Forum Post: Is OWS coming after me?
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 22, 2011, 8:35 a.m. EST by R3volution
(19)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I came here with an open mind, with no preconceived notions of OWS. I wanted to see what OWS was all about, because I thought I was a 99%er. I'm an aging aircraft mechanic nearing the end of my useful life and my tired, old body aches from well over 30 years of climbing over the toys of the rich. I drive a crap car, live in a crap house and eat crap for food, but I've saved a little bit. OWS had a certain appeal, but after experiences here, I wonder if OWS seeks to destroy the little life I have made for myself, by seeking to destroy the hands that feeds me?
I've come to find I don't have OWS-approved thoughts and beliefs. I was called an idiot for being a Christian. My questions of what would happen to my job of servicing the private aircraft of the rich, when the rich are destroyed, were responded with "too bad" and a ban from the chat. When I ask what would happen to my retirement, when the corporations I own a billionth of a percent in, are all destroyed? The answer was "sucks to be you".
I never would have guessed it, but as I sit here today, ready to go work in the cold, on private aircraft I can never own, I go disillusioned with what I thought was a movement for the working man, but now appears a movement to destroy my meager life, by destroying those who write me a check. I expect posting my brief experience in your world will be deleted soon, but I value the opportunity to see the meaning behind the OWS movement.
Wow, this is a powerful post! You are not alone in your disappointment, R3v. There was great potential here, but it has been wasted by tantrums and radicals. Blessings on you, brother.
This forum is not demonstrative of the movement. It is riddled with trolls and provocateurs. Go to a local occupation and you will find concerned, committed people who agree on some things and disagree on others, but who are actively working together to address common problems.
There is great potential here, and the sad truth is that we are here because nobody else is looking out for us at all.
Confusedoldguy: "There was great potential here"
There was NEVER any potential for good at OWS because OWS was promoting Marxist/Communist/Statist ideology. They MUST always resort to deception & fraud since the truth about Marxism/Communism/Statism is so hideous.
Proof: the wonderful "Workers' Paradises" of Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, China, Soviet Union. Places SO wonderful you are shot or worse if you try to leave.
Solution: We need MORE rich people. WHAT ????
Confusedoldguy, If you are already working full time, By how much would you have to raise your hourly rate if tomorrow there where twice as many airplanes needing service at the airports you work? If you are not already working full time, would you now be a lot closer to working full time?
Qwerty, I think I mostly agree with you, but I'm not sure what you trying to say.
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The internet forum is not OWS. The internet is full of assholes (turns out).
The OWS movement is not working to take away your retirement, the government and the elite are doing that to you as we speak.
You are preaching to the choir. I understand how inflation destroys all attempts at saving. I understand how money is created by the privately-owned Federal Reserve Bank cartel from thin air, backed with nothing, at interest that shifts massive debt to future generations.
I thought I could find friends here, but I was mistaken. My views are unwelcome here, because I do not subscribe to the notion of socialism.
If you think it is socialism then you still do not understand the movement.
They don't wish to work. I don't mean that as in employment, I mean they want change but don't wish to make it happen. Some just complain, others want the system brought down completely. The actual work of finding good candidates and making changes from within the system seems to be too much effort for them. Much easier to say it can't be fixed then to put in any real effort.
Honestly, you're old enough where you didn't grow up with the Internet and it's probably very difficult for you to understand Internet forum social behavior.
I'm not trying to put you down - the world has moved way too quickly in the last 10-20 years. I think it has been difficult for most people born before the 80's or so.
Anyway, the point is... there isn't an Internet forum that exists where there isn't at least 1 asshole looking to slam you while they're on a power trip. Something as important as OWS is obviously riddled with these kinds of people.
Those who have helped bring this movement to light and who continue to move and support it are not the kind of Internet bullies who would say anything like that to you.
I myself was kicked out of this websites chat room just for asking a couple of very non-confrontational questions about the movement.
You are one of us. You deserve to be able to say more than "I drive a crap car, live in a crap house and eat crap for food" about your life. Your hard work, regardless of who it was for, deserves at least enough for you to feel justified for it.
Your retirement deserves to be guaranteed by a supportive government, regardless of the corporations that fund it, because frankly those corporations can fall at any time even without OWS! And as they falter, the CEOs will take their millions and go to their cushy houses and leave all of the people like you with NOTHING, and the government will be saying "sucks to be you".
OWS aims to fight THAT scenario. Don't let the Internet bullies ruin your perception of a good thing.
Join OWS because YOU believe in what we're fighting for, not because anyone else convinced you to or not to.
Dude, i feel your pain, being in the same general field with a body that is no longer 20 years old. I can't disagree more with your conclusion, though. Your religion is your own business unless you put it out there, and when you do that people are free to respond how they want. If you dont like how they respond, keep it to yourself. If you cant keep it to yourself, you cant complain about how people respond. There is no safe place for retirement savings...stock market? Real property? Gold? It is all manipulated and i watched coworkers on the verge of retiring watch their money disappear... It sucks, but what do you expect people to say... We didnt cause the market crash or the economy crash. We didnt ship jobs overseas to increase profits. How many millions of people have watched their jobs go sailing overseas? Where is your sympathy for them? Why do you expect sympathy in return when you actually have a job? I hear alot of folks say those people should have gotten an education or selected a different line of work, but that is crap...how could anyone predict what the future would do to their jobs? It is so lacking in empathy that it is like a disease. I am sorry that you struggle, but i cant see lambasting everyone in a huge group because you had some interactions that you didnt like.
