Forum Post: Occupy Los Angeles breaks into 2 camps over the issue of pot
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 28, 2011, 5:38 p.m. EST by omniscientfool
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I can see the 1% laughing at us and it makes me sick
http://www.theawl.com/2011/10/the-night-occupy-los-angeles-tore-itself-in-two
Also occupy SLO seems to have had similar issues, leading to the people who started the encampment to leave.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/27/2474724/rowdy-behavior-leads-to-schism.html
Oh. My. Gosh.
I just finished reading the entire article and I can't even find the words.
There needs to be a serious discussion of the incestuous relationship between the financial world and the political world. But more and more I am coming to the realization that OWS is NOT going to be the conduit for that discussion.
OWS has become a parody of itself, and is hopelessly bogged down in trying to re-invent hierarchy within a communal tribe. This is not a serious political movement.
How could this possibly be a surprise to anybody? If a group of anti-establishmentarians comes together to protest authority by forming a new authority, then that group is inherently an oxymoron. How could the General Assembly expect anybody to respect their authority when rejecting authority is the only thing that they clearly stand for?
I can't believe people are being so selfish at the camps. I actually had some try to take my laptop at a camp because he said he was in the media committee which needs macs and the "movement" owns everything at the camp
Do you have some kind of problem with the redistribution of "your" resources to people in need?!?
In Zuccotti Park, the General Assebly is trying to simultaneously assert its authority over the park in order to reject homeless people, so that only people who are rejecting law enforcement authority can participate. Yet another obvious oxymoron that doesn't seem to bother anybody involved.
The General Assemblies are operating under the fantasy that their authority derives from inclusive direct democracy, even despite the obvious problem that their orderly system of leaderless disorder only works if the leaders of the GA marginalize and disenfranchise some of the people present.
This is one of the many things that worried me about the Occupy protests. I'm fairly certain the Occupy protests will get hijacked by Liberal activists and Unions and this article just spotlights one of the many reasons why.
I'm not against legalizing drugs, specifically pot. Sadly, those that spend all their time smoking pot are a little lacking in their mental capacity and don't realize they are doing more harm to their cause then good.
That last sentence is how a lot of people feel about the whole movement in general.
I know...
The best thing any one that smokes pot and wants it legalized can do is ... STFU ! The only people that will ever get marijuana legalized are those that have grown out of it and don't smoke pot any more. Any one that is still on it, They usually just make fools of them self when they try to defend it or try to make a case for legalizing it.
Yes the actions described are disgusting.
Bingo. You win.
I TOTALLY agree with seaglass. Drugs did destroy the movement in the 60's and 70's, and it is about eating and waking up with a roof over your head. Let's worry about whether or not drugs should be legal or not legal when we fix the system that would decide that very thing.
Drugs destroyed the movement back in the 60's and 70's. This isn't about getting high folks. This is about friggin eating and waking up with a roof over your head. Its not a party its not a DISCO. If want to go party fine, but do it somewhere else. Making Revolution isn't for drunks and drug addicts!
[Removed]
"In a moment, the platform was full of arguing, gesticulating shadows. To Ralph, seated, this seemed the breaking up of sanity. Fear, beasts, no general agreement that the fire was all important." W. Golding, Lord of the Flies
breaking up into two groups might not be a bad thing. LA is a big place to occupy. they are still talking , No?
I watched people in Dallas get up and leave because of the same issue,
"Kat, a twenty-something blonde with a big beautiful Slavic face and dirt underneath her fingernails....." - obviously supports Philip Morris tobacco products, but not weed......hmmm....
Oligarchy is political power based on economic power. And it's the rise of the Wall Street in economic terms, that it'd turn into political power. And Wall Street then feed that back into more deregulation, more opportunities to go out and take reckless risks and-- and capture huge amounts of money. The American democracy was not given to us on a platter. It is not ours for all time, irrespective of our efforts. Either people organize and they find political leadership to take this on, or we are going to be in big trouble. That's absolutely the heart of the problem. I would also say and tell you, and emphasize, these Wall Street people will not come out and debate with us. The heads of Wall Street or their representatives, they will not come out. They're afraid. They don't have the substance. They don't have the arguments. We have the evidence. They have the lobbyists. And that's all they have.
