Kicking. Squealing.
Leftist movements leverage hysteria to spread their message. At Gawker, Max Read covers the arrests of between 17 and 24 people who descended on a NYC Citibank to stage a massive checking account closing. Here is what ensued:
Who among us has not gone somewhere looking for a fight? It could be a fist fight, or it could be a verbal altercation. But I dare say that everyone – at some point in their lives – has gone into a situation, ruffled feathers because they knew feathers could be ruffled, and then held up their hands as if none of the ensuing altercation was their fault. I’ve done it, both in public and in my various relationships. This is classic passive-aggressive provocation – a sort of entrapment.
At Citibank, you see cameras at the ready. You see a sullen young man staring out of the bank’s window as he is about to be detained, sending some sort of message to the people standing outside. You hear the people outside the bank talking about calling “the lawyers” as if a crack team of attorneys was waiting on standby for something to pop off.
This was planned. Not just the protest, but the arrests. Just as The Daily Beast’s John Avlon noted comments from an Occupier to the effect of “we’re going down here in order to get arrested”, much of the OWS movement is staged to heighten the conflict between authorities and protestors.
But when these people actually accomplish what they set out to accomplish – mass arrests, conflict with the police – they yell louder and more hysterically. In the Gawker vid you can clearly hear the woman videotaping the incident shouting “For Shame!” at the top of her lungs. If I didn’t know the context I’d assume that this all was a scene from a movie where an evil overlord dictates a surprise ruling, detaining and then quickly beheaded a hero (I’m thinking Game of Thrones). The onlookers’ shock builds on their helplessness. But, yeah, NYC Citibank is not the same. The rabble-owsers set out to cause trouble and then freaked out when they got what they asked for. There was no surprise ruling leading to mass arrest.
Read also wrote:
After all, we don’t know what she was doing before she calmly tried to explain to the officer that she is a Citibank customer! Maybe she was trespassing, at the bank where she keeps all of her money and is likely charged for the privilege of doing so? Presumably, she’s one of the 24 people who were arrested at a Citibank near Washington Square Park in Manhattan on charges of “criminal trespassing” yesterday—Occupy Wall Street protesters who were staging a mass account-closing, but who, Citibank claims in an official statement, “were very disruptive and refused to leave after being repeatedly asked.” (Citibank also says that “[o]nly one person asked to close an account and was accommodated.”)
Just a point of clarification here. Read – parroting many others who are angry with how customers are treated at banks, including those who are criticizing Bank of America for instituting a $5 debit card fee – ignores the service that banks provide their customers. People keep their money on deposit at banks so that they don’t have to tote cash around on their person. Of course, banks benefit from this. But these banks have to protect their other customers as well. So when one set of customers detracts from the ability of the bank to do business with other customers, it is within their right to protect both their property and their customers’ ability to access their accounts.
Now, the Gawker piece was supposedly about the arrest of one woman who may not have been attached to the Occupier crowd. But who should that woman be angrier at, the bank or the occupiers who got her - an unwitting bystander – caught up in their game? The elderly woman at the beginning of the video ventures down that road when she says “This isn’t Wall Street. This is Greenwich Village.” Touche old lady.
This heightened awareness on the part of the “rabble-owsers” detracts from its cache, in my opinion. A more authentic movement – one arising out of pure anger (which is more respectable than pure narcissism and boredom) – would have massive arrest as a means rather than an end. I keep trying to slap down various comparisons between the Arab Spring and this so-called American Autumn, but I always have to point out that those participating in the Arab Spring DID NOT want to get arrested. This should tell you something about the nature of this movement and whatever it is they are railing against.
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
seen it.
Not to take the side of OWS, but what exactly did they do to break the law?
“seen it.”
How do you feel about it?
Aaronovitch:
the police and citibank are saying that they were causing a disturbance inside the banks, that only one person actually wanted to close their account, and they didn’t leave when asked to leave. i understand that it is entirely possible that the bank was heavy-handed, but the owsers were looking for this end.
Soros:
these people are mostly complaining about their shitty life outcomes which they brought on themselves. you have kids and are struggling to provide for them? then go to the iwishiwouldhavekeptmylegsclosed.tumblr.com Tumblr. which form of awareness raising is more impactful? i would prefer to say “hey, i made X and Y bad decisions, here’s how you can avoid it” rather than crying about it.
