Seriously, What's Occupy?

[Stereoblind]

I might be late to the party and this topic has probably been beat to death over the past few months, but hear me out. I've just come out of Gaia retirement for about the tenth time in order to ask this question. Ever since the Occupy movement started, I've been chasing it around the web, reading articles, watching videos, listening to interviews, yet have little real understanding of it. This is not because I'm being intentionally obtuse or because I disagree with the movement, but because Occupy and its supporters are incredibly inconsistent with their beliefs and demands.
A little over half of the videos and interviews I have seen feature protesters who come off as little more than lazy, uneducated misfits who are angry because the government doesn't give them enough handouts. Others seem genuinely intelligent and able to answer social, economic, and political questions coherently without the need to resort to circular reasoning. A few supporters just come off as socialist radicals, but, as far as I can see, they are the minority.
So please, enlighten me. What does Occupy mean to you? I'm not asking for the same tired old speech I've read in every single article supporting the movement ("Occupy supports the redistribution of wealth to the 99%" ). I'm asking what it means to YOU. I'm asking why you would support it.

INB4 pictures of people holding up letters with their life story and "I am the 99%" at the bottom. Seen them. Unimpressed.

[The rose in spring]

Seems pretty clear to me. Just look at 2011. The protests in the Middle East, America, Europe should have made it clear. They want the old out. Either peacefully or violently.

[Stereoblind]

It doesn't seem clear to me. In fact, mentioning the Middle East only made it more confusing. Are you seriously comparing Occupy to the Arab Spring?

[The rose in spring]

Stereoblind

It doesn't seem clear to me. In fact, mentioning the Middle East only made it more confusing. Are you seriously comparing Occupy to the Arab Spring?

Yeah because you cannot deny that the Occupy movement was started thanks to the Arab Spring. In the Arab Spring, Gadaffi died, Mubarak is probably going to get executed and the the people of Yemen were pissed that they couldn't bring their former leader to violent justice. And don't think the west is peaceful. Already we had a massacre at Ft. Hood, a man flying a plane into an IRS office and a gunman who killed a judge while attempting to kill a congresswoman. Now occupy has tuned violent in Oakland. Do you truly believe that they are in any way different?

[Yuki the Third]

Stereoblind

It doesn't seem clear to me. In fact, mentioning the Middle East only made it more confusing. Are you seriously comparing Occupy to the Arab Spring?

People protest oppressive government....government deploys armed thugs, protesters get their s**t slapped.
is this occupy, or arab spring I"m talking about?

[Stereoblind]

The rose in spring

Yeah because you cannot deny that the Occupy movement was started thanks to the Arab Spring. In the Arab Spring, Gadaffi died, Mubarak is probably going to get executed and the the people of Yemen were pissed that they couldn't bring their former leader to violent justice. And don't think the west is peaceful. Already we had a massacre at Ft. Hood, a man flying a plane into an IRS office and a gunman who killed a judge while attempting to kill a congresswoman. Now occupy has tuned violent in Oakland. Do you truly believe that they are in any way different?

Actually, yes, they are very different. The Arab Spring was meant to remove violent, oppressive governments that murdered and imprisoned its own citizens for political dissent and, in many cases, denied them basic civil rights. Occupy is a movement that, as far as I can see, protests economic "unfairness". How are they alike in any way?

Yuki the Third

People protest oppressive government....government deploys armed thugs, protesters get their s**t slapped.
is this occupy, or arab spring I"m talking about?

Let me know when the government starts deploying military jets to shoot down Occupy protesters.

[Yuki the Third]

Stereoblind

Let me know when the government starts deploying military jets to shoot down Occupy protesters.

So it's only oppression if jets are involved?

[Stereoblind]

Yuki the Third

Stereoblind

Let me know when the government starts deploying military jets to shoot down Occupy protesters.

So it's only oppression if jets are involved?

Just because it's oppression doesn't mean it's the same kind or that you should compare the significance of the two. If you want to compare Occupy to the Arab Spring you might as well compare it to the Holocaust. That was also oppression, right?

[The rose in spring]

Stereoblind

The rose in spring

Yeah because you cannot deny that the Occupy movement was started thanks to the Arab Spring. In the Arab Spring, Gadaffi died, Mubarak is probably going to get executed and the the people of Yemen were pissed that they couldn't bring their former leader to violent justice. And don't think the west is peaceful. Already we had a massacre at Ft. Hood, a man flying a plane into an IRS office and a gunman who killed a judge while attempting to kill a congresswoman. Now occupy has tuned violent in Oakland. Do you truly believe that they are in any way different?

