Thuggery and Squalor is New and Exciting
Further to this extended post on the Occupy phenomenon, here’s a brief update on the “movement” that, according to Laurie Penny, “is trying to do something so profoundly new and exciting with politics.”
Occupy Wall Street seems to be spiralling even deeper into farce – and is now a crime-ridden “sliver of madness, a leaderless bazaar,” according to Candice Giove of the New York Post, who stayed overnight and lived to regret it. The Great Utopian Project in Zuccotti Park now has its own “rape-free zones,” which suggests exactly the kind of problem you think it suggests, and, in suitably Orwellian style, some opinion-management issues have apparently arisen. Though at least they don’t yet have a serious hair and body lice problem, as is the case at Occupy Portland.
Occupy Denver has coughed up the usual parade of people with issues, with banners telling us that the “business world needs to be eradicated” and “killing billionaires” is the way forward. Among the more notable participants was Orange Neckerchief Guy – named Frankie Roper – who arrived at the protest wearing painted-on “injuries” and then set about harassing police officers, verbally and physically, in the hope of provoking “brutality” and thus achieving martyrdom. When this initial bid failed, Mr Roper resorted to pushing one passing officer from his motorbike. Roper promptly ran away, being as he is so radical and brave, but was soon wrestled to the ground and arrested by the officer he’d assaulted a few seconds earlier. Naturally, there followed much collective indignation and mutterings of brutality.
Meanwhile, Occupy Eureka brings us the joys of public defecation and dirty protest, and Occupy Boston is apparently “deteriorating” amid crack dealing, drunkenness and fights. Protestors in Boston also found time to “occupy” the Israeli consulate, chanting “Intifada! Intifada!” and further north, Occupy Vancouver can boast its first “confirmed fatality.” At Occupy DC, where violence erupted again, some protestors saw fit to bring small children to use as shields and doorstops, a move that takes radical leftwing parenting to a whole new level. At the same site, protestors harassed female reporters, held a wheelchair-bound woman captive and pushed elderly ladies down concrete steps, all of which obviously signal the last word in radical piety.
Readers may struggle to understand the mindset of people who find it acceptable to jostle and intimidate elderly ladies who are just trying to get home. Just as they may struggle to empathise with people who find it entertaining to trap and intimidate a woman in a wheelchair. I scarcely need to point out that none of the protestors stopped to help either of the elderly women who’d been knocked over. Instead, these titans of tomorrow kept on chanting and feeling righteous about themselves.
Update:
Re the videos of violence and physical intimidation linked in the post above, it’s worth noting the following comments by Ace:
The media likes to claim these demonstrations are ‘mostly’ non-violent. But every mob persists because of the implied — and often express — threat that violence will ensue if police attempt to disperse them. Before the elderly woman is pushed to the ground for the crime of attending a conference the mob doesn’t support, the mob indulges in a joyous spree of menace and intimidation. They gleefully block a car, driven by a guy with a 2-year-old in the back seat, just trying to get home, because they want to make their physical capacity to harm other people known. They get in the face of a couple with what looks like a four year old and a pre-toddler, to let them know the mob has power over them. They get up into people’s faces with menacing gestures — hands flashed quickly to people’s faces, a pantomime of violence — to let them know the mob can hurt them, the moment it wishes to.
The point about “pacifist” protestors implying mob violence should anyone dare to challenge them is illustrated in the update to this.
Update 2:
On a lighter note, Evan Maloney (director of Indoctrinate U) pays a visit to Occupy Wall Street, where he engages the crowd in a multiple-choice quiz to test the protestors’ knowledge of some relevant facts. Prizes for correct answers include Che Guevara rolling papers, which are by far the most popular item, followed closely by the lilac bong.
“Che’s one of my most favourite people. I sometimes go by the name Che.”
Though at least they don’t yet have a serious hair and body lice problem, as is the case at Occupy Portland.
That’s actually funny.
protestors harassed female reporters, held a wheelchair-bound woman captive and pushed elderly ladies down concrete steps,
But that isn’t.
It’s not going to end well, is it?
Anna,
“It’s not going to end well, is it?”
I shouldn’t think so, no. And given the people involved, and the psychology involved, ending well was never really an option.
That this group embodies an acute sense of entitlement is irritating. That sense of entitlement has converged with a critical mass of identity politics. Anyone who is not them is enemy, and any act is justified. Such are the pathologies in play.
Greg,
“Anyone who is not them is [the] enemy, and any act is justified.”