“these people are mostly complaining about their shitty life outcomes which they brought on themselves. you have kids and are struggling to provide for them? then go to the iwishiwouldhavekeptmylegsclosed.tumblr.com Tumblr. which form of awareness raising is more impactful? i would prefer to say “hey, i made X and Y bad decisions, here’s how you can avoid it” rather than crying about it.”
Wow, what a nice little dialogue we are having, I guess I’m growing on you?
If anyone ever needed confirmation that physical ugliness is related to stupidity, there’s that link for ya!
You may not agree with the protests, but with facts like these, it was only a matter of time:
The 400 wealthiest Americans have a greater combined net worth than the bottom 150 million Americans.
The top 1 percent of Americans possess more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent.
Banks privatize profits and socialize risks, and that’s just another form of bank robbery.
We enjoyed considerable equality from the 1940s through the 1970s, and growth was strong. Since then inequality has surged, and growth has slowed.
Inequality leads to early deaths and more divorces.
Does anyone have any experience dealing with an emergency and not having health insurance? Can it really bankrupt you? Hospitals really make you pay? Is what they’re saying really true? Is there really no option but to accrue mountains of debt for people with chronic diseases?
I mean I’m libertarian leaning, but if these people aren’t exaggerating, then this is quite unsettling even to me.
I’ve always had trouble coming to terms with the healthcare issue in general though..
Tim, inequality is ok. Even gross inequality. The problem occurs when the creation and maintenance of wealth is decoupled from national solidarity, relies on the destruction of common good, and lacks noblesse oblige.
@Tim – “Banks privatize profits and socialize risks, and that’s just another form of bank robbery.”
This is not really true. The government was the one to force the bailouts down the taxpayers throats. Mad about bailouts, like I am? Then put the blame squarely where it belongs. Bush, Obama, and a Democratically-controlled Congress. Those are the actual facts.
The OWS crew is not actually upset about bailouts, they are upset about whome the gov chose to be the RECIPIENTS of the bailouts.
OWS = Jealous that they did not get the money. Not much more, not much less.
@Kaz. You hit the nail on the head, the issue should be emergency care. No doubt about it, health insurance is not cheap, but much of that stems from bizarre mandates that require coverage for all sorts of care.
Men who buy health insurance are forced to subsidize the costs for mammography screenings, pre-natal care, and other services that they will never, ever, use. People without children subsidize pediatric care for those with kids, etc.
It is still possible in some states (but not under Obamacare) to buy a cheap “catastrophic” plan that covers you in case of getting hit by a bus, heart attack, cancer, but does not cover routine things or normal prescriptions. I’m young, so the cost is less than 1 latte a day.
When I hear people, including friends, complaining about not having health insurance while buying a triple-grande-frappa-whatever, I get apoplectic. All about priorities. If people can afford a coffee, they can afford insurance to take care of them if a medical disaster strikes.
What ever happened “white people’s problems”? How come that isn’t applicable here?
They need to somehow get the police or army on their side and then they can start a revolution.
Having had my car attacked by hippies, I would say the police should tear gas them all.
@PA,
I agree with your assessment.
@Desi,
Your draw a distinction between Wall St and the Government when there is none. Wall St and the Government are the same. The OWS movement chose to ignore the Government and go directly to the source of real power.
I would think the real source of power would be whoever has the military under their command.
@Tim
What.. Wall St has more power? No, the government has more power, the hell man. Wall St wouldn’t get away with half the shit they do if the government wasn’t backing them.
Lara,
exactly right. if you want to rail against authority, rail against those that actually posses the power to make you a slave if they so desire. centralized banking was effectively avoided until 1913 in this country. we have more years of railing against a centralized bank – that is, the symbiosis of the banking industry and the government. and while there were a few in the private sector who wanted nationalized banking, it was the government’s decision to do so under the auspices of smoothing out business cycles. just as the government does in any time of “war” – the Lusitania, Gulf of Tonkin, 9/11 – they leverage the panic of the masses to push through polices that steal their freedoms.
