Occupy Wall Street

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{{cquote|Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.|||Fletcher, ''The Outlaw Josey Wales''}}
 
{{cquote|Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.|||Fletcher, ''The Outlaw Josey Wales''}}
 
'''Occupy Wall Street''' is an ongoing grassroots (meaning not [[astroturf|astroturfed]]<ref>Everyone knows the [[George Soros|Soros]] Bucks are just rolling in: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-wallstreet-protests-funding-idUSTRE79D01Q20111014?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews Soros: Not a Funder of Wall Street Protests], Reuters</ref>) protest movement that began on September 17, 2011, initiated by the [[Canada|Canuckistan]] culture-jamming group [[Adbusters]].<ref>[http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet Adbusters' OWS page]</ref>  Protesters have occupied the street at Zuccotti Park (formerly ''Liberty Plaza'') in [[New York City]] (and other locations across the [[United States]] and around the world) as a way of demonstrating against the financial powers responsible for the [[banking crisis|economic crisis of 2008]] and a vast, increasing wealth gap between the rich and everyone else (hence "We are the 99%").
 
'''Occupy Wall Street''' is an ongoing grassroots (meaning not [[astroturf|astroturfed]]<ref>Everyone knows the [[George Soros|Soros]] Bucks are just rolling in: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-wallstreet-protests-funding-idUSTRE79D01Q20111014?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews Soros: Not a Funder of Wall Street Protests], Reuters</ref>) protest movement that began on September 17, 2011, initiated by the [[Canada|Canuckistan]] culture-jamming group [[Adbusters]].<ref>[http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet Adbusters' OWS page]</ref>  Protesters have occupied the street at Zuccotti Park (formerly ''Liberty Plaza'') in [[New York City]] (and other locations across the [[United States]] and around the world) as a way of demonstrating against the financial powers responsible for the [[banking crisis|economic crisis of 2008]] and a vast, increasing wealth gap between the rich and everyone else (hence "We are the 99%").

Revision as of 02:24, 7 November 2011

Guide to:

U.S. Politics

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Hail to the Chief?
Persons of interest
Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.
—Fletcher, The Outlaw Josey Wales

Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing grassroots (meaning not astroturfed[1]) protest movement that began on September 17, 2011, initiated by the Canuckistan culture-jamming group Adbusters.[2] Protesters have occupied the street at Zuccotti Park (formerly Liberty Plaza) in New York City (and other locations across the United States and around the world) as a way of demonstrating against the financial powers responsible for the economic crisis of 2008 and a vast, increasing wealth gap between the rich and everyone else (hence "We are the 99%").

Contents

Origins

The primary target of the movement's anger is the mishandling of the economy over the past few years, most especially the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act but also the bailout of the auto industry and the broader deregulation movement that dominated politics of the past decade.

Anonymous had some involvement in spreading the word about the movement prior to the start of the demonstrations;[3] given that OWS was mostly organized over the internet, this is not surprising.

Media coverage (or lack thereof)

Initial media coverage of the movement was muted, but over time, the protestors have come to feature prominently in the news. Unlike with the equal and opposite Tea Party movement, most mainstream news organizations opted not to cover the movement initially, perhaps thinking it wouldn't last. Statistics seem to suggest that there really wasn't a liberal bias as Republicans over the years have claimed.[4]

Criticisms

As usual, there are those who see a gathering of protestors NOT covered with tea bags as a gathering of hippies. The generic argument is "get a job, you contribute nothing to society!" (as if they really care about society) while avoiding all of the evidence otherwise, but some even view their message as anti-American, anti-capitalist,[5] and shockingly, antisemitic.[6] The comments from conservative talking heads range from Rush Limbaugh calling them "Stupid Idiots and Tools"[7] to Glenn Beck saying "They will come for you and drag you into the streets and kill you...they're Marxist radicals...these guys are worse than Robespierre from the French Revolution...they'll kill everybody."[8]

Which is particularly ironic since the distribution of income (as defined by the Gini coefficient) that plagues the US is nearing French Revolution levels.[9] As of right now the bottom 50% of the population actually holds only 2.5% of the total wealth - and now the far-right want them to pay income taxes to boot. Plutonomy anyone?

The real 1%

A second criticism is to remind anyone in the middle and even "upper lower" class, that when compared to the world and not just the US, they actually are part of the privileged 1%, yet still manage to use 25% of the world's resources. Red herrings at work.

Basically, this roughly translates to "Oh, even if we steal more money from you, your lives still won't be as bad as those lazy blacks in Somalia. Excuse us while we get rid of the minimum wage."

External links

Conservlogo late april.png
For those living in an alternate reality, Conservapedia has an "article" about Occupy Wall Street

Footnotes

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