This age seems to have brought out the crazies. The above twitter...tweet, or whatever, seems fairly straightforward. Yet, contacted by press for details, the author retreated most riki tik, explaining that he was, in fact, commenting on how "other" revolutions have expressed themselves. He was just a "rebelrouser [sic] trying to cause a stink and clearly it worked.”Oh.
The utter recklessness of the rhetoric emerging from the Occupy Movement is astonishing. It isn't enough to write this kind of crap off as a few "crazies" with time on their hands and a laptop on a TV tray in their mom's basement. The Occupy Movement is about the maelstrom of free expression, of fighting oppression by the 1% by getting together, standing strong and.... Having a multitude of personal, conflicting messages, one being as relevant as the next, I suppose.
So, Rusty Braxton of Oviedo, FL - come on up to Colorado. Spring is here, the trees are budding and I'd love to discuss your notion that I and a couple of my friends should die so your cause can be taken seriously.
I would agree with you Jim, that this 'young man' (to keep it polite) would qualify as a 'crazy'. And would happily stand next to you and speak to him about his apparent perspective. However, I would argue that the Occupy Movement is not necessarily more prone to the crazies than other movements.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, one of the big problems in this country is that people don't try to understand the counter argument and understand the people who back those arguments. Instead we de-humanize all those who hold a different opinion than our own and minimize those counter arguments by calling them 'stupid', 'idiotic', or god forbid, 'socialist'.
We need to start separating the crazies from the rest of the group(s) and begin a true empathetic conversation amongst those that remain about all the issues and the possible solutions.
True, Will. It seems easy, however, to start with an idea and, like Gust Avrokados said in Charlie Wilson's War, "the crazies pour in like it's a bathtub drain." The Occupy Movement seems especially ripe, with a disjointed messaging vehicle that attracts, among others, hard core anarchists and people - who knew - who actually are socialists. No group is devoid of some kind of useful ideas. But, when a voice is raised that suggests you and I are targets because of the uniforms we wear - to prove they are serious about their movement.... Where is the outrage? As long as people think violence and killing is okay, so long as it's the right people who die, conversations are an illusion.
ReplyDeleteWell you know what they say: A person is sane, but PEOPLE are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it. One person saying "let's just kill a few cops" doesn't amount to much, but get a few dozen people egging him on and it evolves into something entirely different.
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