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aren't you tired of being a slave? we all have our own long history of suffering. there are people who have suffered way more than you or me, but, that's not gonna end unless we do something. do we want the generations that come after us to live in the same F'd up world? I want to be free.
No tulcak, I like my work. I've spent years developing skills few others have and I would do my job for free, but I need money to eat and have a roof over my family. I learned self-reliance and want nothing I didn't earn.
I am tired of being a slave to government regulations that stifle my work, I am tired of paying taxes, so the government can pay interest to the central bankers and others who choose to do nothing. I want to be free to enjoy my work and my family, without oppressive taxation and government control. I thought OWS might be a movement for workers, but I see it is a movement against workers and for those who want to do nothing, at the expense of others. In that, I suppose I am millions others like me are 1%ers, after all.
My time here has been enlightening.
by the way, the veteran's jobs bill got signed into law today. what do you think of that? those homeless vets are just lazy I suppose and deserve to be homeless according to your philosophy.
Maybe they do. Why should I be forced to support anyone else when I am barely making in myself? You can lecture me until you're blue in the face, I will always resent having my small income seized for the trillions wasted by government.
then you are the 1% because the America I know, the 99% will do the right thing.
there are several of you that have multiple user names. you come here pretending to be for the cause and then,... gasp,... you change your mind. its an act man, and you are caught in it. why are you doing it? its clear you are part of the 1% or a slave of the 1%. you have no mind of your own and you are oblivious to the pain of the millions of Americans around you. you play little games while your neighbors get evicted out of their homes and end up on the street with no job - nothing after playing by the rules. you and the other two are really sick bastards.
The only thing you people can do is point fingers when someone does not agree with you. Way to draw people to your movement.
B careful entering chats especially IRC chats & if Anonymous are amongst the chatters. You really need to develop a thick skin! Plez note Anonymous is like the Native American trickster, they can be very cunning & sarcastic but often teach us life lessons! Also often behind their sordid demeanor is the total opposite of what is presented; for example the use of racial slurs can actually be the opposite of how the slur was originally intended (to me a clever way of taking the meaning away from the word). But some are actually professional trolls, basically asshats who get a kick out of pissing people off like you!
Every group is a mixed bag. You work with what you have, not what you think you should have had.
Speak to people. Educate them (unless they are total trolls, who are best ignored).
Where did the term troll come from? Its just slang and it makes me angry that no one actually uses proper english any more.
Well, slang occurs when people need a short hand term for a set of circumstances, like people on blogs who just are obnoxious and post to disrupt the conversation.
I have a great respect for the language as well, but it does evolve.
Please edit your post that says, "The rich has made it to where they are..." as it should be, "The rich have..."
You're right. I'm sorry I was in class and hurriedly typing.
I got a chuckle from your post about English because I come from a family of teachers and am known for being a bit of a stickler about grammar and syntax.
I can't return here and speak. My thoughts are not approved by the powers that control the OWS movement and the concerns of a blue-collar, non-union worker are not part of the movement. I'm just a guy that likes to work on airplanes and that is all I know. OWS wants people who own aircraft to be destroyed, but without them, I don't have a paycheck. I don't hate the rich, they throw me bones to do work I would do for free. I thought OWS might be for me, but I was sadly mistake.
"OWS wants people who own aircraft to be destroyed, but without them, I don't have a paycheck."
Don't worry. I think history shows that when the people who own the airplanes are finally stood up against the wall, all that happens is that someone else owns the airplanes.
If you can't see the difference between wanting to destroy the rich and wanting to keep the rich from dominating and draining the rest of us, then this isn't for you.
Wanting to overturn Citizens United is not the same as wanting to impoverish anyone with wealth.
In addition - a modestly higher marginal tax rate for the rich is not going to break them. They whine as if it will destroy them, but the economy was strong with rates over 300% higher than what it is now. Go figure.
The rich have made it to where they are by using their skills, normally mental. However, when you get somewhere by working for yourself then you should be able to keep the wealth you have amassed
No one gets anywhere in a society without the supports that society provides, so we all pay taxes.
We pay taxes so the government can function. Some are over the top but a government cannot function without funds.
R3volution is right though. Many of this movement want to "destroy" the rich, in that they want the rich to be more like the poor. In the long run, I think this would be better for society. In the short run, it means dissolving the current global economic system. And that means death for millions of people who rely on the functioning of the system.
At this point in the game, many of the OWS movement will lump people who are rich and people who work for the rich into the same negative category.
You are underestimating the good sense of the vast majority of the protestors. Yes, there is some nonsense. Some is from OWS participants, some is from trolls. But there is serious discussion of serious issues. Glass-Steagal, anyone?
I sure hope so!
http://killuminati.isgreat.org/zion.html
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=CCEA19A4F7D352AB
http://killuminati.isgreat.org/collective.html
http://killuminati.isgreat.org/spirit.html
The chat, the forum and the livestream are independent entities, the moderators of one are mostly not the moderators of the other.
Also, you'd probably still have aircraft to service even without the super rich :p
Those pesky idiots. First, religion is out of place here IMHO. Second, you picked your profession. Third, you stuck with your profession instead of changing it.
Here's the kicker, only the myopic few want to destroy the "wealthy". If somebody makes it big that is their good fortune.
My fight and the fight of most people is to take big money out of the political process so we can effect the will of the people instead the will of the very few or 1%.