cognitivedissonance:

From obeygiant.com:

Here at OBEY, we are always in support of a grassroots effort to change the world for the better. These FREE downloadable posters are promotional materials to help support the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Click the link below, download the posters and make your voice be heard! For more information on the Occupy Movement, please visit www.occupytogether.org.

Designer dissent or legitimate protest? Does it matter? I had a conversation with a friend of mine about these downloadable posters from Shepard Fairey and this article from The Daily Squib and I don’t think we really came to a conclusion. Feel free to weigh in.

The Daily Squib is a parody site much like The Onion, but I’ve heard similar comments from people who are completely serious, i.e. this excerpt:

“The rest of the world is suffering a true recession where children are going hungry and dying in the streets, and you’ve got these bloated retards protesting in Wall Street, their country has plundered the resources of every nation in the world so these idiots can drive the 5 MPG SUV’s that their poppa bought them. It makes me sick to the stomach that these people have the front to say they are in hardship. They turn on the tap and they get water, they flick a switch and get electricity, they ask daddy for money and he hands it over,” an angry witness to the Wall Street protests told the New York Times.

My friend asked if I thought these signs would contribute to an image of the protest as a set of vaguely unsatisfied, privileged white hipsters from Brooklyn. Truth be told, I don’t know. I feel like people who hold that opinion already won’t be dissuaded by more “authentic” hand-painted signs. So there’s that…

I’m torn - I realize that many may not be in the top % of society, but in no way do that have of worst then many who leave a block away in the projects or other low income neighborhoods - but we all have bee shafted by the American Dream one way or another - I’m actually disappointed there aren’t Mrs minoritiesbat these protests, but themln again there would be no way they’d be allow to stay in Zuccotti Park for a month - NYPD would have cleared them out on day one

gonzodave:

Why the quotation? None of the quoted opinion is at the NY Times link site. Who wrote this?

The distorted misinformation below is akin to saying that “The Son of Sam” was a nice guy and loved dogs.  What a slanted piece of rag below.  The #occupyDC group was there because there is a KILLER DRONE exhibit there. As in “assassinate American citizens by Presidential fiat”. As in kill innocent civilians and children.  More commonly called “collateral damage”.  Family friendly my eye.

~g

shortformblog:

DC antiwar protest at National Air & Space Museum gets out of hand

They were protesting a drone exhibit. The antiwar movement got a real kick in the pants today after a high-profile protest tied to Occupy DC and the similar Stop the Machine demonstration led to the shutdown of a well-known Smithsonian museum. One protester was arrested and another was pepper-sprayed during the protest. Honestly, we’re not sure how we feel about this one. We’ve been here before (there’s an IMAX theater here) and the museum is fairly innocuous and family-oriented. A lot of kids go there, a cred point underscored by the fact that the second “Night at the Museum” movie was partly set there. And based on a lot of the comments on the YouTube video, that seems to be what’s angering people — not the protest itself. What do you all think? Was this the right venue for this protest? source

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leftish:

I’ve posted this before, but it seems fitting to post it again, in honor of the #OCCUPYWALLSTREET Protest.

Click PHOTO or HERE to see at Full Size

(via kaiboushitsu-deactivated2011111)

bookwurm:

YOU SHOULD COME

(via amodernmanifesto)

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.

kileyrae:

mycupofchai:

Occupy Austin;

Protesting what they call corporate greed and corruption,people gathered at Austin City Hall Thursday morning. It’s all part of the larger Wall Street “occupation.

So very proud.

^.

(via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)

manicchill:

turnstylenews:

[Audio Slideshow] Comedian Lewis Black At Occupy Wall Street

Comedian Lewis Black, most notable for his “Back In Black” segments on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” program, gave Turnstyle News an interview during the Occupy Wall Street protests on October 5, 2011. Standing on the sidelines of Foley Square, Black was virtually unnoticed by the revelers around him, smoking a cigarette and trying to capture the events for himself on his mobile phone.

Turnstyle reporter Charlie Foster caught up with Black and gathered his thoughts on the growing movement.

I’d almost be willing to bet money that not a single major media outlet will even attempt to interview Lewis Black about what’s going on right now. Here’s hoping somebody at The Daily Show knows/finds out and lobbies to get him on the air.

(via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)

progressivefriends:

Another great video of the protest

Kudos to the guy that tossed the cop’s hat…

(via gonzodave)

newyorker:

Eric Drooker, this week’s cover artist, has been glued to the news about Occupy Wall Street. “Manhattan Island has become more and more an exclusive place for the super wealthy, or the super corporations—and a hostile place for people to live, not just for the working class, but even for the middle class,” Drooker says. “The city has become this monolithic cathedral to money.” Here, a selection of New Yorker covers that reflect on tough economic times: http://nyr.kr/osoIky

AGREE 10000%!!!

It’s not the arrests that convinced me that “Occupy Wall Street” was worth covering seriously. Nor was it their press strategy, which largely consisted of tweeting journalists to cover a small protest that couldn’t say what, exactly, it hoped to achieve. It was a Tumblr called, “We Are The 99 Percent,” and all it’s doing is posting grainy pictures of people holding handwritten signs telling their stories, one after the other…These are not rants against the system. They’re not anarchist manifestos. They’re not calls for a revolution. They’re small stories of people who played by the rules, did what they were told, and now have nothing to show for it. Or, worse, they have tens of thousands in debt to show for it.

Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested on Brooklyn Bridge ›

futurejournalismproject:

The Cover: The New York Post.

The Angle: Today’s New York Post lead article:

About 700 protesters were arrested after a horde of anti-Wall Street demonstrators swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday, halting traffic for more than three hours and clashing with cops on the famed span.

Up to 100 cars were left stranded as the loud, angry crowd covered the crossing from end to end in an inflamed day of demonstrations against high unemployment, bank bailouts and financial pain for the masses.

One irate driver, a Ground Zero construction worker, was livid.

“I work my ass off all day, and these goddamned hippies close down the Brooklyn Bridge so I can’t get home?” he said. “This ain’t right!”

kbutno:

wavesfadingwords:

“Anyone with eyes open knows that the gangsterism of Wall Street — financial institutions generally — has caused severe damage to the people of the United States (and the world). And should also know that it has been doing so increasingly for over 30 years, as their power in the economy has radically increased, and with it their political power. That has set in motion a vicious cycle that has concentrated immense wealth, and with it political power, in a tiny sector of the population, a fraction of 1%, while the rest increasingly become what is sometimes called “a precariat” — seeking to survive in a precarious existence. They also carry out these ugly activities with almost complete impunity — not only too big to fail, but also “too big to jail.”

The courageous and honorable protests underway in Wall Street should serve to bring this calamity to public attention, and to lead to dedicated efforts to overcome it and set the society on a more healthy course.”

- Noam Chomsky, leading academic and public intellectual, has issued a statement in support of the “courageous and honorable protests” on Wall Street.

This guy right here.

(via amodernmanifesto)

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City ›

Occupy Wall Street Protests Poised to Grow Rapidly With Union Support ›