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Originally Posted by Peterw  Don't like the way that governments run your country? Use the web to get your message across to enough people and force them to change. |
And that's exactly Occupy Wallstreet's intent. I think most unfortunate thing surrounding this issue, is how people who dislike the movement for whatever the reason, largely, instead of identifying that reason go after everything to discredit it, including the institution of protesting, and it's inevitable consequences, itself. It's been really shocking to see so many people with so little actual value of democracy when buzzwords are dropped.
And as far as I'm concerned, that's far more troubling than the actual issues that initially inspired the movement, one way or the other. When you have an issue that people identify as partisan (this started around the time it became commonplace to call them socialists), that causes people to
start arguing against free speech and right of assembly that is a huge issue. There are plenty of examples on this forum, though that's not the only place I've seen it by far.
This turned out longer than I'd intended, but it does remind me of a few months back, when there were French protests over retirement benefits. It shouldn't have been a big issue here in the States, it wasn't going to affect us, and yet so many people were determined to undermine the character of them for protesting. That says something very troubling about our national attitudes. Democracy's not in the vote, especially as it is now.