Thomas Lindaman writes:
Okay, it's time to clear the air about the Occupy Wall Street slogan "We are the 99%." They're not. Oh, they claim they do, but let's take a look at this logically.
First, let's take a look at the 99% portion of the equation. I'm certainly not rich, so I would fall into the 99% the Occupy Wall Street Leftists talk about. Yet, I certainly don't agree with their multitude of stances,
It doesn't matter if you agree with their stances or not. You're one of the 99%. You're trying to move the goalposts.
ranging from free college
"Free college" is not an official OWS stance. Lindaman probably got that nonsense from right-wing sites like Fox News, who copy-and-pasted from an open post on OWS's forum. The forum clearly states the following:
"Admin note: This is not an official list of demands. This is a forum post submitted by a single user and hyped by irresponsible news/commentary agencies like Fox News and Mises.org. This content was not published by the OccupyWallSt.org collective, nor was it ever proposed or agreed to on a consensus basis with the NYC General Assembly. There is NO official list of demands."
Regardless, Lindaman doesn't say why free college is bad, of course. That "free market college" degree in journalism sure helped you get your successful career, didn't it? So what if it was an entry level mortgage lending job (which doesn't require a degree)? lol
It's rather odd how many Americans think putting people into debt for getting an education is a good thing. It's really a purely American thing. Education should never be profit-related.
to more regulation of Wall Street, an entity that is already regulated heavily.
It's not so much that markets are not regulated enough, but rather that they're not regulated properly.
Lack of proper regulation allowed your mortgages to get bundled with other poor securities and sold to the highest bidder. It's because of lack of proper regulation that speculators are playing around with things like derivatives.
Plus, I think some of their ideas are utterly ridiculous and unrealistic.
What ideas? Again, Lindaman doesn't seem to understand, there's not an official list of demands.
You must be living in a dream world if you think that's the core of what they want. Between finance, jobs, education, medicine and taxation, not to mention trade and manufacturing, there's more broken than there is functioning. The military, the legal system, the prison system, the police, the supreme court, the politicians, immigration... the list goes on and on. There's a lot broken. Healthcare as well, which is why you're saying bullshit like "Well, Obama should make the healthcare issue with the Supreme Court be a tie instead of a win." Because you know the right decision on healthcare (which is REFORM) will win in the end. The protesters are just concentrating on the things that are broken the worst, the ones in the most imminent danger of crushing them underfoot, preventing them from making a decent living or preventing them from being able to get out of debt in their lifetime. They protest against the things that threaten our country's future and security.
You say that these people are out there for selfish reasons because that's the way you would think. Not everyone is like that. If you don't understand what they want by now, you never will. People have explained it over and over, and in detail. It's not for lack of trying to explain on their part. Your lack of understanding is on you. Either you don't want to hear it, or what's being said to you doesn't register anywhere in your brain.
The Occupy Wall Street types certainly don't speak for me now, and I doubt they'll ever speak for me in the future.
They aren't speaking for you, nor are they trying to. It doesn't matter. You're one of the 99%.
Now, let's look at the 1%. That 1% includes people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and George Soros, people who tend to lean in the same direction as the Occupy Wall Street types. To hear the OWS people talk, the 1% is nothing but rich fat cats, but they don't seem to mind some of the rich fat cats.
Lindaman repeats this soundbite in his subsequent post, so I'll cover that in my next post as well.
Heck, most of them probably own some piece of technology or clothing made by a...capitalist! To put a finer point on it, every single one of those protesters who owns an iPhone, an iPod, or some other technological "must have" is a hypocrite of the highest order.
The iPad thing is a soundbite Lindaman and right-wingers are parroting (as usual). I think my favorite GOP talking point so far is that one: "OMG the protesters hate corporations but they use iPhones." Yes, because anyone who complains about how corporations operate must see all corporations as equally bad.
This just further demonstrates a severe lacking of fundamental understanding of what these protests are all about. This is the equivalent of arguing that libertarians are hypocrites if they drive on a road.
During the Civil Rights movement, white people invented the megaphones they used. So obviously those black people are hypocrites and need to shut up.
The right-wingers have a whole slew of fake rules for why you can't protest ("Wealthy celebrities can't advocate for the poor because they're wealthy! And the poor can't advocate for the poor, either, because they aren't working! And the working can't advocate for the poor, either, because they don't run businesses!") etc.
Right wingers actually believe this, folks. "If you buy from a cell phone company, you have no right to protest against the political power and influence unconstitutionally wielded by investment banks."
Somehow you think that being against Wall Street's manipulation of markets, fraudulent investment ratings and banks leveraging themselves is anti-capitalism. It isn't. It is against the perversion of capitalism. You do not understand the concepts of scale, nuance or depth of impact. Maybe that's why the OWS signs are actually spelled correctly, unlike the Teabagger signs.
And even if, in some parallel universe, this movement did have a beef with commercial products and the system in which they are produced, it's hardly hypocritical to use those products in the service of protests. Protest groups in the past who contended that laws were unjust were hardly hypocritical to use lawyers and seek legal reforms.
It's clear I'm not one of the 99% types. However, I am one of the 100%.
The 100% of people like me who think Occupy Wall Street is a massive joke.
Says the Birther and global climate change denier. Oh, by the way, have you heard the latest? They must be in on the simple conspiracy. lol
You are 100% of the world population, Lindaman... but only by sheer volume.
