Forum Post: OWS = recreational protesters
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 4, 2011, 8:38 a.m. EST by dthompson
(79)
from New York, NY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
You recreational protesters discredit every movement you attach yourselves to. You camp in the park, bang on drums and run around Manhattan with signs because it is exciting. You don't do the hard work to actually make change such as manning a phone bank calling through a 2,000 person list of voters for hours on end. This is not activism, it is the twentysomething version of playing tree house.
Please go home and let the serious people do the serious work of policy change. You are making us all look bad.
Wrong - not all forms of protest are valid if your goal is to actually affect change. If your protest alienates the very voters whose support you need to create change you are not contributing to building a better world, you are being narcissistic twit. You can't build support when the portion of your movement getting all the media coverage looks and behaves like the front row at a Rage Against the Machine concert. Stop it already - the visuals are terrible.
What is amazing to me is that the Tea Party model for actually affecting policy is right in front of you. Hold your rally to gain attention, but stop blocking traffic - you just piss people off. Don't let people wearing masks march with you - they are wearing masks for a reason and their actions are not going to help you get your message out. After the rally - go home and start organizing with everyday people. If you are camping in the park you are just talking to each other."Primary" some Dems and either elect people you like or scare the incumbents into voting the way you want.
"Please go home and let the serious people do the serious work of policy change."
LOL....please make sure to let us know when that "change" occurs...
Will you be receiving email in your tent so you can be notified? But seriously, there needs to be some sort of differentiation between motion and progress here. It takes a special type of gen Y narcissism to believe you are changing the world by sleeping in the park.
What are you doing?
Real campaign work towards identifiable goals.
What's not identifiable about overturning Citizens United and reinstating Glass-Steagall?
Those are certainly identifiable goals - but I see no focus on these goals from OWS. Certainly no one outside the movement is getting this message.
Flip - it was 1968 the last time camping in the park and disorderly marches changed the world. Stop deluding yourself, they look like a bunch of clowns. Occupy Oakland has been a complete PR disaster and Occupy Wall Street is rapidly heading in the same direction.
if you are doing the serious work of activism - going house to house etc i think you are great - BUT - you haven't done a very good job so keep it up but you need to support these people who have changed the world - at least for the moment. i can only assume you are not a real activist since all the intelligent ones are happy about this movement
This country has so many problems (mostly the result of greed) I think there is a place for all sorts of protest - at the phone banks, in the streets, in the park, writing letters, posting online, informing your friends, voting. They are all valid forms of protest and all contribute to building a better world.
So d thompson: please relax.
http://fairsharetaxes.org
well it's not like they will admit they were wrong by voting for obama in the 1st place. of course they have to blame a street or a currency or what is it? the richest 1% ? who is that anyway? oprah winfrey? steve jobs? or is it just the invisible rich old boogyman?
oh the serious ones,are they the same ones who printed 50 trillion dollars backed by no goods or services,kinda like counterfeitng,and bailed out the richest people on Earth and gave bonuses to the very ones that bankrupted the world economy?Sounds Serious..Yea, High Treason,bribery extortion,invading countries on false pretense..oh yea,let the serious do it..brilliant..