Kaz,
but Tim and the owsers can’t blame the government because to do so would be to criticize the agent which has the only means to push through other liberty-limiting polices i.e. leftist redistributionist policies.
just like many of the owsers have a lot of student debt due to tuition inflation which was caused by federal gov’t subsidization of student loans – that side can’t criticize the government. instead, ppl who are angry about their student loans blame either the universities or, oddly, Wall Street. in truth, the limit their blame of the universities because those outfits are also part of the same leftist cabal with which they identify. they don’t want to bit the hand that fees them.
I try to avoid grand Illuminati / Bilderberg / Jew / NWO-type conspiracies mostly due to the fact of how depressing they are, and I suspect they’re based on the fallacy of few pricipal actors. But whatever. It’s not implausible that Soros-type of activities, aimed at the centralization of power, has simply created and funded OWS’ers as a way of putting a white face of a very anti-white socialist movement.
Wall St and the Government are not two separate entities. That’s the point I was making.
ppl who are angry about their student loans blame either the universities or, oddly, Wall Street
CHuck, here is a fun thought experiment. We know that mob-mentality is impervious to logic, so you couldn’t exactly have an open-mike debate wiht OWS’ers out in the park. But — if you talked alone with one of the smarter, natural-leader type of guys from that group, woudl yo be able to convince him that “Wall Street” is not at the source of his debt predicament.
WHorefinder, maybe yo could approach one of those guys in Boston and have a calm chat? LOL, you’d have to be nice
Tim, true in a way, but “Wall Street” is a very broad term here, which encompasses pretty much all of the private sector industry and its employees.
I’m not terribly worried about health insurance. I am eligible for Medicare in 23 years and after reading the Wikipedia entry on it, it looks fairly decent. Expensive though. 15% of GDP.
Did anyone also know that Medicare – socialism – finances all residency training of physicians in the USA? According to Wikipedia, anyway.
Wall St is Ground Zero for Corporate America, and I think most people agree that Congress is a wholly owned subsidiary of Corporate America. And that includes Democrats, not just Republicans. I’d wager 80% of all Democratic Congressman are owned lock stock and barrel by Corporate America.
I doubt this is actually true (inequality being ok) even though I’m sympathetic to it on philosophical grounds. It can’t be denied that vast disparities in wealth are a ubiquitous feature of 3rd world countries, and that economic equality relative to that is a feature of 1st world ones.
I personally haven’t sat down and crunched any numbers but I’m dubious that it’s actually good economics that 2-3 people in a society hundreds of millions are the only ones capable of serious capital investment. Clearly there is at some point an undesirable level of inequality of wealth.
Why do you think the government backs “Wall Street”? It’s certainly not out of some sense of charity. All of these Dem politicians will continually rhetorically battle the private sector while shamelessly accepting campaign contributions, hosting lobbyists and voting for pro-big business legislation. That’s the point he is getting at. There is no wall between business and government. They don’t represent conflicting spheres of power. Talking about who is more ‘powerful’ is like discussing rather Superman is more powerful than the Hulk. It’s a completely fictitious battle. In the event that it happens it’s mostly just a theatrical event put on for the purposes of distraction.
You’d have to be a fucking moron to think that the banks had the bailouts forced on them as well. A hundred years ago there were 40-50 big banks in the US. Today there are 4. The government picked winners and losers and there were plenty of banks clamoring for those bailouts that didn’t get them, and got bought up by the banks that did get them. The bailouts were the brainchild of banking bigwigs in the first place. That they then found themselves in a position to make that fantasy into reality is no coincidence. That’s because there is no barrier at all between government and finance. It’s all one fetid swamp.
I generally agree that these OWSers are the architects of their own misery though. There has to be some blame for those pushing the “College for All!” campaign though. The OWSers beliefs are incompatible with reality in terms of solutions, but some of the problems they identify are legitimate.
We should be taking examples from Germany’s page in terms of education and the associated debt, but that is not what the OWSers want. They want someone to wave a magic wand so that their anthropology degree will be worth something which is never going to happen. In Germany they at least push students towards tracks that are useful for society in terms of potential economic activity, which is basically the exact opposite of what our government does in promoting that every fat, ugly bitch on the planet get her Masters in Gender Studies and then bitch about how she still works at Costco.
