What Really Happened with Occupy?
On this one-year anniversary of the start of the Occupy protests, let’s refresh our memories about what really happened.
Despite the divide-and-conquer tricks of both the mainstream Left and the mainstream Right, Occupy and the Tea Party were originally protesting the exact same thing: the malignant, symbiotic relationship between big government and big corporations. Conservative and liberal protesters both railed against the unchecked power of the Federal Reserve.
Indeed, if the partisan shenanigans on both sides hadn’t derailed the protests so quickly, Occupy and the Tea Party would have joined forces in a way which affected real change.
Highly-militarized, federally-coordinated police used such brutal violence to break up the Occupy protests (see this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this) that the Egyptian military used the crack down on Occupy as justification for the murder of protesters in Tahir Square, Egypt.
While psuedo-conservatives may laugh, true conservatives do not find this amusing. Remember that according to Department of Defense training manuals, protest is now considered “low-level terrorism”. And see this, this and this). And an Army colonel has written a paper advocating military methods for “crushing” a Tea Party insurgency.
Veterans get it. They know that protecting all political protesters – Occupy, Tea Party, etc. – is the core of American liberty. See this, this and this. Even active-duty police know it.
(While the slur of “dirty hippies, get a job” was applied to Occupy protesters, most of them actually had jobs, and many economists supported their demands.)
Speak with most Americans today and you will be amazed that they don’t realize (1) how much police violence was inflicted or (2) that the protesters – like the original Tea Party protesters – were standing up for the American people against the incest between big banks in New York and politicos in Washington.
The bottom line is that the powers-that-be used a combination of brutal violence and disinformation to take the wind out of the protests. Any protests – whether they be of a conservative bent like the Tea party, or a more liberal flavor like Occupy – are doomed
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
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17th September 2012 at 1:40 pm
Administrator says:
HZK bought the storyline, hook, line and sinker. So sad.
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17th September 2012 at 1:45 pm
Administrator says:
IT WAS MOST CERTAINLY THE COLD WEATHER THAT DISPERSED THE PROTESTORS. NOT ARMED THUGS, BACKED BY GOVERMENT OFFICIALS.
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17th September 2012 at 1:55 pm
AWD says:
What really happened is they performed a peaceful protest, and got their skulls crushed by militant police thugs protecting their masters, and were not up to the task of resorting to violence. Until they do so, don’t expect OWS to be very effective.
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17th September 2012 at 1:56 pm
TC says:
It amazes me that the origins of the tea party and the origins of the OWS movement are –> <– this close to being the same message, and yet Americans are so completely balls deep in their fucking 2-party dogma that they don't see the writing on the wall. If the people ever figured out that they were really on the same team, the puppet masters would shit bricks… and rightfully so.
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17th September 2012 at 2:02 pm
Ronahoolie says:
It is very difficult to make those who are followers see and understand that they are being played by their government and its puppet media, but they are being played. It instantly struck me that the Tea Party and OWS were after the same thing, and yet I couldn’t convince anyone of that simple truth.
That said, a government that resorts to such tactics to eliminate peaceful protest is a government that is its own worst enemy. As stupid as the MSNBCFOX sheeple are, the government is more stupid if it ignores the whole of history and believes that somehow this time will be different. It won’t be. I’d rather be me than them. I have a fighting chance if I keep my wits about me. It’s not going to end well for the 1%. It never does.
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17th September 2012 at 2:06 pm
Colma Rising says:
Hope, like from the very first bit of coverage, has had so much of that Beck/Hannity/Rush bullshit pumped in her ears that it’s coming out of her mouth.
Admin, A-dubs and TC nailed it.
Hence the fact that we will never escape the pluralistic, false-dichotomy. Never.
Not while the Prophet generation is a political power.
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17th September 2012 at 2:25 pm
Nonanonymous says:
HZK, you’re totally correct. OWS won’t impact anything until it raises above the level of civil rights and anti-war protests of the sixties.
Protest is flaming in South Africa. Non-violent protest may very well bring about change. It has worked before.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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17th September 2012 at 3:31 pm
card802 says:
I think the problem with Occupy and the early Tea Party was there was no leadership and hence, no message.
So the media made one up for us.
The Tea Party became a bunch of gun toting rich white racist republicans who only want to see Obama defeated at any cost.
Occupy became a bunch of law breaking, pot smoking, car shitting, smelly hippies who only want Obama re-elected at any cost.
The media interviewed the worst of the worst to come to their conclusion. I know some Tea Partiers who are very Libertarian, I know just as many Tea Partiers who believe voting republican is the only answer.
I know some Occupiers (like Admin) who understand it’s the government who provided the bailouts to keep the 1% in power, unions who vote to keep one party in power, etc.
I also know many Occupiers who believe the government requires more power, and want “equality” through confiscation of wealth while they sit home and collect more free shit.
Republicans took over the Tea Party’s early message, Democrats want to crush Occupy and some skulls along the way.
In the absence of truth, truth will be created for us. It’s up to us to separate truth from fiction.