-Nalliah Thayabharan
Wall Street Corporations don't make anything. They don't produce anything. They gamble and bet and speculate. And when they lose vast sums they raid the U.S. Treasury so they can go back and do it again. Never mind that $50 trillion in global wealth was erased between September 2007 and March 2009, including $7 trillion in the U.S. stock market and $6 trillion in the housing market. Never mind that the total amount of retirement and household wealth trashed was $7.5 trillion or that we saw $2 trillion in 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts evaporate. Never mind the $1.9 trillion in traditional defined-benefit plans and the $2.6 trillion in nonpension assets that went up in smoke. Never mind the job losses, the foreclosures and the 35 percent jump in personal and small-business bankruptcies. There are bundles of new money, taken again from us, to make deals and hand out outrageous bonuses. And when these trillions run out they will come back for more until our currency becomes junk
We essentially have had modern-day bank robbers -- except that they wore gray suits and not masks -- and there's been no accountability for it Every day we see energy speculators, war profiteers, managed health-care providers, media propagandists, and/or financiers given some unfair advantage over the average consumers and taxpayers, and the cumulative effect of the American people watching selfishness prevail over the public interest has been an undermining of the public's trust in government.
There's no question the system is rigged against the little guy. The bigger interests have a lot more information. They jerry-rig the system so that they always win.”
So the drummers/non-drummers in NY are complaining and there is infighting.
The cooking detail in NY is complaining about freeloaders and there is infighting.
The pot smokers & non-pot smokers in LA are fighting and there is infighting.
The campers in SF/GA are going at it and there is infighting.
The Justice for Oscar Grant crowed/Occupy crowd in Oak are infighting.
The "founders" of SLO gave up the occupation and left because the people who got involved to match their ideals.
All this is great if you.... are for keeping the system the way it is or a journalist looking for a story
Those that wish to destroy the Occupy movement and use it for their own personal agenda should be made the sacrificial lambs of the movement. There is a very simple way to put an end to this situation that would have multiple benefits and remove the trouble makers.
Put a few seconds of thought into it and use the laws to your advantage.
PLEASE, do tell! I've put more than a few seconds of thought into it while considering what you're saying here, but the only thing I think you could possibly be suggesting is to have the drug users arrested/sacrificed - is that right? I think it safe to say that there are NO occupiers who seek to invite the police into their camps for this (or any other) purpose, so I find it a bit hard to believe this is what you're saying - but correct me if I'm wrong. I'm honestly looking for ideas here and cryptic messages don't help much. Thanks.
It is exactly what i am saying. These are peaceful protests by law abiding citizens correct ?
By doing this you would be giving the Cops what they want, arrests. The media a story, Protesters throw out the scum and make a good name for them self. More credibility to the movement by abiding by the laws while attempting to change them.
If you let the trouble makers take over they will. If they take over the Occupy movement fails.
Not a 1% , but I'm still laughing. :)
Added another sad story from SLO
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/27/2474724/rowdy-behavior-leads-to-schism.html
From your link:
Leaders of an umbrella group that spawned the Occupy SLO movement have withdrawn formal support for the splinter group that has been occupying the county courthouse lawn in downtown San Luis Obispo for a week, citing a compendium of bad behavior by people who joined the protests after they began.
“We have officially pulled up stakes,” Pete Evans of Occupy SLO said Wednesday. “Anyone down there (at the courthouse) does not represent” the organization."
I thought OWS was advertising itself as a leaderless non-organized movement? So now there are "athorized" protesters and "unauthorized" protesters? On whose authority?
I guess if the people who join a existing camp refuse to go along with what people decided before, well there are problems. Imagine if 100 people waked into Z park and decided to start moving tents etc to set up their own, separate protest. Would the people in Z park let the new comers practice their free speech or try to make them leave?
If the moved splits into 2 separate areas over pot in LA how the hell do they expect to tackle anything really important
suggested reading for occupy LA: "Brave New World"
The 1% could care less about you. It's the 99% laughing at you that you need to worry about.
who cares? pot never killed no one, and even if someone smokes right next to you, there's like a 0% chance you'll get high
Perhaps ther are people who don't like it?
but it fucking smells. just like its apparently too inconvenient for "the 99% protestors" to be in the vicinity of legitimately homeless people, it might be inconvenient to be around stinking fucking pot smokers.
Maybe because it is not something that is part of the movements agenda?
I think the protestors themselves smell worse than the pot