WARNING: Politics: Time Person of the Year: The Protester

[Mr.Rauq]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationno...rmoil.html

Woohoo! Voice of the people!



The Time Person of the Year has been selected: It's the protester! From protesters toppling dictatorships in the Middle East and North Africa to protesters fighting unfair elections in Russia and Congo to protesters taking on corrupt, bankrupt governments in Greece and Spain, this was the year that people standing up en masse made headline news all over the world. Oh yeah, there was also the Occupy group.

I saw an Occupy group in downtown Houston over Thanksgiving break. The thing is, they didn't really look that much different than the guys that usually sleep in the park- ragged tents and clothes, signs that didn't really make sense or were misdirected... thoroughly unimpressed. Still made the news, though. Although I never really agreed with the Occupy groups from the start, I think the real Occupiers left and went home a good while ago. They made their point and then went back and got a job or something.

I went to the first two annual Tea Party days- tax day '09 and '10. I bought tshirts. Spring '09 was my last semester in high school. I wore that shirt to school the next day and my government teacher (very liberal, although not unusual for the school or education in general) thought I was so stupid that she went and grabbed her other social science teacher friends to come laugh at me (a little background- my high school was overwhelmingly liberal leaning, supporting the politicians that were in favor of pubic safety nets, and concluding that I didn't support Obama because he's black- they specifically told me that). I was told that I should have my own political viewpoints instead of those of my crazy extreme right-wing parents, even though my parents didn't even know I went and it was the first political function I'd ever been to. So I understand where the Occupiers were coming from even if I didn't agree with them.

The Tea Party never made it a priority to disrupt the business of working people, though. My dad called me a few days ago to tell me about "Occupy the Port of Houston." The thing is, the port is 25 miles long and much of it is security protected. Even if they had access to the entire port, I doubt there are enough Occupiers in the state of Texas to fill it. So they did what, disrupt maybe a fraction of a percentage of the business the port does in a day? Disrupt the jobs of working men and women? I just don't see how that's productive. Yes, the petrochemical plants and ports and shipping companies may be run by large corporations, but they also employ LOTS OF PEOPLE. I bet (assuming they could pass background checks required to work in DHS-secured areas) a lot of those protesters could get jobs there if they wanted to.

I think it would be unfair of me to say that Occupiers don't belong in the same class of protesters as the ones that toppled the Egyptian and Libyan dictatorships (although they did get comparable news coverage), but the Occupiers of today certainly don't. If you've seen one recently they protest police brutality (a whole nother can of worms...), drug legalization, and things unrelated to Occupy, in addition to "Down With Shell!!! Down with Exxon!!!"


On a side note, let's Occupy Clemson in the spring. Go sit in your classrooms and write notes all over your notebooks and then get a degree and get a job! That'll show the big man what's up!

[HKYStormFront]

<--- shocked it's not steve jobs

[Mr.Rauq]

^^this

after trying to reread what I wrote... tl;dr

/political rant

[jedimario]

Steve Jobs was a prick. "The protester" has had a much larger impact on society as a whole.

[Devil07]

(12-15-2011 10:55 AM)jedimario Wrote:  Steve Jobs was a prick. "The protester" has had a much larger impact on society as a whole.

LOL!!! I concur. We don't need any Human CentiPads here.

[Mr.Rauq]

My issue is that the Occupiers that Occupied the Port of Houston this week are included in that. Comparing the Occupiers that started the whole Occupy movement to the protesters that toppled Gaddafi is one thing but comparing the 50 "protesters" that tried to block off a 25 mile long DHS-secured port to either group is a stretch.

I guess it would be hard to define the group *and* exclude that last group at the same time...

[jedimario]

When I see "protester", I think of of both the "Occupy" creampuffs and the real ones that took part in the so-called Arab Spring, not just the Libyian rebellion.

[billspit]

Its amazing how the Dems and other liberals worship the Occupy XX and scorn the Tea party. I supported Occupy XX for very brief time.

[Mr.Rauq]

And it's amazing how the GOP and other conservatives worship the Tea Party and scorn the Occupiers, even though I would identify myself as more conservative leaning. I understood where they were coming from and I understood their frustration, and I respected that they were organized enough to stand up for themselves, I just don't necessarily agree with where they want their solutions to come from.

Semi-related... SanFran McD's are no longer allowed to include toys in Happy Meals per a new city reg that prohibits marketing meals that don't meet certain health requirements to children, i.e. happy meals are bad. McD's route around the reg is to charge $0.10 for the toy. New outcry is that city government is in bed with big business, adding to the coffers by adding a new source of revenue. The thing is, the kind of government that is accused of bedding with big government (which I hardly consider McDonald's, they probably employ more I-really-need-a-job types than anyone else...) is hardly the government that would create a reg disallowing McD's from giving out free toys. /rant