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Forum Post: Now the Daily Show is taking shots at OWS....

Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 23, 2011, 11:24 a.m. EST by HarryPairatestes2 (380) from Barrow, AK
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16 Comments

16 Comments


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[-] 1 points by PandaMe73 (303) from Oakland, CA 12 years ago

Actually, most of his coverage has been positive, and how is this the same as a hit piece? I'm an enthusiastic OWS supporter, and I thought it was pretty funny. I know what we are doing is serious business, but sometimes OWS does some silly shit :) That's ok, silly shit happens in organizations where people come together. It's an endearingly human trait. And unlike something poking fun at a GA meeting or action, the part of the movement people expect to be taken seriously, it pokes fun mundane shit that no one is worried about. It's just a look at the foibles of people from the 99% thrown together in a tent city and how even noble freedom fighting patriots are still normal goof ball Americans in their leisure time. Frankly, after having to watch so many protesters get beat down, it was nice to see a more light hearted piece. The only people who would look at that piece and think it is ows getting "busted" for being classist within the park are the fox zombie people who are already against ows. But they don't watch the Daily Show much. The people that do will get a chuckle and forget about it.

Most importantly, if we can't laugh at ourselves, we will never find the strength to get through this...you guys realize that this is going to take a long time right? That public opinion polls on support will rise and fall, protests may stall and then surge out to the streets again unexpectedly a couple months later, seasons will change, an election or two will pass, and if we don't keep at it, we might as well have never started. We should take a chance to laugh and enjoy what humor this all creates, since so much of it is dead serious.

[-] 1 points by rockyracoon2 (276) 12 years ago

amen

[-] 1 points by circlingheart (25) 12 years ago

Maybe an issue or two that OWS should take seriously? Is the Daily show "taking a shot" or offering a perspective that should be considered? Let's not lose our sense of humor please.

[-] 1 points by groovyjoker (39) 12 years ago

That is way too funny. What are you guys doing making decisions in a bank!

[-] 1 points by Thinkdeer (250) 12 years ago

really? a Comedy show making fun of something? STOP THE PRESSES!

[-] 0 points by HarryPairatestes2 (380) from Barrow, AK 12 years ago

Forget the making fun part. It is the position of the people that are interviewed that makes for interesting discussion. Was there really a class divide at the park?

[-] 1 points by Phanya2011 (908) from Tucson, AZ 12 years ago

We have all been raised in a culture that promotes differences between "blue collar" and "white collar", educated and uneducated. So, as human beings, I think we tend to associate with people with whom we are comfortable (after all these years, I can't bring myself to end a sentence with a preposition :)) Jon is just pointing out that no matter where we gather, we retain our human conditioning. It is his ability to show us such things with humor that I like about him. And, of course, acknowledging beliefs that we may not even know we have is a step to changing things we don't like about ourselves, individually and socially.

[-] 1 points by Thinkdeer (250) 12 years ago

if you have a division of class that exists through out a culture, it should be expected that it will continue into any cross section of that culture (providing you aren't looking at a single class within it). So in all likelihood.

It should not be expected to alleviate generations of behavioral training to be undone in a couple months. So as troubling as it is, if their is no systematic attempt to remove the history of class division within a group, it will be observed. Even if you do create a culture that attempts to decentralize power, because individuals within a community (as in any good social organism) will specialize, when individuals specialize you risk the centralization of power and thus class divisions. An example of a group that attempts to decentralize the power of specialization is the bushman. The best hunters will be teased by the group to keep them from lording their skills over others. The hunter is still proud to privide for him/herself and the group, but does not believe that they will be able to with-hold their skills and recognizes that he/she too needs the group. We of course live in a complex society and that type of manipulation would not be acceptable to most of us (though we do regularly accept reinforcing of the class divisions through insults, like redneck, hick, whitetrash, the n-word... so on and so forth).

A systematic attempt to remove class divisions would in essence be brain washing (that is not the same as to say the phenomena is innate). So dissolving class structures should be expected to take some time, especially within the context of a larger super society.

[-] 1 points by Corium (246) 12 years ago

So, I'm guessing John Stewart a Liberal 1%er against OWS. Not really sure.

[-] 0 points by TimMcGraw (50) 12 years ago

the last people that i want running the government. their commune in Portland couldn't even keep themselves under control. why would i want them having any say in politics?

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[-] 0 points by HarryPairatestes2 (380) from Barrow, AK 12 years ago

Did Zuccotti Park have a division among classes?

[-] 1 points by PandaMe73 (303) from Oakland, CA 12 years ago

I don't think so- it looks to me that like many people do when thrown together, people grouped up according to cultural similarity /shared interests. Which means the crunchy hippies together,and the drummers, and the college crowd, and the latte hipsters and the thirty somethings all clustered and staked out territory. Because lifestyle/subculture is often a result and reflection of wealth, this may well have ended up with people of more means being predominant in one area (but likely gathering due to age or career similarity instead of wealth), and people less well off in others (same type of reasons).

But it's not the same as class segregation in society-- no ows kid from the part of camp populated by working class hippie types will ever get pulled over by cops and asked where they are going for being on the opposite end of the park, nor will the upper crusty campers get better "city services" in camp than the others, and both will have equal chance to attend and participate in decision making.

And people grouping up with people they would normally hang out with is pretty much standard. This is a coalition of citizens banding together to fight ills in their society and they have a common purpose to stand for ending corruption and restoring freedom and power to the people even if they don't share one unified political platform. They have respect for each other's humanity and the goodwill created of shared experience.

Other than that these people are vastly different from each other; why on earth wouldn't they want to spend their free time among the ones they have most in common with? I might stand next to a hippie or a yuppie in solidarity at a protest, but at camp I don't think we'd have much to talk about after the first hour was up-- how does that invalidate the protest if people feel this way?

[-] 1 points by JohnmcHD (16) from Chandler, AZ 12 years ago

whoa i just watched that jon stewart deal but u know that's comedy but i wonder, maybe everyone should switch sides of the park maybe ?

[-] 0 points by zucnei (103) 12 years ago

Yes

[-] -1 points by maxrommel2 (3) from Glen Ridge, NJ 12 years ago

Hey did anyone find a pair of men's pants, size 34 waist??

[-] 1 points by ScrewyL (809) 12 years ago

34 waist? That's not a man.