this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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[–] RalphFurley 30 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Some anecdotes from my experiences during this time:

I lived and worked in downtown Chicago at the time, right next to the Board of Trade. The local OWS was set up right next to it. I remember the traders had dumped out a bunch of McDonald's job applications from the window onto them below. I would walk by them everyday for months and absolutely no one was paying them attention. It was a small group of people and eventually one day just like that, they were gone.

A week or so after OWS started I was visiting NYC and we ended up at Zuccotti Park where it all started. I think there were more people selling pins, buttons, and various arts and crafts than there were actual protesters. I remember my FIL asking each one if they were trying to supplement a living or if they were purely a for-profit capitalist venture taking advantage of an opportunity at an anti-capitalist protest. I just couldn't stop laughing. He was serious.

Went to a wedding in Tulsa a few months in the whole OWS movement and their main park had an encampment of tents with signs but didn't see any activity.

The big thing I noticed was there was virtually no people of color present, no organization, was a gathering of almost entirely white (mostly young) Leftists, that like usual, failed to cobble together a coalition from other demographics and really just seemed like a spectacle.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Oh god, we missed the don't vote squad when they were at their least threatening!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I remember my FIL asking each one if they were trying to supplement a living or if they were purely a for-profit capitalist venture taking advantage of an opportunity at an anti-capitalist protest.

Out of curiosity, how would he draw that line? When does it stop counting as a living and start being a purely for-profit venture?

[–] RalphFurley 4 points 8 months ago

No idea. I tried to get him to just simply observe and either buy something or not. I still have my pin somewhere, I think I know where it is. I'll look for it tonight and post it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

God, you nailed my experience of this protest. I was going to college in New York when they happened. It was a joke.