It takes a fair amount of mental squinting to get inside the heads of people who deliberately put their own children in harm’s way – in the middle of a scrum – by using the children to blockade an exit, thus creating a fire hazard and trapping people inside. When the police finally, briefly force the doors open, the mothers immediately project their own responsibility for the children onto the police and the people trying to escape. Again, it’s a passive-aggressive pattern we’ve seen before.
The cameraman asks why the women are putting children in harm’s way. The women, one of whom seems drunk or mentally impaired, scream back, “This is a protest! We are the 99%!” Because, hey, that explains everything. A third protestor joins in to call the cameraman “an unconcerned human.” Because expressing concern for the children’s safety makes him “unconcerned.” (This is the same venue where a woman in a wheelchair was also trapped by masked protestors who blocked her exit, ignored her requests to leave and merrily chanted, “This is what democracy looks like.”)
As you say, it’s not politics, it’s pathology.
[ Added: ]
Using-Children-As-Doorstop-Woman ‘explains’ her actions in this video interview:
Readers may wish to compare this self-excusing account with actual footage of events.
The women, one of whom seems drunk or mentally impaired, scream back, “This is a protest! We are the 99%!” Because, hey, that explains everything.
The screaming bulldyke in the denim jacket looks like she’s lost her care worker.
A decade ago, these people were basking in the privilege of the American Upper Middle Class and are now angry that they’ve been sold a bill of goods by their educational mentors. Alas, their education did not include the sort of analytical thinking necessary to conclude that the culprits are not those who refused to by in to leftist ideology but those who were purveying it.
Truly, this is a lost generation.
I don’t suppose you were with us as part of the Libertarian contingent that joined the occupylsx protest on Saturday were you Dave?
Old Holborn has some of the details here:
http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/2011/11/lets-do-it-again-sometime.html
The long and the short of it was that as soon as they realised that we weren’t on message, it turned violent. Including one horrible poison dwarf woman screaming non stop that we were “EDL” apparently and trying to get the hundreds behind us to attack us.
It started to go sour as soon as we moved up to the front of the march and “leading” it with our “cut deeper” banner. Loads of craptivists started running in front of us and demanding that we “slow down”. We told them to fuck off. The EDL accusations and attempts to bundle the banner off of us followed soon after.
Katabasis,
I’m not a ‘marching-marching’ type of guy. It’s really not my thing. I’ve seen the dynamics up close before and wouldn’t care to repeat the experience.
R. Sherman,
As Glenn Reynolds notes, “The Occupy movement has done a persuasive job of illustrating the particular failures of the education system.”
2nd death
http://occupywallst.org/forum/first-ows-death-reported/
“Truly, this is a lost generation.”
Far as I’m concerned, they can stay lost too…
It’s not going to end well, is it?
I would say the end game is pretty well mapped out.
As anyone who has been to St Pauls can tell you they are in the main, the same SWP/Respect/Greenpeace crowd that populate all protests. They do have a specific set of goals, which is kind of clear when you see banners like “Capitalism = War” and the mandatory Marxist posters. 10 seconds in the education tent removes any doubt that this isn’t a bog standard leftist gathering. These people are rather happy because they are currently getting rather more press than normal. Mind you they assume they really do represent majority opinion and view the normal indifference as proof of media bias. One person I spoke to claimed that the fact the BBC withholds the fact of the protester’s vehement anti-capitalism as further proof. I assume he imagines that honesty of the part of the BBC would lead to more support rather than less.
The value of the protest to the establishment is that it articulates a complaint without a solution. Thus any establishment figure from David (oops) Ed Milliband down to Penny Red can claim the movement shares the same demands as they do. An instant mass movement that supports everything you do. But this can’t last for long. The average SWPer doesn’t want to be in a movement whose aim is to re-elect the Labour Party.
Over time the demonstrators who can see this will drift away and the remnants be less disciplined in holding back the crazy. At some point the media coverage will quietly cease and the protesters will take another month or two to realise. Notice how the Guradian/BBC no longer gives big coverage to OWS and instead focuses on St Pauls. No doubt the ugly scenes in the former play a part.
I can’t quite decide: is this the last thrashing death throes of something which has been moribund for years? Or is it the start of a new wave of homicidal foolishness?
The fact that governments at both the local and Federal level find it useful to encourage these idiots is definitely disturbing. It couldn’t be made more plain: our government is at war with us.
I’ve seen the dynamics up close before and wouldn’t care to repeat the experience.