Which is somehow beneficial to our government and media. I’d like to believe there is some kind of Gramscian conspiracy and grand ideology underpinning it, but I suspect it’s just beneficial to them in terms of the lulz over the goyische kopf, and ruining the lives of so many in the most massive trolling ever.
Kyle,
I have to disagree with most of what you wrote. The U.S.G. benefits largely by having New York City and Wall Street serve as the financial capital of the world. The dollar as reserve currency grants the U.S.G. unmatched power in international politics which they wield at will. While it seems that a lot of banksters make a lot of money, the banks are merely a cog in a larger machine.
Yeah, Wall Street takes a little bit of vigorish off the top, but that is merely the price the U.S.G. will pay for the financing of the regime.
The U.S. could maintain international dominance in many other ways – which is why defense contractors were the original focus of leftists back in the 60s (and which Obama was adamantly opposed as a nuclear arms prohibitionist in his collegiate career). But power shifted from that industry over to the banks. The banks currently serve as the manufacturers of power for the nation. As such, they merely lobby to be able to maintain and grow their position as the middleman in that scheme.
“I’m not terribly worried about health insurance.”
We’re about the same age, I’m healthy, and if I were single, I would always opt out of health insurance. At this point in my life it would not be worth the hundreds of dollars a month.
It’s when you have children that having health insurance is important.
a cog in a larger machine.
The cog cannot by definition be in opposition to the machine and vice versa. So Wall Street is a part of the government then? So can we stop framing things in terms like the poor innocent private sector is having all of this money forced on them by the big bad government? That there is actually any meaningful distinction between the government and Wall Street.
Uuuuuuuuggggggggggghhhhhhh! People like this guy are multi-billionaires and he’s out there talking about economic empowerment of the poor? No poor person could afford to take his retreats. Why not start with yourself by charging less? I did agree with his points about the level of consciousness that problems are created with, and encouraging entrepreneurship, but he conveniently says “social entrepreneurship”. What social entrepreneurship and poor people empowerment is HE doing? How ironic that the world’s richest hucksters like Russell Simmons and this guy are looked upon as representative of the 99%.
I would still take out individual catastrophic health insurance if I didn’t receive health insurance from work.
Kyle:
point is, a majority of the owsers ignore the government component in order to focus on the Wall Street component. i’m cool with considering parts of Wall Street to be another arm of the government. assuming that is true for the sake of argument, why the lack of focus on the thing that legitimizes Wall Street in that way?
“The 400 wealthiest Americans have a greater combined net worth than the bottom 150 million Americans.
The top 1 percent of Americans possess more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent. ”
And yet these 1% billionaires like Chopra and Simmons are out there speaking for the 99% as if they “care”. Oppurtunists!
“Does anyone have any experience dealing with an emergency and not having health insurance? Can it really bankrupt you? Hospitals really make you pay? Is what they’re saying really true? Is there really no option but to accrue mountains of debt for people with chronic diseases?”
There are some hospitals that treat uninsured,poor and/or homeless emergency cases completely free. Research hospitals in your area to find out which one you should go to in case of an emergency. On the otherhand it ultimately does not matter because I have had collection agencies after me for over a decade regarding a few hospital visits and I’ve not paid them to date. What are they going to do, kill you? NO.
Another option is to go to free clinics. Most lower income neighborhoods have them and you can get good care there. They sometimes even provide you with vouchers for tests in better hospitals.
There’s alot of aid out there. Take advantage while you can.
@PA:
Nope. Those hippies stopped the car last night and climbed onto the roof and jumped up and down like the animals they are.
typical lefties.
“point is, a majority of the owsers ignore the government component in order to focus on the Wall Street component.”
By contrast the Declaration of Independence was mailed directly to King George.
I don’t know anyone who is participating in these protests. I just don’t think these people are capable of much. Maybe some of them have legitimate complaints, but it is starting to look like a bunch of misfits more than anything.
Because they are a bunch of stupid faggots that don’t know what the fuck they are talking about, and it is probably disproportionately Democrat astroturf anyway. Their goal is to get Obama reelected. He’ll keep funneling money to his corporate paymasters. Some legislation might get passed in the aftermath making things harder for small and moderate sized businesses.
