The ever absurd Ezra Klein of The Washington Post is at it again, refusing to remain silent and just be thought a fool rather than speak, or write, and have it confirmed. This turn on the idiot merry-go-round is his little defense of Occupy Wall Street and his breathless desire that the eviction save them. Not the women assaulted at the protests nor the people harmed by other actions of the protesters, mind you. No, no – it’s The Movement ™ that he glorifies and about which he’s concerned:
The occupation of Zuccotti Park was always going to have a tough time enduring for much longer. As the initial excitement wore off and the cold crept in, only the diehards — and those with no place else to go — were likely to remain. The numbers in Zuccotti Park would thin, and so too would the media coverage. And in the event someone died of hypothermia, or there was some other disaster, that coverage could turn. What once looked like a powerful protest could come to be seen as a dangerous frivolity.
After the excitement wore off? You mean all the super exciting rapes and assaults and tuberculosis outbreaks? LOLZ rape – such a frivolity! But, hey, at least the Mayor spared them from raping and assaulting while at risk of catching a chill! And maybe some of those raped and assaulted were some of those ‘undesireable’ types who would have ended up costing us more money in the long run, right Ezra? Like babies of those who don’t have the means, according to you, to care for them? Plus, it’s all about The Cause, as always, to you. What’s a little rape, assault, outbreak of disease and homicide? It’s all about The Movement, baby! Everyone, including women and children, are disposable for ‘the greater good.’
In aggressively clearing them from the park, Bloomberg spared them that fate. Zuccotti Park wasn’t emptied by weather, or the insufficient commitment of protesters. It was cleared by pepper spray and tear gas. It was cleared by police and authority. It was cleared by a billionaire mayor from Wall Street and a request by one of America’s largest commercial real estate developers. It was cleared, in other words, in a way that will temporarily reinvigorate the protesters and give Occupy Wall Street the best possible chance to become whatever it will become next.
First, they were in no way aggressively cleared from park. To the contrary; they were indulged and coddled at the expense of all around them.
They were allowed to build what amounted to a squatter city for *months* to the detriment of the entire neighborhood and those trying to do an honest days work in said neighborhood. But who cares about people who are actually struggling, right? I mean, y’all had drum circles! And ‘income inequality’ chants – the irony of those who sit around on their arses all day, squatting in a park, screeching about ‘income inequality’ is lost on you, huh, Ezra? Kind of hard to complain about inequality when one refuses to even bother earning an income at all. Maybe if one bothered trying to earn an income or, you know, live in reality then one would realize that the whole ‘income inequality’ thing is a total myth anyway.
Also a myth? Your entire grossly romanticized idea of the ‘Occupy movement’ – a movement the press has been trying to whitewash since its inception. The rampant examples of violence and degeneracy were spun as ‘fringe’. Well, guess what? If everyone is fringe, then no one is. At some point, fringe becomes the norm – and oh how it did. Not just at the original Zuccotti Park site, but at every major ‘Occupy’ site; the rap sheet is miles long.
Funny how the opposite was true with the Tea Party. In that instance, the press desperately tried to demonize them and continues to try to do so. Two years of frantic attempts to paint the Tea Party with a villainous brush, but to no avail. You can’t invent things that aren’t there, toots, no matter how hard you try and hold your breath and stomp your feet and clench your little juicebox-laden fists. People saw with their own eyes that the Tea Parties were nothing like the Occupy protests. There were no acts of violence, no filth, no assaults, no law-breaking. Because, Conservatives aren’t cretins. Further, Tea Party ralliers played by the rules; they applied for and obtained permits, they paid for them, they assembled peaceably, cleaned up after themselves and left peacefully, always. What squares, huh? Puritans!
With the ‘Occupiers’ you can attempt to whitewash all you want, but contrary to your Oh So Much Smarter Than Us opinion, people aren’t stupid. They can see the difference between the Tea Party rallies and the Occupy degenerates. I would have not one smidgen of nervousness taking my 8 year old daughter to a Tea Party rally. I would never, ever take her within miles of an ‘occupy’ protest, however. They are not safe for grown women, let alone children.
Sane and honest people can see through your spin and see things for what they are. No one’s rights are being squashed – in fact, the ‘Occupiers’ are the ones who seek to trample on the rights and peaceful existence of others. Most people who don’t live in their mom’s basement will understand how Governor Nikki Haley said it today:
We held a press conference at 4:00. I appreciate freedom of speech. I do not appreciate mattresses on the grounds, urinating in the bushes and damage of state property. Occupiers were given until 6:00 to move off the property. They are welcome to picket during daylight hours. We respect the Rule of Law in South Carolina.