Okay, it's time to clear the air about the Occupy Wall Street slogan "We are the 99%." They're not. Oh, they claim they do, but let's take a look at this logically.
First, let's take a look at the 99% portion of the equation. I'm certainly not rich, so I would fall into the 99% the Occupy Wall Street Leftists talk about. Yet, I certainly don't agree with their multitude of stances,
It doesn't matter if you agree with their stances or not. You're one of the 99%. You're trying to move the goalposts.
ranging from free college
"Free college" is not an official OWS stance. Lindaman probably got that nonsense from right-wing sites like Fox News, who copy-and-pasted from an open post on OWS's forum. The forum clearly states the following:
"Admin note: This is not an official list of demands. This is a forum post submitted by a single user and hyped by irresponsible news/commentary agencies like Fox News and Mises.org. This content was not published by the OccupyWallSt.org collective, nor was it ever proposed or agreed to on a consensus basis with the NYC General Assembly. There is NO official list of demands."
Regardless, Lindaman doesn't say why free college is bad, of course. That "free market college" degree in journalism sure helped you get your successful career, didn't it? So what if it was an entry level mortgage lending job (which doesn't require a degree)? lol
It's rather odd how many Americans think putting people into debt for getting an education is a good thing. It's really a purely American thing. Education should never be profit-related.
to more regulation of Wall Street, an entity that is already regulated heavily.
It's not so much that markets are not regulated enough, but rather that they're not regulated properly.
Lack of proper regulation allowed your mortgages to get bundled with other poor securities and sold to the highest bidder. It's because of lack of proper regulation that speculators are playing around with things like derivatives.
Plus, I think some of their ideas are utterly ridiculous and unrealistic.
What ideas? Again, Lindaman doesn't seem to understand, there's not an official list of demands.
You must be living in a dream world if you think that's the core of what they want. Between finance, jobs, education, medicine and taxation, not to mention trade and manufacturing, there's more broken than there is functioning. The military, the legal system, the prison system, the police, the supreme court, the politicians, immigration... the list goes on and on. There's a lot broken. Healthcare as well, which is why you're saying bullshit like "Well, Obama should make the healthcare issue with the Supreme Court be a tie instead of a win." Because you know the right decision on healthcare (which is REFORM) will win in the end. The protesters are just concentrating on the things that are broken the worst, the ones in the most imminent danger of crushing them underfoot, preventing them from making a decent living or preventing them from being able to get out of debt in their lifetime. They protest against the things that threaten our country's future and security.
You say that these people are out there for selfish reasons because that's the way you would think. Not everyone is like that. If you don't understand what they want by now, you never will. People have explained it over and over, and in detail. It's not for lack of trying to explain on their part. Your lack of understanding is on you. Either you don't want to hear it, or what's being said to you doesn't register anywhere in your brain.
The Occupy Wall Street types certainly don't speak for me now, and I doubt they'll ever speak for me in the future.
They aren't speaking for you, nor are they trying to. It doesn't matter. You're one of the 99%.
Now, let's look at the 1%. That 1% includes people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and George Soros, people who tend to lean in the same direction as the Occupy Wall Street types. To hear the OWS people talk, the 1% is nothing but rich fat cats, but they don't seem to mind some of the rich fat cats.
Lindaman repeats this soundbite in his subsequent post, so I'll cover that in my next post as well.
Heck, most of them probably own some piece of technology or clothing made by a...capitalist! To put a finer point on it, every single one of those protesters who owns an iPhone, an iPod, or some other technological "must have" is a hypocrite of the highest order.
The iPad thing is a soundbite Lindaman and right-wingers are parroting (as usual). I think my favorite GOP talking point so far is that one: "OMG the protesters hate corporations but they use iPhones." Yes, because anyone who complains about how corporations operate must see all corporations as equally bad.
This just further demonstrates a severe lacking of fundamental understanding of what these protests are all about. This is the equivalent of arguing that libertarians are hypocrites if they drive on a road.
During the Civil Rights movement, white people invented the megaphones they used. So obviously those black people are hypocrites and need to shut up.
The right-wingers have a whole slew of fake rules for why you can't protest ("Wealthy celebrities can't advocate for the poor because they're wealthy! And the poor can't advocate for the poor, either, because they aren't working! And the working can't advocate for the poor, either, because they don't run businesses!") etc.
Right wingers actually believe this, folks. "If you buy from a cell phone company, you have no right to protest against the political power and influence unconstitutionally wielded by investment banks."
Somehow you think that being against Wall Street's manipulation of markets, fraudulent investment ratings and banks leveraging themselves is anti-capitalism. It isn't. It is against the perversion of capitalism. You do not understand the concepts of scale, nuance or depth of impact. Maybe that's why the OWS signs are actually spelled correctly, unlike the Teabagger signs.
And even if, in some parallel universe, this movement did have a beef with commercial products and the system in which they are produced, it's hardly hypocritical to use those products in the service of protests. Protest groups in the past who contended that laws were unjust were hardly hypocritical to use lawyers and seek legal reforms.
It's clear I'm not one of the 99% types. However, I am one of the 100%.
The 100% of people like me who think Occupy Wall Street is a massive joke.
Says the Birther and global climate change denier. Oh, by the way, have you heard the latest? They must be in on the simple conspiracy. lol
You are 100% of the world population, Lindaman... but only by sheer volume.