David, it all depends on the protest and the protestors. At the Countryside Alliance protest (much bigger numbers than OWS) nobody got punched or kettled or pushed down stairs. And nobody got lice at a Tea Party protest.
Lorna,
“It all depends on the protest and the protestors.”
I’m sure it does. As you say, there’s not much call for kettling (or delousing powder) when bourgeois people get pissed off.
R. Sherman,
“…their education did not include the sort of analytical thinking necessary to conclude that the culprits are not those who refused to buy in to leftist ideology but those who were purveying it.”
Which is pretty much what we saw during the student riots last December. For all the self-righteous posturing, the actual causes of the academic entitlement bubble, which could never be sustained, were oddly unaddressed. Instead, we got waffle like this, from people who think themselves both clever and entitled. But hey, Conservative HQ got a good kicking and lots of random people were intimidated, and for some that’s what’s matters.
[ Added: ]
As I said not long ago, much of what we’ve seen says a great deal about the state of our higher education system. And about the people whose juvenile politics dominate large parts of it.
Many have seen such movements in the late 1960’s, and know how fatuous they are. I think that’s why most people respond with a shrug.
When this initial bid failed, Mr Roper resorted to pushing one passing officer from his motorbike.
Attacking cops on bikes is the new black:
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/210030.php
Watch the crazy people lying about it afterwards.
There is increasingly an air of desperation about the ‘occupiers.’ As their efforts grow less intelligent and their plans for a new world order get rejected by the rest of us, they need to dream up more stunts and become more strident in their demands.
The tradition of the left tends sooner or later towards division, which is possibly why they call for a united front and solidarity so often (for more information on this tendency, see the reference to ‘splitters’ in ‘The Life Of Brian.’)
It has been observed before that should the ‘splitters’ unite enough to influence the rest of us to give way, two things would be noticeable: first, the occupiers’ caring and sharing love for all would cut zero ice with the real left-leaning and despotic countries, and second, the chances of anyone protesting against our new overlords would be virtually nil. It wouldn’t be ‘police brutality’ as such but more the new state insisting on full compliance. Or else, with no discussion.
I was in San Francisco a couple days ago; my hotel was about a mile and a half or so from Occupy San Francisco.
The occupation covers a small park 100 by 300 yards alongside the Embarcadero, and consists largely of large plastic tarps haphazardly providing top cover for REI castoff tents. The Occupation seems determined to deplete the world’s supply of ugly signs. They run the gamut from inchoate to incoherent, with more than a dash of illiterate. Only one I saw made a lick of sense: “Don’t Piss Here.”
As for the oppressors, there were two police officers strolling around looking both very professional and completely bored.
Of course, this being the Wharf and Embarcadero, and a nice day, tourists abound. 100% of whom, even if in a permanent post-vegetative state, could have cared less about the Occupation than they already did.
A friend of mine who lives in the area says the Occupation leads the local news every night. Impossible to know why, since precisely nothing was going on, other than producing a certain nose-wrinkling stench.
What is readily apparent though, is that anyone seeing even the slightest similarities between Occupy [anyplace with a lawn available for complete destruction] and the Tea Party, other than that both groups are bipedal, is either delusional or lying.
Apologies if this has been posted before, but here’s one of those “Hi there, idiot! Meet reality,” moments.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=04a_1320637387
Sam & Stuck-Record,
“Watch the crazy people lying about it afterwards.”
It’s fascinating. In the second clip, Hooded Guy’s righteous adamance is revealed as fiction and promptly turns into hostility and fake exasperation. The whole episode is role-play. I suspect the only honest emotion we’re seeing is resentment at being found out. I really want to know what Hooded Guy did next. Having realised he’d been rumbled and caught lying on camera, did he go away to rethink his obvious personal shortcomings? Or did he try to find some other rube to lie to?
Answers on a postcard, please.
Hooded guy is six years old. Having just spent time ith my niece and nephew I recognise the dogmatic lying technique.
1. Bare-faced lie.
2. When questioned, shout louder.
3. When proved wrong, get offended and angry. Try to make questioner feel guilty for upsetting you.
4. When 1-3 fail, storm off.
“When questioned, shout louder.”
Exactly.