I know, that’s beyond your ken; ‘the rule of law’ existing for over 100 years old and all.
The question is what, if anything, comes next for Occupy Wall Street. The movement has already scored some big wins. As this graph by Dylan Byers showed, they have changed the national conversation. Income inequality is now a top-tier issue. Before Occupy Wall Street, it wasn’t.
And perhaps that will be the legacy of Occupy Wall Street.
No, Ezra, their legacy is that they showed the Left for what it truly is. And it ain’t pretty. The world was watching and they didn’t like what they saw, even through the attempted white-washing spin of the press. They sealed their own fate and it wasn’t a fate of ‘dangerous frivolity’. It was plain old dangerous.
You see, idjit, Zuccotti Park – and other ‘protest’ sites across the country – were cleared because the ‘protesters’ were violent, dangerous cretins. You are hoping the ‘movement’ has been saved? I’m more concerned with saving women from being raped and assaulted and saving innocent people from the actions of those in the movement. Silly me! But you’re right on one thing, Ezra; it’s not that they had insufficient commitment. It’s that they’ve been insufficiently committed – to jail cells, where they belong.
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UPDATE: Verum Serum has sorted the “Occupy” rap sheet by type of crime – save this movement? I think not. Save the victims.
Moe Lane
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
Calm down
mrmises Wednesday, November 16th at 10:27PM EST (link)While it may be fun to lob personal attacks at the occupiers, you have much more to gain by attacking their beliefs than the behaviors of the fringe of the fringe.
Dangerous and violent? Please. That is as realistic a portrait of the protesters as a whole as was the racist and reactionary portrayal of the tea party.
Address their complaints. Invectives are ineffective.
Just because they have a lot in common with your average Paultard
Leon H. Wolf (Diary) Wednesday, November 16th at 11:26PM EST (link)Don’t expect us to have a lot of sympathy for them at RedState.
————
We can’t stop here. This is bat country.
mrmises, did you even bother to
barry915barry (Diary) Wednesday, November 16th at 11:35PM EST (link)read this diary? “Fringe of the fringe”? Please. One of the main points of the post is that what you are calling fringe, has become all to common place. The occupiers were even encouraging the women NOT to report the sexual assaults. Please, take your obnoxious, demeaning DK talking points with you as you exit stage left. Barry
When I criticized Miguel Cabrera for only hitting .344
6eorge Jetson (Diary) Thursday, November 17th at 1:11AM EST (link)and failing .656 of the time, no one took me seriously.
It’s easy to find fault.
But would anyone here want to live in the conditions that the OWS crowd created?
I’ve got a better chance of pinch-hitting for Cabrera.
Dangerous and violent?!
bs61 Thursday, November 17th at 8:09AM EST (link)Give me a break – do you not read what has been reported at Big Govt or the Blaze?
We attack their behavior because we live by rule of law. Besides, they do not have a message except anarchy, communism and socialism.
They want jobs?
DerKrieger (Diary) Wednesday, November 16th at 11:34PM EST (link)Here are some high paying jobs with no formal education required. But they would require actual work so I doubt the losers and beggars at any OWS camp would pursue these jobs?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the–200-000-a-year-mine-worker-.html
“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” – James Madison
Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.” — John Locke, 1690
OWS is reelection of Barack Obama com
celador2 Thursday, November 17th at 7:20AM EST (link)This OWS outfit does not protest the policies of WS bailouts 2009-10. Dems had a majority. They are not angry with the Government with a Democrat in WH. Democrats who run papers and cities pamper them. They are saying the inequality in income is not Obama’s fault. Of course Obama got 4x more donations froM WS than McCain ever did!
When a Repub is in WH this group will emerge with signs and protest government policies and name names. As of now they are pro government shills and apologists.
A Democrat is in White House.
Thugs with a sense of entitlement?
celador2 Thursday, November 17th at 7:48AM EST (link)If OWS were to criticize Obama instead of supporting him I would have more understaning of their actions. I see them as a potential force for protest if they focus a coherent message and direct it to power in government mostly DC as well as financial areas. .And do no harm to the public.
Style is also important, foul language and violence alientated the public who they want to win over.That must change.
Overall I see a movement emerge that looks like thugs with a sense of entitlement.
You can't spell "Clowns" with out "OWS"
throwback59 Thursday, November 17th at 8:37AM EST (link)Excellent post, Lori.
The Rapes Were Peachy-Keen.