And all the while we fight each other, they win more battles.
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17th September 2012 at 4:56 pm
Mick says:
Please. All you need to know about where OWS came from is to look at the media coverage of both OWS and the Tea Party. There were no rapes, or drug use or trashing of streets, or dung in the streets, etc etc, at Tea Parties. They were civil and patriotic, and implored the Criminal government to get back to the founding principles of the Constitution and limited government. Yet the media would portray them as radicals, made up stories of racists, and spitting at congress people that never happened. Although the Tea Party protests in Washington were much larger, and peaceful, and patriotic, they were virtually ignored by the media.
On the other hand OWS featured rapes, drug overdoses, open hate of American principles, open Communists, trash, excrement, imposition on businesses to the point of making them close. Yet the media would portray them as almost heroic, and gave them round the clock mostly positive coverage. Maybe in a way both movements protested the same thing, but the solutions proposed were diametrically opposed. The Tea Party just wanted to be left alone. OWS wanted free shit.
Spare me the nonsense. The media, totally in love with the Usurper (born British of a British subject father– and likely British to this day– thus not natural born), supported the Left wing Soros astroturf, which tells you who it was there to benefit. Use your head. Get your lefty goggles off.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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17th September 2012 at 5:51 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
I’m with Mick here.
Why was there so much bloodshed at OWS and not at Tea Party events?
Why did it require millions of dollars and hours of manpower (mainly black ppl) to clean up an OWS event and not after Tea Party events?
Why has there been THOUSANDS of arrests associated with OWS and not the Tea Party events?
Why has OWS acheived nearly nothing legislatively or by elections and the Tea Party has?
Why does OWS advocate an end to capitalism, dispossessing Jewish people and restriction of free speech – which is exactly, hmmmmm, what radial Islamists say?
OWS may have ONE good message, ie the corruption of Wall Street, but every thing else about them is completely bizarre, dangerous and ineffectual. Oh, and a big stinking mess also.
Wrong people, wrong tactics, 99.99% wrong message.
It is not a “right vs left” thing. That’s just what the Lefties say when their side gets a beating so they try to say “it doesn’t really matter-all sides are the same or being manipulated or whatever”. Good try.
Oh, and if you want to avoid a beat down by the cops, probably best not to bait them or scream “fuck the police”, which is what was screamed at the cops at Zucotti Park just today, just sayin’. Also, popping balloons all over the place puts police way on edge, which was the intent.
@Mick + 100
I love you guys but I think you are very wrong about OWS, but I guess time will tell.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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17th September 2012 at 6:16 pm
Stucky says:
“Why was there so much bloodshed at OWS and not at Tea Party events?” — HZK
Maybe because it’s a lot easier to beat the shit out of young people, those —– “basement dwelling-ne’er do wells-spoiled brats … dangerous criminals and psychopaths … communistis / socialists / fascists” —– rather than white boomers dressed nicely?
I was also surprised to learn that, hmmmmm, OWS stands for exactly the same as “radial Islamists”. Fuckin’A … learn somthing new every day here.
I swear to god, sometimes I think your brain cells operate at zero kelvin.
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17th September 2012 at 6:59 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
@Stuck:
Gee, I would have thought it would have been easier to rough up the aging Boomers in the Tea Party, half of them in wheelchairs, than young folks in the prime of their lives, but what would I know, I have only been in 3 fistfights in my entire life, lol.
Rush et al?? No, I do not listen to them, can’t help that they happen to be correct on this issue.
But we will see, under pressure, people show their true natures. As more pressure is put on OWS, we will see if they are patriots or parasites.
So far, I’m not impressed.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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17th September 2012 at 9:15 pm
Colma Rising says:
“But we will see, under pressure, people show their true natures. As more pressure is put on OWS, we will see if they are patriots or parasites.”
-HZK
For crying out loud. Here, from the pics above:
Under Pressure
Patriots or leaches? What kind of shit is that? PEACEFUL PROTESTERS. That was their nature… but they got under some skin and scared nimrod old windbags like Mick and grannies in Texas watching the news.
Patriots or leaches. Fucking classic.
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17th September 2012 at 9:33 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
“Despite the divide-and-conquer tricks of both the mainstream Left and the mainstream Right, Occupy and the Tea Party were originally protesting the exact same thing: the malignant, symbiotic relationship between big government and big corporations.”
I tried making this point to some friends once, but they weren’t buying it.
Faux news strikes again.
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17th September 2012 at 12:29 am
card802 says:
TPC,
From SHTF.com about the origin of the Tea Party.
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/who-started-the-tea-party-movement_02162010
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17th September 2012 at 7:29 am
backwardsevolution says:
It was criminal what happened to the Occupy protesters. They displayed incredible restraint, I thought, in dealing with the police.
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17th September 2012 at 1:16 am
Moto says:
Just because there are a couple points of agreement between TP and OWS doesn’t mean they stand for the same thing.
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17th September 2012 at 9:07 pm