Wall Street protesters inspired by Arab Spring movement

[nadinbrzezinski]

(CNN) -- It worked in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Now, taking their cue from social-media fueled uprisings in places like Egypt and Iran, a band of online activists hopes it will work on Wall Street.

Kalle Lasn, co-founder of the counterculture magazine AdBusters, has taken to Twitter and other websites to help organize a campaign encouraging tens of thousands of Americans to hold a nonviolent sit-in Saturday in Lower Manhattan, the heart of the U.S. financial district.

This past spring and summer saw a massive groundswell of populist demonstrations against authoritarian regimes in North Africa and the Middle East -- the Arab Spring of 2011.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/16/tech/social-media/twitter-occupy-wall-street/index.html?iref=allsearch

Notice the date... it is a day old... nothing on today...

What is the world I am looking for? And this is the nooz on this, not the story... oh yeah... CENSORSHIP.

[midnight]

1. K&R

[bluestateguy]

2. They got a long ways to go

as long as there are more people watching Keeping up with the Kardashians on TV than protesting on Wall Street.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Hmmm there is another thing my addled mind is looking for

oh yes a book... manufacturing consent.

There is a slew of others, but that is the most obvious in the list and one of the LEAST TECHNICAL too.

[tritsofme]

4. I don't know what world you are looking for. But obviously a different one from ours, if you view

this little protest today as the equivalent of the Arab Spring protests that brought down Mubarak et al.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. What is the word I am looking at now?

Oh yes, Argumentum Ad Hominem.

by the way in the world we used to inhabit this story would have been mentioned in the nooz...

But personal attacks are just lovely...

:hi:

Here... in an effort to help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

Another word you might want to look for is Zeitgeist.

And yes, I do like Lattes.

[tritsofme]

12. The story appears on CNN.com's frontpage

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/17/technology/occupy_wall_street/?hpt=hp_t2

I think the event is being covered well in proportion to it's relevance. What more do you expect?

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. You tuned in?

IT SHOULD be covered on air... at least mentioned. It is not like they need to go far. They do have a NY Bureau you know.

[tritsofme]

14. Wouldn't know.

I only watch news channels when major presidential events are being covered. Its on their front page, there is no blackout.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. THEY FINALLY went to it

and yes, that is what people mean by not covering these things and creating a paradigm.

I know this is difficult to understand... at times.

[tritsofme]

16. The news covering a story at evening time.

What a strange proposition.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. You keep diminishing it

I highly recommend that book. We are done.

(Manufacturing consent)

[cwydro]

7. Yeah. I mean on Saturday???

Come on...who protests Wall Street on Saturday when the traders are home with cocktails?

Oh please.

[sabrina 1]

28. Not so little after all and not just for a day.

It's a movement growing and it's not just here. We are late to the game. Europeans have doing it for over a year. Now we are joining them. This will grow unless it is violently put down, as Iraq's and Syria's and Yemen's and Bahrain's have been.

They got way more than they had called for and this is just the beginning.

Al Jazeera is covering it all day, so who cares about the Corporate MSM anyhow, it would be biased as usual. Probably best they stay away.

[ChandlerJr]

6. In your expert opinion do you think that

Obama will abandon the White House and turn power over to the military like Mubarak finally had to?

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. I did not say that, now did I

Another lovely one, in this case, polluting the well.

My that lovely logic course is coming very handy.

[malaise]

19. Mubarak was part of the Military dictatorship

in case you missed fairly recent Egyptian history

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. By the way... if you are going to go only on personal attacks

expect ponies and rainbows from now on.

[cwydro]

10. Hey nadin...and don't get mad, because I AM bumping your thread

but really, is there some reason you cannot spell NEWS? Why do you always write NOOZ?

Just curious.

Nooz is like a cartoon way to write NEWS...just really wondering why you do that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Because what passes for it anymore is not

[Manifestor_of_Light]

18. They got nuthin.

They can't refute your opinions about history repeating itself, so they resort to ad feminem arguments.

Name-calling is the last refuge of those with no opposing facts.

[malaise]

20. Amazing isn't it

:fistbump:

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. I know and the fallacies are amazing

Why I mostly post my opinions off site. Got a nice puppy from another place there, but that is another story... amazing how a HARD RIGHT movement conservative and our centrists, use the same exact tactics,

[Jackpine Radical]

23. NOOZ is to News as

truthiness is to truth.

[Dover]

21. ...rhymes with snooze...lol.

noooz as entertaiment rather than unbiased information and education. Reality t.v. on a par with professional wrestling.

:boring: They really should have the big pharmaceuticals bottle it for a sleep aid.

[malaise]

22. DUzy

:yourock: :rofl:

[Imajika]

25. Having just watched some of this online...

I've gotta say it looks like mostly kids out for a good time.

Protesting Wall Street while it's closed on a Saturday with a few hundred or maybe a few thousand people isn't going to make much of a difference.

These look like well fed college students complete with all their capitalist material trappings, not desperate people being oppressed by pretty much anything.

These types of rally's, attended by the same types of folks (college kids) who typically turn out for left of center events, will not move the needle of public opinion one iota. You'll know there is really change afoot when average middle class people, who are otherwise not political partisans and have no axe to grind, feel backed into a corner enough to be the majority of those who attend these protests like this. As is, this is just "we hate the rich" anti-establishment street theater. It may feel good, it may even help towards the networking necessary to put on larger events in the future, but it won't have any impact on public opinion now.

[malaise]

26. The longest jjourney begins with a single step

Meanwhile the internet warriors have 'so much things to say'.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Not saying that this is yet a full fledged revolt but...

I am going to stop searching now... free clue, not all come from the Arab Spring either, but all are from this year.

[Imajika]

29. You can't remake the arab spring on Wall Street...

It's just not going to happen that way. You can take a page from some of things they may have done that were successful, but the populations in the US, indeed the West in general, have vastly different concerns and problems than did Egyptians and Tunisians.

The closest thing we've had to mass, meaningful protests in this country in recent memory has been in Wisconsin. Enough regular, middle class workers felt immediately under attack that they turned out in huge numbers for weeks on end. While it got coverage over time, those protests would have occurred no matter how much time CNN gave them - more importantly, they would have occurred without a lot of interest groups coordinating them. Yes, money and support from unions and groups helped tremendously, but the people felt under siege and were ready to respond to protect their paychecks and benefits. And while Wisconsin protesters did not necessarily win yet, it was clear these were regular people rather than political partisans turning out in droves and it sent a very resounding message across the country that when pushed, the workers (even middle class Mom's and Dad's are capable of fighting back).

The point is, there is something missing from the vast majority of these anti-war, anti-globalization, anti-Wall Street, etc, rallies. They just don't reach critical mass because not even close to enough average working people have any interest in attending them. They turn out to be street theater and sideshows organized and attended by what typically turns out to be the same left of center political groups and college kids over and over again. They are easy to dismiss, because the media tend to look at them as just being the same old loud, but not particularly influential, cast of characters.

For any of these protests to take hold and be meaningful we need less street drums, costumes and assorted college kids out having a good time, and more Mom's, Dad's, average workers, non partisan people finally fed up, etc. Students may be the ones to ignite it, but if the turnout doesn't include regular, largely non political workers taking time out of their day to show up, it won't matter.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. You said it was kids having fun... I just pointed to some abroad

but you are right...

Some more YOUNG people



We are in the middle of an interesting process.. why I like trends...

No, this will not be the Arab Spring, why I also included photos from Greece and Madrid... for some silly reason. unless my geography fails me... they are NOT in the Arab World.

[eShirl]

30. unemployed ex-college kids