George III had very little political power, so that’s no where near an apt comparison. He was about as politically relevant as the current British Monarch. I don’t think he was actually capable of reading the Declaration of Independence without a translator. I’m sure the Founding Fathers knew that, but were just doing it symbolically.
@GLP “but Tim and the owsers can’t blame the government because to do so would be to criticize the agent which has the only means to push through other liberty-limiting polices i.e. leftist redistributionist policies.”
Perfectly put!
None of these OWS fools joined Rick Santelli and the original Tea Party movement in 2009 to protest the bailouts.
I wonder how many useless Art History majors from Wesleyan and Oberlin whose mommies and daddies pay for their MacBooks and AT&T iphone bills, are at the protests, sad that there are no $100k a year jobs in “Modern Art Criticism” and “Comparative Cultural Anthropology”, and clueless that their precious Obama, Pelosi and Reid, all voted FOR the bailouts?
Occupying Zuccotti Park was deliberately designed to draw attention to the fact that Congress gets its marching orders from Wall St.
They didn’t join Santelli and the original Tea Party movement because they (mistakenly) felt that Obama was their Savior. It was only a month ago they realized that even Obama is Wall St.’s biatch.
It was only a month ago they realized that even Obama is Wall St.’s biatch
Do any of them actually think this? Left’s frustration with Ob. is that they think he’s ineffectual against the Right, not that he’s their biatch.
I don’t think anyone outside of alt-Right and maybe Bernie Sanders-style paleo socialists thinks that both parties are corporate whores.
GLP–
Good one Chuck.
Biatch was indeed hyperbolic. OWS’ers realize that Obama is just one man, and he alone can’t deliver if lefties are content to sit at home and watch tv and scratch their balls from time to time. In other words the left, without passion, is dead in the water.
What people need to keep in mind is that these protests are really pretty small. Most days it doesn’t seem like they get to even 1000 in Zuccotti park, which is a small place. The media about never mentions the number though, I think to make it seem bigger than it is. Well sometimes CNBC has.
“I try to avoid grand Illuminati / Bilderberg / Jew / NWO-type conspiracies mostly due to the fact of how depressing they are”
It’s funny how people rail against the Blacks on these blogs, but not the Jews.
I think you’re on to something. Do you think this is also common to … Desis?
@Sigh:
lol eejit. We don’t accuse blacks of massive, unprovable conspiracies. Just anti-social and violent behavior based on lower IQ and societal permissiveness.
Chuck:
The “spontaneous protests” were actually planned by the left. Go figure.
http://leestranahan.com/the-rich-white-kid-behind-owss-1-meme
Go to an OWS protest and say you are a Republican candidate for Congress with a plan to push a student loan amnesty.
WIll they love you or hate you?
“The “spontaneous protests” were actually planned by the left”
Or a rich kid with some daddy issues.
That’s pretty insightful. I was wondering, what’s the streetcorner market value of a … Desi?
Do you like to freshen your panties with Gulab Jal or Kali Mirchi?
I just did somethign else… with both hands. I was thinking of you.and amchoor powder
dont deny our love my curry wildness… we have so much karma together and so much last weeks masala i like to lick from between your ample breasts
youre touching yourself i can hear your bush crackling
you always like to shave for me desi… starting with your forearms
LATHER UP BITCH
Chuck, I think you want to run “PA”‘s IP to see who it is.
ewww you filthy animal “I” will not “pee” on you
lol @ my evil twin brother PA impersonator. Outtrolling the troll? Watch out for that guy, he’ll bang anything that moves.
Outtrolling the troll huh? I can’t believe that after all this time you guys are actually getting clever!
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Provocation is just a political tactic* and sometimes effective at drawing positive attention to your argument. I suppose you could call this trolling IRL. While I’m ambivalent towards OWS, I don’t see a problem with this provocation tactic in general. Maybe the right could stand to learn a thing or two from OWS if their trolling gets them what they what, however dumb those outcomes may be. The right doesn’t do a lot of provocation but I can think of at least a couple examples that were pretty effective: the affirmative action bake sales and the Danish Muhammad cartoons.
* (Calling out the other side’s provocation for what it is also a political tactic so keep up the good work.)
The troll even managed to get the same color avatar as PA. I wonder how he did that.
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