I don't think gullible is the right way to put it. I don't think those videos are trying to fool us into believing that the police are bad and blah blah blah blah.

I just don't buy that the protests are very organized and safe. I also believe the actions of a handful of officers in a tense situation are not wholly indicative of the police department. I am also very aware that many videos of the police performing their duties admirably, safely, and responsibly are much more numerous than the types of videos that spread virally.

There are protests in loads of major cities. But none of them come close to the occasional fits of chaos exhibited by the New York crowds.

True, I only wrote gullible because the words "Peaceful Protestors" and such are being shoveled to us by the media and others, which many here, posting in this topic, are inclined to believe as well by posting articles written by the same news corporations giving us these out-of-context videos.

/facepalm

So they're a bunch of unorganized, highly-trained, dangerous, hippie, pot-smoking fascists?

Sounds about right.

I rest my case.

0x5-What?

My reaction exactly.

EDIT- The Daily Show did a great job tonight covering both the reasonable and the crazy in this group. When the episode is up on their site I'll link it here.

No, that was at your post. Mind explaining what you were trying to prove?

That there's a neurotic response from the right regarding this group of people. In one breath, they'll call them useless lazy hippies with no purpose, than in the next call them dangerous and highly organized Nazis. Even Oweng4000 echoed this same fallacy when I was making it myself satirically without a thought.

The Daily Show actually made this same point about 2 weeks ago:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-october-5-2011-hugh-jackman

Unfortunately there isn't a clip of just the segment, so you'll have to watch the full episode.

That's fine, it's a funny show!

Related to the protest, my friend who is going to college in Chicago has some great photos of the #OccupyWallStreet Movement.





You can view more on this project on his blog.

That human megaphone(since unlike other protest groups they aren't allowed to use /real/ megaphones) is an interesting innovation. If I ever got control of it, there's one thing I'd have to make them say:

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

Now that I think about it that wouldn't be an entirely unfitting mantra for them.

Anyway here's that daily show clip: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-october-18-2011/scorn-in-the-u-s-a-?xrs=share_copy

@Oweng: Actually, from interesting items I've read, I'd almost argue that mainstream media has been instructed to feed us the "unorganized hippies with no real goals" line, and that they're vastly underplaying the extent of the movement.

This. There is a big hippie vibe coming from them, but when watching clips from the daily show, you realize the guy dressed like a viking is making the most sense of all of them.

the hippies are raising awareness that the rich people have all the money lol

Whether you support the movement or not, I think you'll agree with me how scary the last graph here is (unless you're a 1%er ):

http://www.businessinsider.com/income-inequality-charts-2011-10

That's exactly why people are so ticked off. There were a number of rules put in place by FDR in the New Deal that prevented this kind of thing from happening, but they were repealed later in the 80s and 90s as "burdensome over-regulation" or some such crap.

The issue I have with any sort of argument about wage disparity or "wealth" disparity is that there is not a limited about of wealth in the world. You can always create more.

And what is wrong with people getting paid that much, if the company is stupid enough to pay someone that much there must be a reason for it. You want to raise the levels of pay for the higher percentiles you make those workers worth more, you educate them and train them so they are worth more to the economy. If one of those highly paid CEO's screw up, they put thousands of people out of work. If your job had that much ridding on it and that sort of stress wouldn't you want to get paid more.

Getting mad at people for getting paid more is stupid though I do have a feeling this CEO salary thing will turn into a bit of a bubble, but I doubt that will effect that %99 they talk so much about.

That is a pretty interesting chart. My one question (probably benign), does it take in account inflation? If it does, wouldn't the spike in the top 1%'s income be a little less daunting?

Kerm, I've read many articles from businessinsider.com. They would be more aptly named "anti-businessinsider.com". The value people in the market place are currently providing spans a heck of a wide range. By normalizing the salary everyone gets (and satisfying the Marxists), what you end up doing is creating a double edged sword against prosperity for all, IMO.

Firstly, it de-incentivizes the effort of individuals to perform exceptionally well at their trade, thus reducing the value they are able to provide to the marketplace (where the derivitave value is also generated--exponentially, sometimes even--think Iphone or your favorite gadget). Secondly, the ability of a business to obtain a highly qualified producer becomes a bit of a lottery. Joe Smoe's business whose goods and services the market really doesn't demand that much of may employ Jack Superman "the super logistics guy", where a business that the market really demands is left with some lazy fellow who makes the same as Jack. Who looses? We all do. Jack is trying to get near-useless widget X (which does no one any good) to come off assembly line quickly, and should be at the IPhone factory--for all us 99%'ers who can't pay (hypothetically) $1000 for that phone of theirs.

(What the heck, I only started this reply intending on 1 or 2 sentences...oh well)

I am too lazy to actually make my own post so instead I quote people and then don't say anything new

and just because this thread has been way to serious