Actually, yes, they are very different. The Arab Spring was meant to remove violent, oppressive governments that murdered and imprisoned its own citizens for political dissent and, in many cases, denied them basic civil rights. Occupy is a movement that, as far as I can see, protests economic "unfairness". How are they alike in any way?

Yuki the Third

People protest oppressive government....government deploys armed thugs, protesters get their s**t slapped.
is this occupy, or arab spring I"m talking about?

Let me know when the government starts deploying military jets to shoot down Occupy protesters.

And the Occupy movement is meant to remove violent, oppressive governments that murder and imprison its own citizens for political dissent and, in many cases, denied them basic civil rights. If you think that for one second that the American government doesn't kill its own people and deny people their rights, then you are really ignorant

[Yuki the Third]

Stereoblind

Yuki the Third

Stereoblind

Let me know when the government starts deploying military jets to shoot down Occupy protesters.

So it's only oppression if jets are involved?

Just because it's oppression doesn't mean it's the same kind or that you should compare the significance of the two. If you want to compare Occupy to the Arab Spring you might as well compare it to the Holocaust. That was also oppression, right?

Your rebuttal had nothing to do with my point. Nice nazi-themed strawman.

[Stereoblind]

Yuki the Third

Your rebuttal had nothing to do with my point. Nice nazi-themed strawman.

You made the argument that Occupy protests oppression, like the Arab Spring. My rebuttal was that they're different kinds of oppression and should not be compared, just like the Holocaust was a different kind of oppression. I fail to see what you find confusing.

The rose in spring

And the Occupy movement is meant to remove violent, oppressive governments that murder and imprison its own citizens for political dissent and, in many cases, denied them basic civil rights. If you think that for one second that the American government doesn't kill its own people and deny people their rights, then you are really ignorant

Did you just compare the American government to Muammar Gaddafi and then called me ignorant? Like, seriously? Find me one American citizen that has been killed by the American government for political reasons, other than Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and I'll give you a cookie.

[The rose in spring]

Stereoblind

Yuki the Third

Your rebuttal had nothing to do with my point. Nice nazi-themed strawman.

You made the argument that Occupy protests oppression, like the Arab Spring. My rebuttal was that they're different kinds of oppression and should not be compared, just like the Holocaust was a different kind of oppression. I fail to see what you find confusing.

The rose in spring

And the Occupy movement is meant to remove violent, oppressive governments that murder and imprison its own citizens for political dissent and, in many cases, denied them basic civil rights. If you think that for one second that the American government doesn't kill its own people and deny people their rights, then you are really ignorant

Did you just compare the American government to Muammar Gaddafi and then went called me ignorant? Like, seriously? Find me one American citizen that has been killed by the American government for political reasons, other than Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and I'll give you a cookie.

Jeffrey Miller. Now give me that cookie. Now on a more serious note, I find it strange that you are completely ignoring the vast history of human rights abuses that US has committed in the past and yet you think we are better than Muammar Gaddafi.

[Yuki the Third]

Stereoblind

Yuki the Third

Your rebuttal had nothing to do with my point. Nice nazi-themed strawman.

You made the argument that Occupy protests oppression, like the Arab Spring. My rebuttal was that they're different kinds of oppression and should not be compared, just like the Holocaust was a different kind of oppression. I fail to see what you find confusing.

Vanilla or chocolate, ice cream is ice cream.
same with opression, it isn't okay just because we are doing it to our own guys.

[Stereoblind]

The rose in spring

Jeffrey Miller. Now give me that cookie. Now on a more serious note, I find it strange that you are completely ignoring the vast history of human rights abuses that US has committed in the past and yet you think we are better than Muammar Gaddafi.

Jeffrey Miller was killed by group of guards, not by a governmental order. You can't say the government killed him because of the actions of one guard. Under that logic, any police brutality could be considered the government's fault, and most of the time their actions are their own choicel. Meanwhile, rebels in Libya and elsewhere in the Arab world were shot down by their country's military, which had specific orders to do just that- kill rebels.
I'm not ignoring the history of human rights abuses that the US has committed, I am merely remarking on the fact that they do not kill their own people for protesting.

Yuki the Third

Vanilla or chocolate, ice cream is ice cream.
same with opression, it isn't okay just because we are doing it to our own guys.

So, once again, according to your logic, it's okay to compare our government's "oppression" to the Arab Spring, the Holocaust, Soviet Russia, and Pot Pot's ethnic cleansing. They're all oppression, so they're all the same thing!

[Yuki the Third]

Stereoblind

So, once again, according to your logic, it's okay to compare our government's "oppression" to the Arab Spring, the Holocaust, Soviet Russia, and Pot Pot's ethnic cleansing. They're all oppression, so they're all the same thing!

I didn't say they were the same thing, I said they were all oppression.