Forum Post: A Testament to the Failure of the Internet to Organize.

That is what Occupy has become. Riddled with trolls, attention deficits, anarchism, Ayn Rand libertarianism, under-education, splintering factions, ulterior agendas, infighting, double standards, and a general lack of any sort of cohesion, Occupy was destined to fail from the beginning.

The fact is that this movement was over when it started to splinter, which was inevitable given the online nature of the whole thing. When people started making alternate websites in some empty hope that their userbase will somehow magically be more enlightened than the group they left, they had lost. Everyone just wanted to start their own group with their own agenda and, of course, themselves leading the faction.

Plus, let's be honest, no one in this movement was or is willing to go to jail for it. No one was or is willing to miss work or school excessively for this movement. No one was or is willing to be persecuted and face adversity for this movement. No one was or is willing to tackle the skepticism of friends and family. No one was or is willing to do real, substantive outreach or real, substantive civil disobedience. No one was or is willing to put forth the effort or make the sacrifices that are ACTUALLY REQUIRED to make a scattered movement of 50,000 reach a united movement of 5 million.

I have tried doing my part because no one else will. I have tried to make suggestions for organizing and put them into action. Getting phone numbers of local unions and churches and calling them daily (requirement: a simple Google search, a pen and paper). Boycotting big banks by closing accounts en masse and re-opening them at a local bank convenient for them en masse. Sitting in at seminars and other events organized for the political and financial elites. Phone bombing and e-mail bombing local representatives, city council members, and federal congressmen. Drafting concise, consistent, and reliable flyers and brochures that actually give out facts and dates instead of a bunch of fractured, uneducated slogan throwing. Starting and maintaining a schedule and agenda that is consistent and visible and accessible and out well in advance so people can plan for it. Organizing coherent parliamentary procedure for General Assembly meetings.

And, of course, all of these efforts were thwarted in reality by the lazy, uneducated morons who just thought this was a weekend camp-out with anarchists that included free food. I would propose these ideas and then would be accused of attempting to grab power or exerting undue influence over the group. I would be told how I needed to entertain each and every narrow-minded, baseless, anarchist opinion and agenda that wanted to "be heard" (read: take over) at the protests. I would be told how people had work, had families, had lives, and couldn't or wouldn't do the very mind-numbingly simple things I was asking of them. I would be told I was too young (21) to be telling everyone what to do and that I didn't know what I was talking about and didn't have enough experience to be credible (even though I was suggesting techniques that are historically proven to be effective). I would be told I was marginalizing people and being a "fascist" or "acting just like the 1%" (that was the one that REALLY made my blood boil).

So I'm done. I can't take it anymore. I thought I could, I thought I'd prove all the naysayers wrong and be the guy who could weather the storm and help the movement reach cohesion in some way, but you guys and all the people on the ground camping out with no idea what to do are just too stupid, too lazy, too unwilling, or too uneducated to enact real, organized events with a concrete plan, consistent message and competent, respected leadership. If this is what online movements are like in the first world, nothing will ever change. You really just can't fix stupid.