I guess now we finally know what to do to get the media to cover liberal protests (unlike their deadbeat duties in NOT covering the Wisconsin protests). Just pitch them outside Wall Street and then the Wall Street-run media will have no choice but to cover them. They’re now covering this particular protest because it’s in their backyard. To not cover it, would be like you not noticing thousands of angry neighbors chanting in your driveway.
For those that don’t know, there is a protest going on outside Wall Street. It’s meant to protest all of Wall Streets abuses and the widening income inequality in the U.S…I think. The exact ideology isn’t rock solid, but hell, neither was the Tea Party. And if an organization built on the butt fucking stupid paradox of lowering government deficits while also lowering taxes can not only gain congressional seats but hold this country hostage, then why can’t some hurting Americans rail at the people inflicting that pain?
Two very interesting developments have happened in these protests. The first is that almost everyone originally laughed at the protests as nothing more than loooooney NYC liberals throwing a hissy fit at rich people (I bet they’re even from, yuck, the Bronx). Right, because a city like Manhattan where no poor people can afford to live because a closet costs 1500 a month certainly has no reason to resent income inequality. Still, the protests cannot be so easily laughed off now that they’ve lasted longer than a week and actually gained members and organization.
The second interesting thing is actually pretty infuriating. This past weekend, over 700 protesters were arrested. This is an extremely frustrating move (even Scott Walker didn’t result to arresting the Madison, Wisconsin protesters and I thought that guy was lower than dirt) that stinks of the kind-of vaguely fascist tendencies New York cops have picked up since 9/11. No one thinks the Wall Street protesters are actually going to turn violent (we leave that to The Tea Party crowd that brings assault weapons to their rallies) and yet they arrested almost a thousand of them anyway. Just on a logistical level, that’s staggering that they actually were able to arrest that many people.
But doing that has only increased the number of people, and legitimacy, of this once-minor protest that probably would have petered out in time. [It is getting a bit chilly outside and a lot of people would probably rather raise hell at home under a blanket.] Ultimately, I have no idea if the protests will really form into a forceful movement–we’re awfully good at causing a ruckus for a few days, only to dissipate as we splinter off into competing groups–but I do think it’s a great start at finally adding some checks and balances to the one organization too often above it: Wall Street.