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[SalmonGod]

I like how these protests have made me appear less of a crazy person to lots of people.  I've tried to spread news of major protests whenever I know of one (which is at least a couple times a year in America, believe it or not) and talk about police responses to them, and why it's so important that we pay attention.  Lately I feel like people are finally appreciating me for being informative, rather than disregarding me as a lunatic.

[RedKing]

It is starting to spread. Looks like there was a subsidiary protest in Raleigh yesterday. Couple of hundred people in Moore Square (which is pretty decent). Charlotte would be a good target, given that it's the HQ of Bank of America and a hub of finance.

[Duuvian]

Could there be a way that a publicly traded company could be started and introduced that people could buy stock in to fund these protests? That way even those 50k'ers the mayor talks about here could get in on the action.

Here

Quote from the link:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who made his fortune as a corporate executive, has said the demonstrators are making a mistake by targeting Wall Street.

"The protesters are protesting against people who make $40- or $50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet. That's the bottom line. Those are the people who work on Wall Street or in the finance sector," Bloomberg said in a radio interview Friday.

[SalmonGod]

$40-50k/year is relatively decent in America.  That's lower middle class, as far as I'm concerned.  I would be happy to make that.  I wouldn't be struggling to make ends meet.  I know cost of living varies by location, but still...

[Urist Mcinternetuser]

I know I'm going to my local protest. Because seriously, it's about damn time.

[Heron TSG]

I know I'm going to my local protest. Because seriously, it's about damn time.

I'm pretty pumped about the Washington protests. There are protests in Bellingham, Seattle, Tacoma, Wenatchee, Olympia, Spokane, Vancouver, and Pasco now. I'm going to try to make it to one this coming week, if I can get myself transported.

[Bauglir]

I apparently picked the worst time to move - the one I can go to from where I currently live doesn't happen till after I move, and the one in the location I'm moving to happens likely before. Still, if it lasts more than 1 day, I should be fine in theory.

[Urist Mcinternetuser]

I didn't know Washington has so many, I'm happy about this, everyone is rising up to fight the power. If our demands are not met, we may have to unite and march to the capital (Okay, we probably won't, but still).

[Biag]

This thread is one of the most interesting things I have read in a long, long time. That said, I'm still undecided about this whole mess- it seems like everyone is basically having organized protests against how much the world sucks. The world does suck sometimes, but I'm not sure how widespread protesting is going to solve that. The problem is that there are a lot of problems, and almost all of them are very specific and isolated and maybe even easily solved, but politicians try to tie all of them together and make them one big problem that health care or bailouts or tax cuts or tax increases or banning gay marriage can solve. And people get caught up in the rhetoric through no fault of their own, because the human brain always tries to categorize as much as it can.

There is a lot of talk about rising up and making demands and fighting the 1%, but it's never been clear to me what exactly the demands are and who they're being demanded of. I think I'm gonna check out the Minneapolis rally on Friday and hopefully come back more educated about the movement.

Also, on the NYPD issue: what makes corralling protesters like animals and pepper spraying them for no immediately recognizable reason okay?

[sneakey pete]

$40-50k/year is relatively decent in America.  That's lower middle class, as far as I'm concerned.  I would be happy to make that.  I wouldn't be struggling to make ends meet.  I know cost of living varies by location, but still...

Yes but that isn't the point, the point is that those people aren't the 1%, regardless of if they make decent or not quite so decent, or slightly more than decent, wages.

[Montague]

Yeah, I'll agree with most here that resource scarcity probably won't be the end of civilization, per se, technology is always adapting and technologies can't be uninvented. I do think standards of living in the western world will probably decline, or at least the incredible levels of consumption and economic activity will slow down on their own. I have a feeling the current world economic slump is really just the start of things to come, for a long while, but It'll sort itself out at some point.

The times they are a changing, and that's basically the underlying reason behind these protests. People brought up and raised thinking they'll have it at least as good as their parents are pissed by the realization that they will be the first generation to have it worse then the generation before it.

[KaelGotDwarves]

It's got less to do with resource scarcity and more to do with resource disparity - artificial, man-made inequality.

It honestly doesn't have to be this shitty. And trust me when I say that under the circumstances, I have it less shitty than most of you, but I empathize enough to realise that you and I are all getting shit on and laughed at - all the way to the bank.

[Chaoswizkid]

I've been writing some article updates on the Occupy protests for anyone on Facebook who will listen (a nice number), and no one has really mentioned the international response, so I'll just copy-pasta one of my articles:

Right now, 28 international Occupy movements are being organized or are currently underway, with the bulk of them being held in Australia, Canada, and European Countries. There are currently 132 Occupy movements taking place here in the US in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement (source: OccupyTogether.org). Occupy Wall Street has become a nation-wide and international social movement.

[Vester]

What's sad, is I don't think those stories will sway many people.  I really don't know if any more awareness can be raised about how bad things are.  There are some privileged youth who might not know yet... but most people already do and have already decided whether they care or not.

I look out my window and see starving children on the street. Two years ago someone I knew was gunned down by a politician's private army. Our forests are rapidly disappearing due to private mining and logging concerns.

Trust me, you don't have it as bad as you think.

I dislike the 1% on a personal level.

[SalmonGod]

Trust me, you don't have it as bad as you think.

Oh, I know I don't.  I hate my life, and I'm one of the lucky ones.  This fact sickens me on a daily basis.  I can't live in a world like this, and the day I give up hope of it changing is the day I die.