if they didn't want it to be there.
It isn't fucking about how hard we have to work to get by...sure there are some bohemians and hippies at the protests...but there's way more Americans with the kind of good old fashioned Protestant work ethic you're saying they just need to embrace to move on. But guess what, the government and banking system have made it so that's not good enough anymore...people shouldn't have to work themselves to death in three jobs, or be put in situations where meth use is the only economically feasible choice...but these are the realities that have been imposed on Americans from the top down.
The protesters aren't asking for other peoples money, they're just asking for the chance to live in a world where they can make their way without being shoved into an economic second class by the rules paid for and written by the wealthy.
If you pay attention to the Occupy Wall Street people they are specifically protesting against the "1%" that is keeping money out of their pockets. This isn't liberal or conservative media slants on the protests because it's what the people are protesting about. They want business and government to stop working the way it has for hundreds of years and start catering better to them. There is no other way to declare their intent other than "We think you're doing it wrong and we want more money, but we don't have better ideas of how to do it or even a vague idea.".Quote:
Originally Posted by RedScharlach
As for people being preyed upon by those in positions of governmental or business power for economic gains... Welcome to Capitalism which is the foundation of our country and many just like it throughout history. It's a wonderful fantasy to think that Mr. Corporation is looking out for you or that the local market you go to truly cares about your needs. The bottomline is the bottomline. A business is designed to exploit a need or want and you are their target. If you think otherwise, then you're just an easier mark. Business and Government worked beside each other and with each other to create these "opportunities" for people of lower income to get luxuries like their own home, cars, big ticket items, etc and it sucks that people fell for it and that people did it in the first place. Am I going to blame a man for trying to make money? No. Am I going to be upset with someone wanting nice things? No. However, when people spend more than they bring in and are stunned when they lose it all I have no sympathy. I don't care how well meaning your intent was.
Our parents, grandparents, etc (Not all obviously, but the ones who weren't fuckheads to their families or the ones who were taken from us too soon.) worked hard to gives us chances to grow. Whether it be by finances, education, or simply skills. Things haven't changed honestly in our country in the past 250+ years. If you want something you either get really fucking lucky or you work your ass off for it. I've grown up in a military familiy and I'm a minority (Native American). I've seen my great-grandfather working 2-3 jobs into his 70's, my grandfather worked 2-3 jobs into his 80's, and my father was full-time military and when off still worked when he got the chance. He's retired military now after serving 35 years in the US Army and at 64 he works 2 jobs. I don't remember my Mother, Grandmothers, or Great-Grandmothers not working full time until they got too sick to continue. I have Psoriatic Athritis severe enough that I could get Disability if I wanted it, but rather than take it I worked toward starting my own business 11 years ago. I even help my parents with a business that they run as well. Is it easy? No, but life was never promised to be.
These "rules" they are fighting against existed before our lifetimes and will always exist. Every system of Democracy, Communism, Socialism, etc which tried to even the playing field still wound up with class warfare. Pretending you can make it go away is some shit you see on Star Trek and not in reality. Trying to think that people with money aren't going to control or exploit the masses in a battlefield of supply and demand is simply naive.
The resolution of this debacle will be figureheads making false promises, people pissing and moaning about needs not being met, and sheeple going back home to see what tv show replaces Desperate Housewives next season.
You can have fun feeling bad for these people. I for one am done with this conversation.
It's not going to open anyones eyes or change either of our opinions. Later.
hahahahahahah owned
I know I'm just running into a wall at this point, but: yes, America was founded on capitalism, yes corporations are always gonna be predatory, yes some people are always gonna get fucked no matter what but...just because it's been like this for 250 years, 200 years, whatever the fuck, why are so many people convinced that it's got to go on indefinitely? Yes, people are protesting the 1%, but it's not because they're the wealthiest...it's because they're getting disproportionately wealthier as time moves forward...It's not that we begrudge people their wealth, whether hard earned or even somewaht shadily earned....It's that they've literally changed the law of the land (a point you refuse to address for some reason) and reversed the progress of human equality so as to make everyone else poorer while they get exponentially richer.
Why do you argue angrily from the position that people should give up trying to fix it and just accept it? I know you aren't going to answer and I know I've probably made even more people in this forum hate me, so why stop here? Since you so generously disclosed some of your life details for the sake of arguing, I'll do the same: I'm young, white, well educated, probably in the 9 or 10% wealthiest by birth. Never worked a 9-5 for more than a few months. Big surprise, I know. I know I'm out of touch. But all that said, I'd really like the world to be an optimal place to live in, for the playing field to be if not level, at least more even. It makes me genuinely sad that the people who could benefit much more from change than I would are often the one's arguing most passionately against it. And as for there being no media bias about the protests, give me a fucking break. Have you been to any protests? Actually talked to people there and tried to understand? I doubt it. Go on, tell me to "cry more," I know, it's pathetic. Maybe Jerrell can recruit some more high-profile trolls to keep laughing at me.
Replicant, you may have owned me in most people's eyes with your rhetoric of resigned realism, but you're still the one who entered into this thread laughing at a veteran getting his skull busted for nothing, and promoting police brutality...and then go on to mention your family's tough history and your own health issues to give your counter argument more weight...good looks. I do appreciate the time you've taken to respond to me though. It's good practice for having this kind of argument when it might really matter. Which, I'm sure you'd insist, will be never.
I posted in this thread to simply pull a Nelson Muntz and laugh at an idiot for not moving when he should have.
It had nothing to do with his prior military service or to promote police brutality.
The comments in jest were more related to Palestinians throwing rocks at Isreali tanks as a visual.
My responses to you however were not in jest and I truly meant every word I typed.
Keep up the good fight and when the Revolution starts I'll be there if it's in our lifetime.
I appreciate you saying that, for real.
Apologies if I got too personal with it at the end.
bah fuck it the world needs to end. fuck revolution. mass extinction. evolution.
You can always walk off the long end of a short pier if you don't like it.Quote:
Originally Posted by BeatChemist