[ Added: ]
And dishonesty informs much of what we saw happening at Occupy DC (and indeed elsewhere). A number of the protestors at the convention centre said their aim was “to prevent those inside from leaving.” That’s it. In other words, to trap innocent people and scare them. People whose great sin was to have political views that differ from those of the protestors. The protestors tried to force their way inside the convention centre and blocked roads and exits, allowing only “non-luxury” cars to leave (eventually, illegally and entirely at their discretion). Those unfortunate enough to have expensive cars (and children in the back seat) found themselves being harassed and abused, with protestors jumping in front of their cars, and onto their cars, to prevent them from moving.
But what was the supposedly noble purpose behind these mob tactics? What high-minded message were they hoping to convey – besides “we can hurt you”? What we’ve seen in the clips above isn’t about politics. It’s narcissism and bullying pretending to be politics.
There’s always the possibility that Hooded guy and his ilk’s derangement is so total that they are no longer seeing empirical reality, even when it happens in front of them. Bit like in Shameless when you finally get to see Sheila’s prescription drug-addled ‘reality’ in which feckless dole-scum scruffbag, Frank Gallagher appears to her as a dapper and charming.
implying mob violence should anyone dare to challenge them
David,
“Coffee cart owner Linda Jenson and hot dog cart operators Letty and Pete Soto said they initially provided free food and drink to demonstrators, but when they stopped, the protesters became violent. “Both carts have had items stolen, have had their covers vandalized with markings and graffiti, as well as one of the carts had urine and blood splattered on it,” said Councilman Carl DeMaio. In addition to the attacks, the vendors also said they recently received death threats.”
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/11/07/socal-street-cart-vendors-hurting-after-occupy-group-splatters-blood-urine/
Classy people.
It does seem odd, but the best way to deal with these neotonised entitlement addicts is to put them on the equivalent of the naughty step (of zero (media) attention to their tantrums).
I figure as MSM attention dies due to the damage to the narrative that further coverage would do, the OWS neotes will go to greater extremes to attract attention.
To ‘new and exciting’, it seems you can add ‘fashionable’:
http://www.annaraccoon.com/politics/occupy-fashion-occupylsx/
Re Che. Last Thursday the Cuban Mission to the UN in New York hosted the book launch for “Who Killed Che?”
After a short speech by the Cuban ambassador and an amplified phone call from Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the Cuban National Assembly (who also wrote an introduction for the book) the authors took a moment to thank their guests.
“We came here straight from Zuccotti Park,” said Michael Steven Smith. “It’s like going from one free territory in America to another.”
“As we say in Havana,” said Michael Ratner, “Venceremos!”
(Celeb lefties in attendance included David Byrne and Judd Hirsch.)
‘Coffee cart owner Linda Jenson and hot dog cart operators Letty and Pete Soto said they initially provided free food and drink to demonstrators, but when they stopped, the protesters became violent. “Both carts have had items stolen, have had their covers vandalized with markings and graffiti, as well as one of the carts had urine and blood splattered on it,” said Councilman Carl DeMaio. In addition to the attacks, the vendors also said they recently received death threats’.
Yeah, way forward. That’s just the ticket for winning the struggling masses over to your side. Wankers.
‘”Who Killed Che?”‘
The Bolivian army. They needed to write a book to answer that poser?
carbon,
“…they initially provided free food and drink to demonstrators, but when they stopped, the protesters became violent.”
As noted earlier, more than once, the protestors’ claims of pacifism have the air of a protection racket. No-one gets hurt… provided you do as they say and hand over whatever they want.
DB,
“Celeb lefties in attendance included David Byrne and Judd Hirsch.”
I’m going to have to build a leftwing celebrity slapping device. Something automated and with jagged edges, so I can just stand them in a row and let the machine get on with it.
No-one gets hurt… provided you do as they say and hand over whatever they want.
“A business owner near the Occupy Wall Street encampment claims she has been repeatedly harassed and threatened with bodily harm by protesters after she and her employees refused to give in to their outlandish demands… She and her employees are terrified by the constant threats, which she said began after she demanded the protesters stop using her shop’s restroom as a place to bathe every day. The final straw came about two weeks ago, when the demonstrators broke a bathroom sink, flooding the shop, and clogged the toilet — setting her back $3,000 in damages.”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/occupiers_terrorize_us_eatery_o4dKzxi3n03WyJWAJu4AhO
I love in the comments section of the above NYPOST article someone has created the label “Poopstock” for the Occupy campaign.
Quite perfect.
“leftwing celebrity slapping device” What a great idea.
Thanks for the link to the Reason film – hadn’t seen it before. George Plimpton saw through the bullshit, but then he had experienced Che’s handiwork close up.