Repair_Man_Jack (Diary) Thursday, November 17th at 8:54AM EST (link)When the sanitation got poor enough to smell from City Hall, it was time to send in Lord Vader.
Mr. Obama is pretending that an economic “recovery” is underway when he knows damn well that the banking system is just blowing smoke up the shredded *** of what’s left of that economy – James Howard Kunstler
Ezra is just plain nuts
guidvce Thursday, November 17th at 9:09AM EST (link)along with the OWS crowd across the country. The dems are behind this whole thing in a bid to have Ovomit re-elected via chaos. Which the OWS crowd have said they will cause today in NYC. If their plans come to fruition expect the left to applaud their efforts and maybe call on the D.C. crowd to support them. If it turns into a full scale riot, we may see the real purpose behind it all. Martial law and shutdown of all freedoms for us regular citizens.
Maybe thats just me and my paranoid little mind. Maybe not.
Look...The Guy Is A Socialist
carolynr Thursday, November 17th at 11:54AM EST (link)Some people are just out there and this guy is one of them. When I post on his columns…I have to be very careful not to ask what he was smoking that day…otherwise I get kicked off. Let me see if I can cut and copy who backs this movement. Ah…here is some of it.
The official list of groups, organizations, individuals and entities that have expressed their support for, sponsorship of, or sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Communist Party USA,
American Nazi Party,
Ayatollah Khamenei,
Supreme Leader of Iran,
Barack Obama,
Revolutionary Communist Party,
Louis Farrakhan,
Nation of Islam,
The government of North Korea,
David Duke,
Joe Biden,
Hugo Chavez,
Revolutionary Guards of Iran,
Black Panthers (original),
Socialist Party USA,
Us Boarder Guard,
Industrial Workers of the World,
CAIR,
Nancy Pelosi,
Communist Party of China,
Hezbuollah,
9/11 Truth.org,
White Revolution,
International Socialist Organization,
Press TV,
Iranian Government outlet,
Marxist Student Union,
Freedom Road Socialist Org
So…see where we are and with Obama in office…they are hurting business and breaking the law.
You can't spell "Clowns" with out "OWS"
gwbramhall Thursday, November 17th at 1:02PM EST (link)Nice Job Lori! And to throwback59 above, nice catch!
"OCCUPY' and 'Progressive' Education
ramjr Friday, November 18th at 1:31AM EST (link)Nearly a century ago, progressive socialists set out to take over America. One of the ways they planned to accomplish this was to change the face of the public school system. Led by American psychologist and socialist John Dewey, the foundations of the education system began to change.
John Dewey was instrumental in the philosophical changes that took place in the American education system starting back in the 1920s. Dewey and others believed that the school system was the perfect place to reshape the nation. Dewey often said that if you gave him your kids for seven hours a day that he could change the nation. He taught that the schools should be used to teach children basic socialist ideals and that after two to three generations, those ideals planted in the youth would present a culture in America that could lead to a socialist government.
Two generations after Dewey launched his revision of the American educational system, the nation saw the early socialist teachings in the nationwide protests in the 1960s. It was a generation that started rejecting the conservative Christian values of their parents. They succeeded in removing the Bible and prayer from the public schools. Known as the generation of peace and love, they actually promoted anti-American philosophies.
Three generations later, the products of the socialist public education system are holding political offices and successfully changing the American way of life. If you look at the majority of the people involved in the Occupy movements around the country, they are under the age of forty and I would bet that over ninety percent of them are products of the public schools.
They have not been taught the true history of America and what this country was built upon. They have been taught that capitalism, free enterprise and patriotism are actually harmful to our nation and the people. They don’t realize that these are the very things that made our nation great and provided the foundation for the lifestyles that they take for granted.
Instead of the being taught what America was, they are being taught what socialists want America to be. They’ve been taught to blame those that have worked hard and succeeded in business. They’ve been taught that instead of working hard to make themselves successful that they are entitled to certain things and that it is the responsibility of the government to take care of them.
The public school’s three generations of brainwashing is directly responsible for the uprising against the so-called one percent and the demand that they distribute their wealth and give it to those that have no descent work ethic to provide for themselves.
Congratulations Mr. Dewey, the Occupy Wall Street movement is a direct result of your efforts to brainwash several generations of Americans to usher in a truly socialistic society.
Compare and contrast
hwgood Friday, November 18th at 5:59AM EST (link)The GUM (Give Us More) Party is complaining about the violence used in evicting them from their illegal inhabiting of property.
How did a socialist government deal with a demonstration asking for freedom? The tanks rolled into Tienanmen Square over the protestors.